04/24/2026
This might be a bit controversial and/or gross, but it is a fact of life.
Everybody poops. š hahaha
We donāt talk about this enough when it comes to travelā¦but I have thought about it a lot before every trip:
What are the bathrooms like?
Real talkā in my experience, bathrooms around the world are not the same. Nor is the social etiquette in bathrooms the same around the world.
Iāve gone everywhere from multi-million dollar yachts to holes in the groundā¦abandoned gas stations to 5-star hotels.
My best travel advice:
Always travel with toilet paper.
and be ready to adapt.
My wildest bathroom experience was during a dog sledding trip in Svalbard, Norway.
We were camping for days outside of Longyearbyen. No bathrooms. No facilities. Just snow, wind, and the local wildlife.
In that part of the world, youāre actually advised to carry a firearm outside city limitsā¦because of polar bears.
We would set up camp inside a circle of the sled dogs (apparently polar bears donāt like the dogs), and when nature callsā¦you walk outside the circle.
So picture this:
Iām squatting behind a snow drift with cold wind hitting places that wind rarely ever hits. Knowing that when I finish, I will get a very icy blast on my skin because we clean up with hands full of snow and ice, according to our guides.
I didn't have any real choice since my baby wipes had frozen solid in my backpack (I started to sleep with my baby wipes in my sleeping bag to keep them from freezing after that).
And even with all of that ā¦I still must be scanning the horizon for polar bears.
We had seen a polar bear in the wild only a few hours earlier.
In that exact moment, in my most vulnerable position, I had a very clear realization:
I am not at the top of the food chain anymore!!!!!
Travel can be quite humbling.
Sometimes in very deep, meaningful ways.
And sometimesā¦like this. š
Whatās the craziest, coolest or most unexpected bathroom experience youāve had while traveling?
