# How can you get a cheap or free shower in a city you don't live in **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 18, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653 "2014-02-18T21:05:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/41 "2014-02-20T03:41:10Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Not that this is a good idea _anyway_, but doesn’t the water in those pipes usually sit for years, and is often grimy and bacteria infested, thereby precluding its use for a shower? Spoilsport ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/42 "2014-02-20T04:19:29Z")
Along a similar line, I couldn’t recommend sprinkler showering nowadays, as many of our parks are now (hurray!) irrigated with reclaimed water. You can tell by looking for the purple pipes/spigots. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/43 "2014-02-20T05:47:02Z")
Good god, if you’re that cheap, just wait until you get home. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/44 "2014-02-20T07:49:43Z")
[Internet](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-11/japans-internet-cafes-home-for-the-underemployed) [cafes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_cafe_refugee) in many major Japanese cities have showers for a few dollars. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/45 "2014-02-20T09:05:50Z")
I’ve road tripped around Europe a few times and done this a lot. I’ve found the best option for a real shower is to walk onto a campsite like you belong there. Campsites never have checks to see who is staying there,\* and the showers are always open. If you’re lucky they’ll even have hairdryers. If it was a nice, small, family-run campsite we would ask to pay a little to use the showers. They almost always let us for free. Sometimes hotels have showers in the loos in the lobby, and they also often have showers in the changing rooms for employees. Again, just walk in like you belong there. The biggest problem is that you can’t walk in 7 people together with a towels and sponge bags, which you can at a campsite. > [@SerafinaPekala](#): > > Wet Wipes. Good enough for the troops/good enough for you. We had those camping showers, and found the best thing is to wipe down well with a Wet Wipe and then rinse that off. We tend to be a big group, so the shower doesn’t hold enough water for everyone to actually shower. But wiping down and then rinsing off makes you pretty clean. I don’t like being left with that Wet Wipe film, I feel that needs to be rinsed off. \*Except for one in Italy, where a security guard chased us. It was quite terrifying! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/46 "2014-02-20T12:52:33Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Not that this is a good idea _anyway_, but doesn’t the water in those pipes usually sit for years, and is often grimy and bacteria infested, thereby precluding its use for a shower? Boy, you’re picky for a freeloader. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/47 "2014-02-20T15:55:03Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Don’t a lot of airports have shower facilities? Or is it just the big international ones? I have no idea what they cost, but if you can get there via mass transit, it could be an option. At Incheon they are in the secure side of the airport, available only to passengers with a boarding pass or connecting flight. And they weren’t cheap. I don’t remember how much, but I decided to stay stinky. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/48 "2014-02-21T00:54:52Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > At Incheon they are in the secure side of the airport, available only to passengers with a boarding pass or connecting flight. And they weren’t cheap. I don’t remember how much, but I decided to stay stinky. Same with Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, and just about every other airport I’ve seen that offers shower facilities. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/49 "2014-02-21T01:16:17Z")
Bar of soap, swimming trunks and a lake or river? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/50 "2014-02-21T04:55:04Z")
Presumably you’ll be staying someplace in the city the night after the hiking – wouldn’t you be able to shower there? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/51 "2014-02-21T05:35:52Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > At Incheon they are in the secure side of the airport, available only to passengers with a boarding pass or connecting flight. And they weren’t cheap. I don’t remember how much, but I decided to stay stinky. I showered at Incheon in December. It was free. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/52 "2014-02-21T15:07:57Z")
Gitchyseff some of these [Athletic Body Wipes](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0061QL8EE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=24QTCUIQPIK7&coliid=I2IYFRCT002538). Read the reviews. People use them to freshen up when they bike to work and really love them. They’re 8"X9", bigger than Wet Wipes. Re the college gym: try a small community college not a big university. Once I had a concert at night and nowhere to change, so I just walked into the women’s locker room/gym at the downtown community college where we performed. It was about 6 pm. Only a couple of other women were in there and no one asked for ID or anything. I’m also a LOT older than college student age, but no one even noticed me. At that time of day, people just want to get outta there and get home. This was about six years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/53 "2014-02-21T15:52:43Z")
> [@saje](#): > > Find a college campus gym and walk in like you belong there? > [@tapu](#): > > the Y There’s no way you could do this at the Y or a University in my town. It’s pretty tightly monitored. > [@Procrustus](#): > > Get arrested This would work but the water pressure is a bit harsh; plus being clean but covered in delousing isn’t much better than being dirty. 🙂 > [@Rodgers01](#): > > Try Couchsurfing, that system where people volunteer to put up travelers, usually for free. Look up people in the city where you are, tell them you’re traveling and that you don’t even need to stay the night, you just need 20 minutes in their shower. I think this is probably a pretty good idea. A lawyer friend of mine uses couchsurfing all the time. He’s stayed in homes all over the planet. I like the idea of finding a parks & rec gym. At least the ones around here aren’t monitored too closely; but finding one with shower facilities might be a challenge. Of the three city parks in my town that also have a gymnasium, I think only one of those has a shower facility. Personally, I like the idea of the whore’s bath. If you carry a washcloth and soap, you can get pretty clean from a sink. If you’re Jack Reacher, you could throw your old clothes away after you buy a new set from the thrift store. Just make sure you hang on to your toothbrush for your back pocket. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/54 "2014-02-21T16:48:45Z")
Both universities I’ve been affiliated with have the occasional (seemingly) random bathroom on campus that has a shower in it. Both of the ones I’m thinking of are in engineering buildings… Anyway, those buildings are open to the public (unlike dorms or rec centers). I suspect you’d have to be pretty familiar with the area to know about them, though. ---
**Author:** ![lionscat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a698b9/32.png) [@lionscat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lionscat)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/55 "2014-02-22T00:28:28Z")
This is quite easy. Check into a slightly, but not too sleazy motel or hotel. Take a very quick shower. Take all your stuff and tell the front desk you saw a roach/rat, etc., and that you are leaving. Demand your money back, then leave. Tada! ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/56 "2014-02-22T03:43:05Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Not that this is a good idea _anyway_, but doesn’t the water in those pipes usually sit for years, and is often grimy and bacteria infested, thereby precluding its use for a shower? Water sitting in a steel pipe for years would not be bacterially infested. There is nothing for bacteria to live on. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/57 "2014-02-22T05:27:41Z")
Up until the mid 70’s, both Paris (France) and Melbourne (Aus) still had public baths – that is, places where you went to have a bath if you were living in housing without a bath or shower. I assume that every old city used to have something like that, but I’ve no idea how long they lasted in other places. If you know your way around, it’s often the case that a “homeless shelter” includes shower facilities. I used to know where to go to get a cheap shower in Melbourne, but I live in the outer suburbs now, and I don’t mix in those circles. All of the places I knew, I would have felt uncomfortable staying the night (they were pretty tough), but I would have felt safe having a shower. The universities around here would be locked up too tight. The hospitals in the city, near the shelters, would be locked up too tight. But the hospital out here, if you knew your way around, you could scrub up where the fathers-to-be scrub up before witnessing the miracle of birth. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/58 "2014-02-22T18:47:41Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > That’s what two friends and I who traveled to the west coast and back in 1974 did — except it was a dorm, not a gym. > > At the University of Texas at El Paso, as I recall, we found a dorm that was actually in a huge multi-story hi-rise. We not only used the showers, we actually slept in the lobby the night before. No one seemed to pay us any notice. > > Regrettably, I wouldn’t look like I “belong there” today. > [@saje](#): > > Find a college campus gym and walk in like you belong there? > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Interesting ideas. On the subject if a person wanted to be sneaky another idea I’ve heard is to go into a hospital, find an empty room with a shower in the bathroom and use that. > > I’d rather not sneak into a college or a hospital though. I assume they’d just kick me out if I’m polite and low key, but I wouldn’t want a trespassing charge on me. > > The country club idea isn’t bad either. > [@Zsofia](#): > > Good luck with that - the one here has a high tech Mission Impossible hand scanner! > [@Arrendajo](#): > > I don’t know about all these people suggesting using college dorms or gyms. At my son’s school that kind of thing is tightly monitored. You need student ID to get in the rec center - they log the visit and they do not let anybody just wander in. I know because I’ve been there many times. Outsiders can enter only as the guest of a student, and they have to pay a day fee. Same with the student housing. With all the expensive tech shit the students have nowadays they don’t want strangers wandering into the living areas, not to mention general safety concerns. > [@Animastryfe](#): > > Both of the universities I have been to have gyms that require university ID to enter. One of them is a liberal arts college in a small town, and does not require ID to enter the vast majority of its buildings. _ **Now, reference the THREADSPOTTING title:** _ “There must be 50 ways to get a shower.” – 50 ways to get a shower… Y’just slip in the dorm, Norm… ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/59 "2014-02-22T19:33:31Z")
Speaking from experience … Marina’s are where you can take a shower on week-ends on the west coast. Just stand outside the men’s or women’s restroom shifting your body weight around like you have to go to the bathroom real bad, carry the soap and or shampoo in your pocket or yacht looking hoodie (just one of those small hotel shampoo bottles works for me). No change of clothes or towel and once inside, due to some nice person going in or holding the door for you that was going out, you can scope out the situation and act like you are a yacht owner. Go boldly for the shower stalls usually in the back. Get in and get out … no dawdling, do not tarry and leave abruptly headed back to the parking lot or just a park bench if that’s all you have. Brush your hair and rest in the sunshine. Good luck I only got arrested once in two years down San Diego way and the security guard let me go on that one, but I did not return of course. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653/60 "2014-02-22T21:36:36Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Water sitting in a steel pipe for years would not be bacterially infested. There is nothing for bacteria to live on. Anecdote: I was helping my father move out of his (sketchy) apartment and while he was packing stuff up in the bedroom I got a glass of water from the kitchen sink. I had to wiggle the faucet a bit but it worked. He came out and informed me he hadn’t been able to get it to work for years. I didn’t get sick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-you-get-a-cheap-or-free-shower-in-a-city-you-dont-live-in/681653.md?page=4)