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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
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Tap water is just dependent on the area you live in. You're use to the tap water where you live and in similar regions. Whether you drink it or not you're exposed to it every day. It's normal.
When you travel. You'll always have this reaction if you're not use to it. It's not unique the US and the tap water here is perfectly fine.
People in the US say the same thing about Europe. But I traveled all over Europe and the tap water is fine. It's "weird" definitely but for the same reasons you think American tap is weird.
Having said that. Lake Tahoe in California is the top tier of tap water in America.
Rome and it's public water fountains were my favorite in Europe. Really refreshing and cool water on ancient water infrastructure. Top tier for Europe.
europe generally doesn't chlorinate its water as hard as north america. every bathroom and kitchen ive been in in the us smells like chlorine, and trying to drink the water makes my throat physically swell shut. in europe i only have that reaction if i get pool water in my mouth, which is how i figured out i'm allergic to it.
I've traveled most of the US coast to coast. Never had water like that. It varies dramatically region to region and I taste a difference. I've traveled to a couple of counties in Europe as well and the water is similar
Also that bathroom smell isn't the water. People use chlorinated bleach to clean
Depending on where water is sourced and local geography, water can have extremely different characteristics even town to town. Throughout most of Missouri for instance it's sourced from the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and generally fine. Down south in Nevada Missouri there's a high sulfur content in the ground. And the water pulled from it has a STRONG sulfur smell and taste. It's safe to use and drink. But if you aren't from the area, a struggle to use. Joplin not very far away has a completely different taste and characteristics to their water.
Generally any place that sources from a river as long as they don't over chlorinate should be pretty acceptable to most people. The places that source from geologic aquifers or other more stagnant bodies that have a chance to leach larger contents of specific minerals from the ground. Can have distinct taste and smell profiles. Especially well water. It doesn't matter where US or any other place on Earth will be the same.
i know what bleach smells like, i clean my own bathroom. it's not that.
In some places peroxide based bleaches are more common over chlorinated bleach. Plus percentages of chlorine vary in different bleach products.
Interesting. Had to look this up. Apparently a lot of Europe uses small amounts of chlorine too in similar levels to America. But some countries like the Netherlands and Germany have alternatives that use Ozone. I could definitely understand this taste difference if you live in a country that doesn't use it. Thanks for expanding my tap water knowledge.
For reference. The levels of chlorine added to tap in Europe (UK and others) or America are around 0.5 ppm. A swimming pool with chlorine would have 5.0 ppm. 10x seems actually lower than I would have thought. Especially given how much a swimming pool smells of it.
I lived a month in the Netherlands and never noticed a difference in taste personally. Drank tap a lot of the time.
I'd wonder if you're from the Netherlands or Germany (or maybe a country that doesn't add chlorine that I didn't see listed).
Or maybe it's used less for cleaning in Europe and your sensitivity to it is due to that. I'd be curious to know where you're from.
i'm swedish. we generally don't treat our water at all, it just goes straight from well to tap. the exception is large cities like stockholm that need to use surface water instead of groundwater, and they use artificial infiltration systems followed by uv-disinfection (or ozone, don't remember which). the water in stockholm also tastes weird to me, but it's completely drinkable. every time i visit family in north america and forget about the chlorine thing i get a shock.
Interesting. Definitely rings true with my hypothesis on this stuff though. I guess I'd say the taste difference is real. But, having traveled a lot I'd also say that if you "give it a shot" for a couple days your tastes adjust pretty quickly. It's been my stubborn choice to not buy bottled water that taught me this.
Not to say that some countries may have worse regulations or focus on "more natural" taste priorities. That's definitely true. But I wouldn't let the worry of the water being "unsafe" exaggerate those natural feelings.
I'd be more concerned about some small city in America (Flint Michigan being our obvious newsworthy one) than any major city. Though Flint was unrelated to filtration standards and literally just a refusal to remove ancient lead pipe infrastructure.
Though I definitely do trust European standards and regulations more than an American. For the time being, our major cities are still running on proven standards for health and filtration though.
i've definitely experienced the "getting used to it" thing in other countries, but unfortunately the throat swelling is a physical reaction to chlorine. i also can't go in swimming pools without goggles or i get covered in blisters. on the skin it's fine but if it touches a mucous membrane i'm fucked. also forgot about that when i first took a shower after landing in bc a few years ago, which was a fun time.