Does anyone like those semi-outdoor, tropical, hotel bathrooms?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I generally don’t like them much. Apart from anything else you can’t control the temperature which can be miserable when it’s very hot and humid. They often seem to have a bit of a weird layout. Sometimes they lack privacy, for instance when the room is on stilts over the sea and someone could (theoretically) swim underneath you. Or, like my current room that I’m sharing with my Mother, where the shower forms part of an internal courtyard and opening the slatted blinds reveals both the shower and the loo from the bed.

I forgot to mention that there are mosquitoes at night so the bathroom door has to be kept shut but my DM needs to pee at night and can’t find the bathroom if the door is shut so we have to have a light on all night in the bedroom. The least bright light is still bright so I only ended up sleeping three hours last night (and DM didn’t even need to pee until after dawn).

Current bathroom for reference

Why can’t dm use a torch?

Yes I absolutely love them. So free and just can’t do it at home. Doesn’t sound like your kind of holiday really

We don’t have a torch and she wouldn’t be able to find it in the dark anyway. Her short term memory is bad (one good thing about this holiday is that I wasn’t aware how bad it really was because it’s less noticeable in her own environment) so she wouldn’t remember that there was a torch even if we had one.

No, I'd hate that too OP. I'm very particular about bathrooms in hotel rooms. I hate freestanding tubs in the room, I hate frosted glass doors on showers/loos, and I hate anything that doesn't give both the person in the bathroom and the person in the bedroom separation and privacy. I've been married to my DH for nearly two decades, but I don't want to hear or see him on the loo and neither do I want to be observed/overheard. And in terms of tropical locations, I'd be worried about spiders and other creepy-crawlies gaining easy access to an open air bathroom.

No, it’s my DM’s holiday really, I’m just along for company and this bit is definitely not my thing. I’ve been here before (Kerala) because DH has some family here and the climate and chaos didn’t suit me then either. However there are more countries to go and I think I will be more comfortable in some of them.

@cheezncrackers You would have hated our last bathroom in Oman. There was a wall of privacy glass between the bathroom and bedroom, there was a switch to make it go from slightly translucent to clear. Who TF would want that. 🙄. There was also no lock on the door 😮, although that was for the best in the end as Mum slipped in the shower and couldn’t get up again.

Oh God that's hideous @BlackAmericanoNoSugar

Apart from the bathrooms, Oman was a delight. I had no expectations of it at all and was completely charmed by the people.

I agree, mostly for the mosquito issue, I’ve had them feast on me while I’m in the outdoor shower. And when you’re home safely I’ll tell you the giant spider story!

I love them. I could sit on the toilet and watch the cockatoos playing in the trees.

I was worried about mozzies but apart from a short time at dusk there weren’t any. And the housekeepers lit a mosquito coil when they put the mosquito nets down.

I've never seen such a bathroom overseas but did have a copper bath on a balcony in the U.K. (why? It rains a lot!)

My bugbear is bathrooms which aren't fully segregated from the bedroom just only partially frosted glass.

I quite like the outdoor showers, when I was in Thailand it was raining and it felt like I was showering in the rain. I was over it when a gecko ran out from under the toilet seat though so on balance I probably prefer an inside bathroom.

I stayed in a very similar place in Kerala and opened the toilet lid to find an amazingly colourful frog in the bowl.

I love outdoor showers or semi open tropical bathrooms. Unless it's a bit chilly in which case they're a nightmare. I stayed in a shearers hut in Tasmania and that had an outdoor tin bath which that was a step too far for me as I was too freaked out at the numbers of snakes and spiders and other Aussie critters in the bush. I found some lizards hanging out in the hut within a few mins of arriving so barely slept that first night. 😂

You could use your phone as a torch but actually there are some brilliant light strips on Amazon that you charge up with a phone charger and are motion sensitive that would help next time.

Mum can’t use her phone as a torch, she’s doing very well to use it as a phone tbh. Also, there will be no next time, unless my brother is prepared to organise it and travel with her, in which case I will recommend the light thingy to him. 😁

Exactly what @cheezncrackers says. Sounds awful .

Light strip thingies are very good for at home too. Ours are magnetic and need charging about every 3 months.

We travelled round Bali & stayed in different types of accommodation

I picked the first accommodation, which was a single storey bamboo villa with a communal pool for 3 nights. The bathroom was at the back of the villa, with loose cobbled stones. There was a huge resident 🐸 that lived in the bathroom.

When we were deciding where to book next, my partner requested "a bathroom with a flat floor"

The moral of this story, is that the out door bathroom looked beautiful, but it was not very practical !

We have also stayed in hotels, where you are able to press a button to frost the glass

Things would bite me

I adore them. My last child free solo holiday oI remember lying in my bathtub in Bali in the dark looking up at the stars. It was incredible. A cocktail in hand also helps with the ambience.

I like privacy. Highlights of non-private bathrooms:

Showers open to the world over white water. Should be private except for the highly skilled male kayakers who always just happened to be around. Far away but still.

Central Asia long-drop toilets where you were encouraged to keep the door open otherwise you'd die of the smell so you could see the majesty of the steppe covered in horses. They face away from the yurts.

Canadian hotel where the glass only went opaque when the toilet door was locked. Which they don't tell you and you only find out when you've resigned yourself to weeing with an audience.

All very picturesque and lovely but no thanks.

That gravel / slate slab arrangement looks like a terrible trip hazard, I'd be concerned about your DM creeping around there at night or even in the day. Stubbed toes also likely.

The hotel would soon regret it if a guest had a tummy upset and didn't make it down the path to the loo.