I was back on Gozo last week. It was great to be back there. I think I will always consider it to be one of my favorite places to live. Unfortunately, visiting involved drinking water out of plastic bottles 
The summer heat resulted in my family drinking a lot of water. I didn’t count the bottles, there were a few in the rented flat when we arrived and the flattened bottles filled two large paper shopping bags when we tidied up at the end of our stay.
The tap water there is distastefully high in sodium. If I was a local green activist, I wouldn’t ask them to improve on this, since the water comes from a diesel powered desalination plant. It removes enough salt to meet the standard for safe drinking water.
When we were living on Gozo, we opted for a purified water delivery service that used refillable 20 liter jugs. Homeowners on Gozo often choose to install inline filtration systems to provide drinking water. Neither of those options are practical for a one week vacation.
I wrote about my setbacks and victories related to drinking water back in February. When I am visiting places in the future I think I will spend some time searching for accommodations that have some kind of water filtration. I have stayed at a hostel in Florence that had a drinking water dispenser. I’m not a big fan a posh hotels and I suspect that they wouldn’t go that route as it would cut into their sales of $5.95 plastic bottles of water. Beth Terry recently blogged about her switch from a hotel to a hostel after BlogHer, she is a very entertaining writer.
Proximity is important in my travel decisions for economic and ecological reasons. If I lived near a selection of destinations with tasty tap water, this problem would be solved.
A travel filter is another possible solution. There was no way that I was entrusting my Brita to the baggage handlers on my recent trip.
