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What type and size water bottle to take?

C

catattack

New Member
Hi all,
Sorry if this has been asked already.

I want to know what type of water bottle I should be buying and what size?

Will any particular made bottles (e.g. aluminium) have a funny taste?

Any recommendations for something that is very eco-friendly?

Thanks,

Catherine.
 
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Any recommendations for something that is very eco-friendly?
Click to expand...
Avoid bottled water. The trailside is littered with tens of thousands of discarded bottles. The water is quite potable in Spain. You are more likely to get sick from the food or fellow pilgrims than you are from the water.

I have used a 2 L. Camelbak bladder, and 1 L. Camelbak bottles. All worked fine. Bad taste can result from cleaning bottles with chlorine bleach or treating water with iodide-type purifiers. Most cancer-causing bottles have been pulled, so just go for a light weight.

Bottles with a large opening are much easier to fill. Platypus is a great water bladder manufacturer, but their small-mouth caps are a bit hard to fill.
 
I took ONE small aluminum bottle for my water.
There is plenty of nice water along the way.
Just fill up in each village at the local fountain.

Or... if you want to take a plastic bottle, just keep reusing it.
 
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We take 2 bottles each. They go in the small side pockets of our rucksacks and having 2 keeps it balanced. They are lightweight aluminium and just need the tops and screw threads wiping round occasionally to keep them 'fresh'.
Personally we do use bottled water as we don't want upset stomachs to spoil our Camino. However we buy the biggest possible size, never small ones, and leave the bottles for recycling. If you are alone you might find some-one to share a big bottle with. Not only less waste but it is cheaper to buy bigger bottles than small ones.
If your budget is tight then, as Annie says, you could start off with 2 plastic bottles of water (500ml or more) and just keep refilling from larger sizes. Remember that 1lt weighs 1kg, so it is a balance between enough to drink and not too much weight. You can always half fill a big bottle but you sure can't get more in a small one
Buen Camino
 
on the vdlp in sept / oct
with temps upper 30 to early 40 deg C
i carried a full 3 lt camelback
the additional weight was zero, but it gave me options
as it got cooler and my body acclimatised, i reduced the fill to the distance and weather for the day ahead
.
i walked with a crazy thirsty irishman who needed 5 lt (of water)
 
I've just bought a 2 litres Camelbak (just the water bag) which fits in my backpack. Will leave for the St. Olav's Way to Nidaros next week, and am going to test the gear then. Hopefully it works as expected. I report to this thread later on.
 
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I did the Camino in May 2011 with a 2l water bag in my pack (is that what a camelback is? I've also heard them called bladders and platypus, but I think the latter is a brand name). It was perfect, and having the tube to your mouth saves reaching round to a pocket or taking off your backpack. For me, sometimes you just need to wet your mouth rather than drink. I rarely filled it completely but (as previously said) it's good to have the option. The only downside is that when walking you can't see how full it is so keep checking when you stop and/or pass a fountain. And yes, it did taste a bit like plastic, but when you're thirsty... Buen Camino!
 
Regarding water safety on the Camino, I have only heard of one or two people getting sick, and honestly, I believe it was a flu bug, NOT the water! The water in Spain is lovely and clean, and if it is not drinkable it is clearly marked NON-POTABLE! Even if that is the case, the chances of getting sick are small.

Joe mistakenly drank from a fountain where there were two spigots, one marked "NON-POTABLE!" After his long drink, he saw the sign and said, "Ah-oh!"

We beat it to the nearest bar, where he sucked down a couple of shots of whiskey.
Problem solved.
He was fine in more ways than one :lol:

If you have a delicate stomach, bottled water may be an answer, but research has shown a large percentage of bottled water often simply comes from a faucet - somewhere else.

Don't be afraid to drink the water from the fountains along the Camino.
Take an empty bottle or two and refill them.
That's my advice.
That's my advice.
 
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@ tyrrek re not being able to tell how much water remains in the bladder....
i bought a Camelback gadget called a Flow Meter
this expensive device fits in the sucking tube
and measures the flow of water, and hence can determine whats left in the bag
giving you a digital readout
so problem solved
.
not
.
the device malfunctioned repeatedly
and dangerously overstated the amount of water left
.
so on the one stretch i checked the reading, and it said 1.2 lt remaining
for the 8 kays i had to still walk - in 40deg C temperature
.
needless to say i arrived was semi delirious and de-hydrated
and in a most un-pilgrim-like fashion, very pi77ed off
 
Reviews of the Flow Meter from Amazon.com:
 
I'm glad you asked for an eco-friendly solution to your question. You only need to bring one small water bottle that you can replenish all along the way. Mine has capacity for less than a litre and I had no trouble, ever, finding water along the Camino Frances. Tap water is perfectly safe. A small bottle will keep your weight down too.

If I could ask one thing of pilgrims, having just returned from a wonderful Camino, it is to not leave one more single discarded plastic bottle on the way. I was disappointed to see the route littered with these things and shocked at the cavalier attitude about garbage of those you leave them. It seems to me it is disrespectful to our host, Spain, and to the farmers and landowners whose fields we are invited to walk across, and to fellow pilgrims, who might like to stop for a break under the only bit of shade of a sunny stretch only to find it littered with other people's waste.

Buen Camino.
 
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Thanks for all responses everyone.

I ended up buying a Quechua 1L bottle, something like aluminium, weighs nothing.

Yes, I figured that there would be lots of plastic bottles discarded, which is really dissapointing. That's why I wanted something sturdier and re-usable.

I'm doing the Portugues route also, not the Frances.
 
Hello All:

Am going to do my first pilgrimage mid-June and planning on the Portuguese route. Does anyone know about the quality and availability of tap/fountain water on that trail?

Thanks so much!
 
onancyo said:
Hello All:

Am going to do my first pilgrimage mid-June and planning on the Portuguese route. Does anyone know about the quality and availability of tap/fountain water on that trail?

Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

Water was never a problem on the Camino Portugues (2010). I took a 2L Camelback and had a 500ml bottle is a reserve in case I needed to fill up along the way. The only day I drained my water (after refills at two fontes) was in Spain, between Mos and Pontevedre - Granted it was hot, sunny, somewhat hilly, and around 30k in distance.

Feel free to contact me with any questions ...
 
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As I wrote elsewhere If the fountains are marked non-potable or sin purifio or non guarante they are NOT drinkable! Only take water from fountains marked potable, purifico or guarante or, of course, from taps in the albergues and bars. Last camino I bought 2 half/liter bottles of water at the beginning of the walk and filled them periordically from taps in albergues and bars along the way. The bottles fit in net pockets on either side of the backpack for relatively easy access.

Buen Camino!

Margaret
 
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I bought a big plastic bottle of mineral water from the grocery stores, filled up (re-used) two small water bottles for the side pockets of my backpack and then I had a clip on plastic bottle I brought with me that I would fill with the rest of the water and carry that along at my waist. I would drink a lot of mineral water in the morning before leaving the albergue and it's convenient bathroom, and still had plenty for the day ahead. You can always empty what you don't use if need to lighten your load or if it's time to change to fresher water. I'm just crazy about the mineral water in Spain, and it's cheap when you get it at a supermarket. It comes in bottles from quite small to super large.
 
i am wondering whether a hydration pack is better than water bottles - that way at least I can get to teh water.......
 
I prefer they hydration bladder, but refilling it during the day is inconvenient. It does need a thorough cleaning at the end of the pilgrimage, and probably during it, but I have not had any problem with the cleanliness.
 
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2x 1litres bottles from airport lasted whole camino.................with refilling when required......sometimes when it was raining never bothered :wink:

Perfect :mrgreen:
 
I like the water bladder system, because it makes water immediately available without having to stop and take off the pack to drink (I don't have enough shoulder flexibility to reach a bottle out of the side pockets while still wearing the pack). More convenient drinking results in more drinking results in better hydration.

Camelbak and Platypus are both brand names for these bladder systems. Both have 2L and 3L models, as well as narrow-neck and wide-mouth configurations. Wide-mouth models are a bit easier to clean, or to add ice cubes to (!), but weigh a little more due to the fittings. When I shifted from a wide-mouth 3L to a narrow-neck 2L model, I saved about a half pound (225g) of pack weight, which is not trivial.

The bladders are inserted in purpose-designed pockets (or hung from little hangers) built into most packs these days. I find it is easiest to load the filled bladder into the pack, then all the other contents go in. It is very difficult to insert a full bladder into an already-loaded pack. Previous comments about the difficulty of refilling mid-day are spot-on for this very reason.

So, for mid-day water availability opportunities, I carry an empty water bottle in a side pocket.

In France, one can get water at every Mairie (town hall) and cemetary. And in Spain apparently water refills are also readily available. However, this is not the case in Czech Republic and Germany. So it is important to take availability as well as daily temperature into consideration when planning how much water to take on any given day.
 
Simpler is better. I bought half liter bottles of water along the way, and refilled or replaced them as necessary. I started each day with three of these full, or 1.5 liters of water. I would fill them from the sinks in the albourgues sometimes.

As others have said there tends to be water readily available. However, there are long stretches where that is not the case.
 
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