When you’re used to the convenience of having a bidet in your own bathroom, it’s hard to travel. Most of the world’s bathrooms, including hotels and resorts, don’t have a bidet. Unless you’re in India, Japan, or certain parts of Europe, you won’t find a bidet.
Traveling without access to a bidet is rough. However, there are several things you can do when your accommodations don’t have this wonderful bathroom fixture.
1. Give the gift of a bidet toilet seat
When your destination is a friend or family member’s house, and you know they don’t have a bidet, bring one as a gift. When they open the box, offer to install it for them on the toilet you’ll be using for your stay. Be sure to tell them about all the cool features, like the self-cleaning nozzle, heated seat, and adjustable spray pressure.
While your host will know it’s really for you, bringing them a bidet is more likely to work than asking them to get a bidet before you arrive. If you leave it up to someone else to supply your bidet, you’ll probably be disappointed when you arrive.
2. Bring a manual bidet with you
A manual bidet looks just like a battery-operated bidet, but the water stream comes from squeezing it out of the reservoir with your hand. This style of bidet takes getting used to since you have to aim correctly or you’ll waste water. However, it’s not hard.
You can even bring a manual bidet with you into public restrooms if you choose. Granted, people might wonder what you’re filling up with water before you enter the stall, but you’ll probably never see them again.
3. Bring a battery-powered bidet on your travels
A battery-powered bidet is the next best thing to a toilet seat attachment. With these devices, you can get more power than you can with a manual bidet, although some say it’s not powerful enough.
Even if a battery-powered bidet doesn’t get you completely clean, it will give you a great head start in case you need to use some toilet paper at the end. However, with practice, you can learn to position yourself so that even weaker streams of water do a thorough job.
4. Pack a camp shower
A camp shower can double as a bidet when it comes with a kitchen sprayer type of attachment. Some battery-operated camp showers are advertised as bidets because of the kitchen sprayer.
These camp showers have a submersible pump that you put in a bucket of water and a long hose. They’re the equivalent of the bidets that consist of a hose attachment connected to the side of your toilet.
If you’re staying in a hotel room, you should be able to find some kind of bucket to keep warm water inside during your stay. If the complimentary ice buckets aren’t big enough, grab a 5-gallon bucket at the nearest hardware store.
5. Ask your hotel to install your bidet seat
If you’re elderly or disabled, and using a bidet is a requirement to clean up, request accommodation from your hotel to install a bidet seat attachment temporarily for the duration of your visit.
Businesses open to the public are required to grant reasonable requests for accommodations from customers, provided granting a request won’t create an undue hardship or financial burden on the business.
It’s unlikely that installing a bidet seat attachment would create a hardship for a hotel. However, you’ll need to supply the bidet attachment and you might need to supervise the installation if they’ve never done it before.
6. Call around to find a hotel with bidets
Although extremely rare, there are hotels with bidets in every bathroom. For example, the Kitano Hotel in New York installed bidets in each of their bathrooms.
7. Resort to a bucket of water and a cup
As a last resort, you can always use a bucket of water and a cup. That’s the standard in India. Many Indian restrooms have spray hoses, but some only have a mug floating in a bucket of water.
If that’s not ideal, you can always jump in the shower. You might even start to enjoy the extra time spent under the hot water.
Always be prepared when traveling
When traveling, be prepared for the absence of bidets wherever you visit. Your best bet is to have a backup plan for getting thoroughly clean.
