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Travel the World of Posh Public Bathrooms; Anyone For Lion's Head Sinks?

Remember the best-selling book 1000 Places to See Before You Die? You know, the tome everyone who enjoys travel received for Christmas in like, 2004? Perhaps the best part of that book was the ability to go through and count up all of the spots you've already hit and plot for the rest.

We recommend doing something similar with Cintas' list of America's Best Restrooms, all currently vying for the title with voting open through July 31.

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Airline Fees / Ryanair / Travelzoo / Toilets / Travel News / → All Tags

Ryanair's Pay-to-Pee Policy Might Not Be as Reviled as We Thought

We thought that when Ryanair introduced the possibility of using pay-for-toilets on its airplanes, everyone would say it was an outrageous fee to force on passengers. However, thanks to a study done by Travelzoo, we've learned the sad news that 41 percent of Americans would be ok with giving up their restroom privileges if it meant saving more money on a flight. Yes, people would forfeit going to the bathroom for a cheaper flight. Is nothing sacred in-air anymore?

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Ryanair / Airline Fees / Michael O'Leary / Toilets / → All Tags

Ryanair Might Charge You For Peeing In-Air

Could this contraption await you on your next Ryanair flight?

Has Michael O’Leary realized he’s gone too far? There we were thinking that by abolishing check in queues, Ryanair had gone just about as far as it could in its quest to be the most measly airline ever.

But then CEO Michael O’Leary went on TV this morning and announced that the airline was considering charging passengers to use the toilet on its planes. He told the BBC:

One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound ($1.43) to spend a penny in future

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Toilets / Cafes / Bathrooms / → All Tags

Viennese Cafe With Easy Bathroom Access

In a city we expect better from, the usually-culturally-rich Vienna, someone's really let us down by creating a cafe with a bunch of toilets lining the walls.

The theory is that if the male customers can sit on the toilet while drinking their coffee--they're not functioning toilets, in case you're freaking out--they'll be more rested and happier and, we presume, more likely to come back and buy their next coffee in the same spot.

The name now translates to "A Quiet Place" and we're thinking it's an appropriate name. Watching other customers sitting on the toilet is not our idea of high culture in Vienna, so we'll be staying away and leaving the cafe nice and quiet.

Related Stories:
· Cafe Loo-ses the Plot [Ananova]
· Phil Café and Store in Vienna [Jaunted]
· Vienna Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ananova]

Airport Lounges / British Airways / T5 at LHR / Toilets / → All Tags

British Airways Has Bidets In Their First Class Lounge

Since we're doomed to spending our lives outside of first class airport lounges, we hungrily roam the internet drooling over the places we'll never see inside. Today we're curious about the British Airways first class lounge at Heathrow's Terminal 5.

It's pretty swish looking, as any brand new first class lounge should be. And then there's the bathroom.

This is a fully-equipped bathroom, as you can see, complete with bidet. We don't usually expect this kind of cleaning service from the Brits. The really scary thing is that there's a little voice in the back of our mind saying, "If they've even got bidets, they must have fantastic WiFi."

Related Stories:
· The First Class Lounge at Turkish Air is Rather Palatial [Jaunted]
· Security Guards in Qatar's First Class Lounge Won't Allow Any Pictures [Jaunted]
· Heathrow Terminal 5 Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: garybembridge]

Train Travel / Cell Phones / TGV / Toilets / Bathrooms / → All Tags

Trapped in the Water Closet

Firefighters in France cut a passenger out of a train bathroom after his arm got stuck in the toilet. Yes, really.

The traumatized traveler was apparently fiddling with his cell phone when it fell into the toilet bowl. When he tried to fish it out, his arm got sucked into the plumbing, causing a two-hour delay for the TGV making its way to La Rochelle from Paris. Said a witness:

He came out on a stretcher, with his hand still jammed in the toilet bowl, which they had to saw clean off.

A spokesman for SNCF, which operates the TGV, called it "an unlikely accident," though unlikely makes it sound like it's happened before. Considering the state of most train bathrooms we've seen over the years, we'd gladly sacrifice a phone before sticking our arm in the plumbing.

Related Stories:
· Frenchman Delays Train After Getting Arm Stuck [Telegraph]
· Man's Arm Trapped in Toilet [BBC]

[Photo: FaceMePLS]

Toilets / Bathrooms / Rolf Potts / Books / → All Tags

The Rolf Potts Virtual Book Tour: The Cross-Cultural Ramifications of Wiping Your Ass

Long-term travel guru and po-mo hero Rolf Potts has been doing the travel blog circuit for the past week and a half, talking about travel writing, travel writing and, well, travel writing. So we put that topic aside and asked him to tell us a funny story from his new book, Marco Polo Didn't Go There. Thus this tale of pooping in India:

Chapter 5 of Marco Polo Didn't Go There is entitled "Something Approaching Enlightenment," and this story recounts a grand misadventure that transpired in the Indian Himalayas a few years ago.

By the time this tale ends, I have endured detainment by the Indian army, survived an attack by a giant mastiff dog that ripped my pants to shreds and spent a long night stuck in a town where the only place to sleep was a room occupied by three drunken, porn-obsessed Indian road engineers.

What I never included in the original story, however, is a small, tangential detail that can functionally serve as a little parable about the cross-cultural ramifications of wiping your ass.

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Architecture / Design / Toilets / Bathrooms / → All Tags

Luxury Overdose: Even More Golden Toilets in Hong Kong

Swisshorn Watches thought it would be a good idea to do some sort of over the top public relations stunt to help introduce their brand into the Asian market. So with the help of the Hang Fang Gold Technology Group, they built a massive palace entirely out of gold.

The Swisshorn Gold Palace in Hong Kong is 650 square meters of the stuff. Everything, including the desk, the bed, the couch, the carpet and, yes, even the toilet is gold. The project took five years to complete at the cost of $50 million. Other features include an entrance lobby, dining room, living space, bedroom and a bathroom.

The space is inspired by the legend of Emperor Han Wu, who promised his wife Ah-Jiao a palace of gold. That being said, for some reason it was designed with a "European architectural feel."

The palace is open daily, and admission is a mere $3. With about 2,500 visitors expected every day, they should recoup their costs in no time.

Related Stories:
· Swisshorn Gold Palace [Official Site]
· A Legend of Gold [DeZona]
· A Golden Throne in Hong Kong [Jaunted]
· Hong Kong Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Toilets / Bathrooms / Beijing Olympics / 2008 Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Olympics / → All Tags

Toilet Travel: Are You a Peach or a Banana?

Digging deeper into the files of random, unstandardized stuff from China: Apparently going to the bathroom is an even trickier matter than just figuring out the squatting thing. The extra challenge comes in figuring out which toilets belong to your gender.

A recent survey of public signs in Zhengzhou, for example, decided that 60 percent of the signs are unclear. One restaurant had banana on the sign for the men's and a peach on the women's; another place had a waterfall symbol for men and a picture of rain for women.

As if needing to pee in a foreign country isn't stressful enough, trying to guess which door you should enter definitely lends an anxious layer to the whole situation. But it could lead to some exciting gossip about Olympic athletes winding up in the wrong place with the wrong people, so we say, bring it on.

Related Stories:
· Banana and Peach Surprise on Menu [Ananova]
· Beijinging: Do You Sit or Squat? [Jaunted]
· Toilet coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Leo Reynolds]

Toilets / Bathrooms / eBay / → All Tags

Better Hold It Travel: Seattle Unloads Public Toilets

As teenagers, we were threatened with the conversion of the house phone to a pay phone complete with booth if we spent one more danged minute catching up on the latest high school gossip. Now you can do the same to your toilets if you win one of five eBay auctions for public toilets as Seattle yanks its facilities.

In 2004, the city installed five Hering-Bau WCmatic machines, offering unisex johns for free to tourists and locals--and the homeless, prostitutes and vandals. The New York Times even got a source to admit to smoking crack inside one.

After pouring $5 million into the project over four years, City Hall is hoping to make back some of its money in the auctions, which end August 1. The eBay ads suggest that a pre-owned automatic toilet can save you a lot of money, since they normally retail for $500,000.

They'd make a great base for an urban prank--anyone spare us some change?

Related Stories:
· Seattle's Automated Toilets Go Way of the Box and Chain [NYT]
· Why Public Toilets Should Pay You [Slate]
· Toilets coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: fireeyedboy]

National Parks / Active Travel / Toilets / Bathrooms / Camping / → All Tags

National Parks Travel: The $70,000 Toilet

If going to the bathroom was the one thing holding you back from scaling a mountain, then worry no more. Mount Rainier National Park will celebrate the grand opening of its new $70,000 toilet on Monday. That's right, the park will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for a bathroom at the Cougar Rock Campground.

Surprisingly, this isn't an excessive government outlay. A Japanese environmental activism group donated the toilet, since Mount Fiji is Rainier's sister peak.

The facility uses cedar chips and natural composting to operate with very little water and apparently very little odor. Apparently.

There's only one issue with celebration. According to the park's official site, an unusually high amount of late season snow will keep the Cougar Rock Campground closed till June 13. What if they gave us a new toilet and nobody came?

Related Stories:
· Mount Rainier National Park [Official Site]
· Mount Rainier to Hold Ribbon-Cutting for Toilet [AP]
· National Parks coverage [Jaunted]

[Not a photo of the five-figure john: latca]

Beijing Olympics / 2008 Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Beijinging / Beijing Field Trip / Toilets / Bathrooms / Asia Travel / → All Tags

Beijinging: Do You Sit or Squat?

Our own femme fatale, Monica Guy, has the pre-Olympics buzz from Beijing for us this week.

It was all going so well at April's inaugural event at the shiny new National Stadium in Beijing.

Bottoms were wiggling as a women's 20 km race-walking event got underway. Sexually frustrated male journalists were wriggling in their seats as they watched, and Chinese investors were rubbing their hands in glee. After all, they'd poured four billion yuan ($576 million) into the concrete-and-steel lump. It all looked very promising.

Until the Westerners began to visit the restrooms. A ripple of consternation spread through the watching crowd. Squat toilets, someone whispered. You know, Turkish toilets. State-of-the-art Swiss-and-Chinese design, 36 km of twisted steel and great solar power systems, and the Chinese had installed squat toilets.

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