Drinking water

[7wood]

Is it safe to drink water from taps between SJPP and Pamplona?

 

[ZacM]

The fountains that are not potable are clearly marked. If you have reservations you can always go to the nearest bar and ask for water!

 

[ajp]

Short answer is "Yes". You can also buy bottled water if you are concerned about water quality on a particular stretch.
I never had to do that last time, as there were ample opportunities to obtain good ( free) water, but it is readily available.

 

[Tincatinker]

Water, when available from public fountains is usually potable and often delicious. Follow local advice. Agua No Potable is the sign to be wary of. If the locals are drinking then it then it is probably potable but may have a mineral balance that may challenge your (non-native) digestive system.

 

[dougfitz]

I only saw one font labelled 'no-purificado', which is not the same as non-potable, between SJPP and Pamplona. I don't recall seeing any font labelled 'non-potable', but I wasn't making a point of checking this. I always carry a pack of water purification tablets when I am travelling, but don't recall having to use them at all in Spain. I suppose if I had been desperate and had to collect water from a stream or pond, I would have done so. It just wasn't necessary. I didn't buy bottled water and had no gastrointestinal issues because I was using taps and fonts.

 

[jirit]

The short answer is yes. Just checked to see if the water from any fountain is considered non potable, otherwise walk into any cafe or bar and use the tap water. Save the planet and avoid buying bottled water.

 

[7wood]

Thank you for your advice.

 

[whariwharangi]

Save the planet and avoid buying bottled water.

An interesting comment. Plastic is a byproduct of oil production. We don't mine oil for plastic; we mine it for gasoline. If we didn't use plastic for nearly everything including water bottles the goop would be sludge filling landfills everywhere.

That being said, plastic water bottles can be recycled and shouldn't get chucked into the landscape as is too often the case.

Empty water bottles are to be seen everywhere along the camino. Usually they are stacked around a garbage bin that hasn't been emptied in a while. I'd suggest that leaving it beside a full garbage bin isn't doing due diligence.

If you use bottled water please take care to dispose of the plastic properly. Then you really are 'saving the planet'.

 

[christer1]

It takes a fair bit of energy to get from ethylenes etc to "plastic". I certainly would not call plastics a by-product of refining crude oil by any stretch of the imagination.

Buen Camino

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Evian started it all in America. Backwards, it spells "naive."

 

[naplesdon]

Drink wine, the bottles are easily recycled into new glass products, i.e. new wine bottles and there are recycling bins everywhere in France and Spain where they can be deposited.