The Bathroom Diaries tell all

No matter where you go, you gotta go.

Mary Ann Racin learned that firsthand in her sixth month of pregnancy as she spent a month traveling in Paris with a two-year-old.

“We toured an unprecedented number of toilettes on our journey. Some were wonderful, floor-to-ceiling well appointed water closets; others were old-school Turkish toilets with boot-treads carved to denote foot position. As I stood with each foot carefully balanced on the prescribed mark, I dreamt of a world in which menus of restrooms were posted in the window along with the bill of fare. Would it be haute cuisine or steak tartare today?”

Upon her return, she created The Bathroom Diaries, a website that now lists and rates over 12,000 public restrooms.

The website visitor can travel the world by toilet, venturing from Antarctica to Africa to Albany. The best bathrooms are celebrated with Golden Plunger awards, while “tawdry tales of tacky toilets” features essays of world-wide toilet usage. Editor’s picks are here.

A sampling of options on the site reveals:

At Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, the Movement Control Center (honestly, that’s what it’s called- it coordinates cargo, by the way), located in Building 140, boasts clean, free, Western-style, gender-specific, 24-hour-accessible bathrooms.

The Gallery in Colombo, Sri Lanka is “arty and top end” according to a reviewer, designated with an “aesthetically special” rating. Unfortunately, the entry is picture-less.

Apparently Matthew McConaughey uses the bathroom at Sargento Garcia’s Bar in Quepos, Costa Rica.

Hanoi travelers have a variety of options, ranging from the clean flushy at a coffee shop to “4 holes on the floor without doors”.

Most travelers won’t design a toilet-based itinerary, but a quick search of the Bathroom Diaries can help a traveler not miss a once-in-a-lifetime chance to use the World’s Best Bathroom, in Kawakawa, Bay of Islands, New Zealand.