One of the benefits of earning elite status in many different frequent flier loyalty programs is being given one or two bottles of water, which can be appreciated when staying in a hotel or resort property in a location where the taste — or, worse yet, quality — of the water can be questionable…
You Don’t Have to Earn Elite Status to Enjoy Free Bottled or Filtered Water at a Hotel
…but did you know that there is a way to enjoy complimentary bottled water or filtered water at a hotel or resort property without having to have earned elite level status?
Simply head on downstairs to the fitness area of the hotel or resort property, which usually has a cooler which dispenses either bottled water, as shown in the above photograph…
…or water which is filtered from the plumbing of the hotel or resort property.
A bonus tip is if you want a pair of cheap headphones, some of the fitness areas of hotel or resort properties also have complimentary headphones for you to take, for which you would otherwise pay two dollars aboard an airplane. On the right side in the photograph shown above, the complimentary headphones are located in a little brown basket on a shelf with the towels.
Note that in the fitness centers of some hotel properties, you will find a water fountain, which is really no different than simply getting tap water from a faucet — except that other people may have touched with their mouths.
Ensure that you have an empty bottle or insulated container from which to drink the water.
Bottled Water Versus Tap Water
As a person born and raised in New York, I have always contended that the best water in the world is unadulterated New York City tap water. Yes — it is that good, in my opinion…
…so much so, in fact, that if I stay at a hotel room within the city limits of New York, I will refill empty water bottles in the bathroom sink. It is the one notable exception to usually not drinking the tap water whenever I travel; and that is only for the reason of taste — not necessarily health.
I must say, though, that I could always go for some of the water which is found on Athabasca Glacier in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. That water was especially delicious and refreshing.
When it comes to New York City tap water, I do not care if it flowed through rusty pipes, was filtered with garbage from a toxic waste dump, or had snails and fish excrement swimming in it. I do not care if keeping it warm in a plastic bottle is bad for my health. As I said, it is the best water in the world, in my opinion. Just keep it flowing for me…
…and I often have a plastic water bottle with me with which to fill. You just never know when they can come in handy…
…but tap water in many places is typically safe to drink. Assuming that safety is not a concern, the determining factor of bottled water versus tap water may be solely on taste.
Summary
I am not one of those people who believe that bottled water is from a nonexistent spring in the highest elevations of some magical mountain to which only Sherpas have access, as I know that some bottled water brands are simply converted tap water — but the priority for me is that I tend to go for the taste of the water. If the tap water tastes better than the bottled water — as with the aforementioned case of tap water from the City of New York — the tap water gets preference for me to drink it instead of the bottled water…
…and this is also worth repeating: drinking tap water out of the sink in the bathroom in the hotel room is usually safe to do — but you may not want to use the glasses which are found in the hotel room, as this article which I wrote on Wednesday, December 27, 2017 indicates.
All photographs ©2008, ©2015 and ©2019 by Brian Cohen.
