Asklemmy

Canadian in a major city - yes, safe to drink right from the tap.

However, many remote communities here do not have access to safe drinking water.

I live in the US, I use a reverse osmosis filter and then boil the water

Your examples, yes, but I also dont know of any European country where you need to boil the water you drink.

Spain here. We drink tap water without boiling or anythong like that

UK, yes - but cold water only and even then the taste of tap water, though not indicative of anything dangerous, is weird enough for me to consider buying a purifier.

It used to be the case that Brits would have a separate hot water tank in which you were told not to drink out of that at all, but modern homes just have the water go through a boiler nowadays. Tom Scott has a good video on that.

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.

Hungarian here. It is safe to drink without boiling. People only boil water for baby formula to be extra safe.

In the UK they had separate taps for hot and cold because the cold was safe to drink and the hot was not.

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.

I'm from Chile and we drink tap water without boiling. Some people buy filtered water because they dont like the taste, not because is unsafe.

It shocked me when I visited Peru and Mexico and realized that tap water is not safe there.

One thing about tap water in the USA is that, while you can drink it, water taste varies a lot.

For instance, in the Southwest USA, it is very common for bottled water to be sold in gallons. There are even small stores whose main purpose is to filter tap water to remove minerals.

You also have the use of non-potable "grey" water that is treated sewage water that gets used for irrigation. You'll usually see signs to not drink that water.

I do not boil my water but I do filter it. I live in the rural USA and have a well. When I lived in the city and was on municipal water, I just drank it straight out of the tap.

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.

Just ask someone from there on day one. They can obviously tell and i think this is the best strategy. I bet it's safe like in most parts of middle and northern europe.

From Singapore. Tap water here is potable but we boil it first out of habit. (But I use tap water for drinking when boiled water has run out).

Yes. I think EU law pretty much forces countries to have drinkable water from tap. In Poland the water is great, in some cities though the water is a little bit hard, which while healthy, isn't that tasty. In such cases, a bottle or a jug with filter does the job.

Depends on how acclimated your stomach is. Locals may be able to drink without problem but foreigners may have stomach problems.

NL here. Tap water here is a very well managed substance, and as a result, it's not only hella safe, but hella tasty as well.

One thing to consider: While tab water in most of the developed world is potable,any water safety guarantees usually end where the house water pipes begin. Depending on the state of the piping, tap water might not be safe, even if the water supplyer says it's safe.

You can get a water test (especially bacteria is important) for relatively cheap. Last time I did such a test it was ~€60. It's not wrong to do one.

Also, the definition of potable water is that the water is potable after the tap has been running for 10(!) minutes.

Bacteria contaminated pipes are pretty common and if the water has been sitting in these biofilm-covered pipes over night or even longer, the water can become pretty harmful. Especially after you get home from a vacation, letting the water run for a decent amount of time might be a good thing.

Also: the worst thing that can happen to your water pipe system are blind pipes, so pipes that are connected only on one end. That could be e.g. left-over plumbing after remodeling or pipes that lead to unused taps. If at all possible, these ahould be removed or flushed at best daily.

I visited australia and we had to drink from the tap.

Scotland here. We don't boil water before use.

I have family down in North West England that do have to do this, though. They live in an area where there is a thin layer of soil and a lot of clay. The water isn't particularly hard but it also doesn't taste very nice if you don't boil it first.

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.

Venice: we filter it first via some cheal filters. It is very common to own a water mug with a filter embedded here.

Paris: directly from the tap water, though I don't like the taste.

I'm from Denmark, and water is safe to drink straight from the tap here.

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!

Moscow, Russia. You can usually drink tap water in Moscow, but it's something unusually good for Russian bigger cities in general, and it's considered a good thing to boil it. Actually depends on local specifics and where the water comes from.

I never drink water out of the tap because I prefer to filter it first. It’s safe to drink but I want it clean and much colder so into a filter pitcher and put that in the fridge