Asklemmy

Generally in the west (US/Canada, and most of Europe) tap water is safe to drink. I've been to Iceland and don't remember tap water being a concern. This is something you should double check before every trip though. A good rule of thumb is just going by how developed/rich the country is that you are visiting, with more developed countries usually having potable tap water but this is not a guarantee. (And some countries are far too large and diverse to apply this rule efficiently)

Also asking the locals is not necessarily a good idea either as there immune system might be accustomed to the different bacteria and pollutants in the water. For example drinking tap water in some places in the Middle-East might not be an issue for the locals but as I haven't grown up there I probably wouldn't risk drinking tap if I can avoid it, not to ruin the trip with getting sick.

TLDR: check with your country's official travel recommendations

Edit: someone mentioned bottleded water just being bottled tap water. While this is not uncommon in Europe (not sure about the rest of the world), the water does go through extra steps of filtering and cleaning meaning it might be a bit safer to foreigners.

Spanish here. I drink tap water, but I have a filter installed in the faucet, otherwise it tastes a bit funny (it is drinkable though).

Hello Mr Hong Kongnese. I'm a Brit. We don't boil water here and I've visisted Iceland - they don't boil it either.

Diu gau lan tsat hai - Merry Christmas. Enjoy your holiday.

UK- we don't boil water here unless there's an issue with the pipes. I got told not to drink the water in places like Spain and Italy as it could make me unwell, but not sure if that's as big a deal now.

New Zealand and yes it's safe to drink without boiling here. I do run the tap for a few seconds to clear out any standing water before drinking anything though.

Where I live in the US, I don't have a need to boil water unless I'm cooking or making tea, and am safe drinking the tap water. I consider myself lucky.

certainly no harm in boiling, but yeah most places in the US I just drink right out the tap if it's public water. Some places are better than others, but usually a filter does the trick. Well water is a whole other story.

Here in italy we can drink tap water without boiling it first

German Here, we have really good Tapwater here.

no and no. The tap where I live taste nasy, i think its safe to drink but its not very good so I dont use it.

When I was in Cainta, Rizal, Philippines, my uncle always boils tap water before drinking. This is indeed a safety measure. He doesn't buy gallon bottles of drinking water.

I am from the Philippines, and in my city, there are districts that have unpotable water and they resort in using purified water for drinking and cooking. In my district though, water is very potable and we drank it until switching to purified water last year because our water provider got their system contaminated.

Modern treatment plants don't use chlorine anymore, they use cloramines that have little scent or taste. This is most likely the case in HK as well.

Boiling water that doesn't need to be boiled is a waste of energy and GHG.

If its brown gulp it down, if its black send it back

US/Canada here as well as someone that has visited most of Europe (UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland) and stayed in hostels - no boiling necessary in any of these places.

There's actually a pervasive myth I've encountered that hot tap water is dangerous and that one should only drink cold water. As far as I'm aware, this myth is due to an old setup for water systems that many homes had before modern taps. The tap was separated into separate cold/hot faucets. The cold water came safely from the city, but the hot water came from tanks that were stored in people's attics and were therefore prone to rats and other creatures dying in them or bacteria building up. This is why still today, most British homes have separate hot/cold taps. I occasionally encountered such taps in the US and I assume that's why my dad raised me to make sure the water was cold before drinking it. My father's understanding of this was clearly outdated though. I learned all of this from a Tom Scott video.

In India generally people use a water purifier to filter tap water before consumption.

Have always drank tap water. No issue.

• New Jersey 🇺🇸
• Ontario 🇨🇦
• Tokyo 🇯🇵

Here in Armenia all tap water is drinkable as is

Luxembourg here, i'll drink straight from the tap.

German here. Yes, constantly. The only reason to not do it would be taste (personal preference) or sometimes due to pollutants entering the system, which is explicitly communicated by the city.

In Lithuania we do not need to boil tap water to drink it and usually it tastes nice unless your plumbing is fucked

In Canada, tap water is perfectly fine to drink as is. There are some exceptions when it comes to more remote places, especially in some camping grounds, but they'll tell you or write it somewhere if that's the case.

I went to Iceland last year and the water's very clean and safe! There's no problem drinking it from the tap.

In Finland I drink straight out the shower head, it's fun and wonderfully safe.

I think you've already had plenty of replies here, but yeah here in western Europe, straight from the tap. I'm also fortunate not to have any chlorine in my water. It's delicious.

One thing about the chlorine, it also just evaporates over time without boiling. Filling a jug of water and leaving it standing around for a while will also get rid of that chlorine smell/taste!

I drink tap water, but ours comes from our private well. We double filter it: sediment then carbon. Back in Costa Rica I also drank tap water, Costa Rica has one of the safest water.