Safe Drinking Water – A Travel Concern

“Is it safe to drink the water?” is always a question when traveling.  As mentioned in a previous post, I always travel with a water purifier, to be safe but also to reduce the amount of plastic that I use.

Conde Nast Traveler has published a list of countries in Europe where it is safe to drink the water, and also a list where it isn’t safe.  Even within the safe countries, it is always worth asking a local because there can be temporary local conditions that affect whether or not you can safely drink the water.  This happened to me in Dubrovnik, where I was told that normally it was totally safe, but not for that week that I was there.

Here is the safe list from the article:  Estonia, Lithuania, and Slovakia are now safe to drink water in. They join the following list of risk-free nations: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece (except the islands), Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Vatican City.

But again, always ask first!