Free Water at Airports: Never Overpay for Water Again

Wanna know how to get free water at airports, because paying for the overpriced bottled water truly hurts?

We’ve got a solution. Actually, a few!

You might already know this about us, if you’ve been our friend for a while, but we don’t like to give you just a short answer.

We want you to get all the extra tips and tricks, too, and it’s the same in this post.

So we’ll tell you how to find free water at airports, PLUS share with you loads of other travel tips to make flying easier. 

Deal?

Okay, let’s get to it.

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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own adventures too!

You might want to check this out

Since we are speaking about airports and flying, we thought it was appropriate to mention our other post – 8 long-haul flight hacks.

Because we’ve heard not everyone enjoys long-haul flights?

Since we absolutely love them (they are such a treat for us, because most of the time we travel like tramps 😅), we thought: maybe these poor people could use our tips on making long flights more comfortable?

Anyway, whether you love or hate flying long-haul, do check out the post; you might find some useful tips there you haven’t thought of yet.

Free water at airports: myth vs reality

Have you noticed this at airports?

So many people don’t just empty their water bottles before security.

They actually throw them away!

Then they go through the funfest of randomness that is airport security (love this reel about airport security rules btw 😂).

Emerge on the other side, scarred to a variety of levels, only to beeline it to duty free to spend half of their day’s wages on a 500ml bottle of water.

Excuse us, but what??

Why do people still do this?

We are guessing it’s a habit developed in the past, when buying bottled water was really the only option – or so we were made to believe.

The narrative pushed by everyone seemed to be not that you can’t take water over 100mls with you through security.

But that you can’t take water BOTTLES through.

And it somehow stuck.

These days, though?

It’s often so easy to get free water at airports, and yet people still buy bottled, wasting not just their money, but this planet too.

It hurts us every time we see someone do this, but we are too scared to get punched in the face by an overenthusiastic holidaymaker to say anything. 😅

So we’ll tell you in this article.

Cause we know you are nice.

And you wouldn’t punch us in the face. (Least we hope.)

How to find free water at airports

As we promised, we won’t just tell you how to find free water at airports in this post.

We’ll also share lots of extra tips.

Actually, even getting free water at airports comes with more than one solution.

And we’ve tried them all, so we can tell you everything from our personal experience.

These are the 4 ways we get free water at airports.

Solution no. 1: Water fountains

Water fountains or water refill stations are the best way to get free water at airports.

Yet so many people don’t use them – as we said, we see travellers finish their water bottles, throw them out, walk through security and then right past the water refill stations to duty free, where they will buy water for a ridiculous amount of money!

It’s insane.

We do have to admit, though, there are two issues with this solution for getting free water at airports:

• Not all airports have water fountains (and we judge them big time)
• How do you find out which airports have water fountains? And how do you know where to find them (also shame on airports who hide them)

While we can’t help with the first problem, other than shaming those airports across social media and the world of internet, we can help with the second issue.

There is a simple way to figure out where you can find free water at airports.

The best resource for finding free water at airports

Our secret weapon in the war against overpriced airport water?

This website.

Water At Airports is our go-to website every time we are flying to or from a new airport.

Yes, we check it even when we are landing at a new airport, because we always use public transport to get to our accommodation. That means it often takes a while = we need to be prepared with food and drink for the journey.

So, after we land, we like to make sure our water bottles are topped up. 

(Also, since often we can’t check in right away, and it’s better to top up your bottle with free water at the airport, than spending money right away on bottled water as you get to the city centre.)

 Back to Water At Airports.

We admit, the website looks extremely spammy.

Not sure what’s going on with the UX, but trust us. Persevere. Get past the scam-like messaging at the top of the page.

As you scroll towards the bottom, you will find a list of countries.

Here is what you should do:

• Find the country you are flying to/from
• Find the right airport
• Look at the forum to see what other travellers are saying about finding free water at the airport

The one issue with the site?

The comments on the forum are not in chronological order.

Instead, the most useful comment should be at the top. 

Users (including yourself) can upvote or downvote comments based on how accurate and useful they are.

This is actually one of the other 2 things you can do:

• Upvote useful comments (meaning, when you find the water refill point, as described in the comment, upvote it to confirm that it is indeed accurate and useful).
• If you find that information about free water at airports you’ve visited is missing or is outdated, submit a comment yourself. This way you can help other travellers and the planet. And you never know, maybe it will earn you brownie points with the universe, and your flight won’t be delayed!

Solution no. 2: Bathroom taps

Often, we see people topping up water from bathroom taps.

Here’s the thing with this approach:

• It’s true that in some countries, water is considered so clean that you can fill up directly from taps. The key is knowing which countries these are.
• Maybe you’ve noticed this, but free water refills often hide in bathrooms – whether as an actual little water fountain near the bathroom entrance, or as an actual tap that is marked “drinking water” – we recently saw this in Lapland, Finland. So if you are struggling to find free water at airports, it’s worth checking the bathrooms (sometimes a few of them, because not every bathroom always has a water fountain/drinking tap).
• Often people just don’t care or don’t realise that just because a country has safe tap water, it doesn’t necessarily mean the airport plumbing is also safe, and you can be drinking the water from bathroom taps.

What do we do?

Unless we are 100% sure the bathroom tap water is safe, we don’t drink it. We prefer any of the other options that we mention here to possibly taking unwell, because with our 💩 luck, we would. 😄

But.

If there is no free water at airports we travel through? We do often head to the bathroom. Not with our regular plastic bottles though. Let’s talk about filter water bottles.

Solution no. 3: Filter water bottles

The problem

Having no access to free water at airports is one issue, but not being able to drink tap water anywhere as you travel? That’s where we draw the line.

This was a big concern for us when we were getting ready for full-time travel life, because we drink A LOT of water.

Mirka probably drinks more water than you’ve ever seen anyone drink. 😅

As you know, in many countries, tap water is not safe to drink, and you have to buy bottled water.

With our water-drinking habits, we knew we would end up: 

• Spending half of our time lugging water bottles from the shop (since we are car-free travellers)
• Spending loads of money on water, which goes against our money-saving way of living
• Killing the planet in the process, too

The solution

What did we do instead?

We bought filter water bottles, and it was one of the best investments – definitely not a packing regret.

Since this post is about finding free water at airports, we won’t go into detail about filter bottles here, but we’ll say this.

Consider getting one.

They are great not just for drinking tap water in countries where it’s not sanitary.

But you can also use them when you can’t locate free water at airports and you need to resort to topping up your water bottle in the bathroom. Because your bottle will filter it and make it safe to drink.

Or even in places like on a train – did you know that you can’t use the water on the Santa Claus Express in Finland, even to brush your teeth with? We took one filter bottle with us to make sure we didn’t have to carry a lot of bottled water to survive the night on the train (which was epic btw).

Solution no. 4: Cafes

The last option is one we don’t like to have to resort to.

Why?

Because it involves talking to people. 😂

How do you get free water at airports when there are no water refills and you didn’t listen to us and didn’t get a filter bottle?

You go to a cafe or a restaurant and ask the staff whether they would kindly top up your water bottle for free.

The problems with this solution

We said this is always the last option for us because:

• It’s awkward. We hate asking for stuff to be given to us (yes, we know: “you don’t ask, you don’t get” and we are aware that we are hindering ourselves by not being more yolo on this). But if you are the kind of person who doesn’t mind? Go for it! (We will silently envy you.)
• The staff don’t always understand what you are talking about. If no one’s ever asked them for a water bottle top-up, they might just say “no” because they don’t have a clue what you want.
• Often, the staff have been told to say no. The thing is, the airports without free water refills know that people need water. And they will use this fact to make more money. So it is exactly in those airports that the staff have been informed they are not allowed to just top up water bottles for free.
• We’ve heard other travellers say that the staff, especially in cafes, told them they only have hot water on tap. Which might be true, or it might be an indirect way of saying “no, buy our bottled water instead”. 

We’ve used this solution a few times, in a pinch, and it was always stressful and only sometimes successful, so these days we try really hard to:

• Always check Water At Airports before going to a new airport
• Not forget to pack our filter water bottles when we are not sure about free water being available
• Not get worked up if we have to buy bottled water once in a blue moon. 99% of the time, we save money and the environment, so we have to accept that the 1% of the time things won’t go perfectly

These are our 4 solutions for getting free water at airports.

We hope this post has helped you, and the next time you are flying somewhere exciting, you will save money on water and spend it on cocktails (or chocolate, or sights or whatever you want!) instead.

Speaking of, where are you flying next? ✈️

Let us know in the comments – we love to hear about your adventures!