A Spotter's Guide to Toilets

by Lonely Planet

Loos with incredible views, lavish lavatories, outstanding outhouses - all are featured in this pictorial guide to the world's most stunning toilets. Whether they're high-tech or arty, amusing or amazing, each toilet has a photo and a description of its location. More than 100 restrooms to remember are featured, from Antarctica to Zambia. As any experienced traveller knows, you can tell a whole lot about a place by its bathrooms. Whatever you prefer to call them - lavatory, loo, bog, khasi, thunderbox, dunny, bathroom, restroom, washroom or water closet - toilets are a (sometimes opaque, often wide-open) window into the secret soul of a destination. It's not just how well they're looked after that's revealing, but where they are positioned and the way they've been conceptualised, designed and decorated. Toilets so often transcend their primary function of being a convenience to become a work of art in their own right, or to make a cultural statement about the priorities, traditions and values of the venues, locations and communities they serve. The lavatory is a great leveller - everyone feels the call of nature, every day - but being ubiquitous doesn't make it uniform. Around the planet (and beyond it, see page 12), toilets have followed various evolutionary pathways to best suit their environment. In these pages you'll find porcelain pews with fantastic views, audacious attention-seeking urban outhouses, and eco-thrones made from sticks and stones in all sorts of wild settings, from precipitous mountain peaks to dusty deserts. So, wherever you're reading this, we hope you're sitting comfortably. About Lonely Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2016

About the author

OUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.

Reviews

[karen]

flipping through this at my old office's free book shelves yesterday, the dearly-missed* jason said "that looks like a karen book."

and who am i to argue with that?




*missed because i no longer work with him - this wasn't a ghost situation. he's totally alive. i checked.

[Ron Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

President Trump shocked the world once again on Thursday when, during a meeting about immigration, he reportedly asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

As usual, the president is wrong about immigrants. As a minor aside, it’s worth noting that he’s also wrong about shitholes.

A recent photo book from Lonely Planet presents these essential utilities in all their glory. “Toilets: A Spotter’s Guide” can’t redeem the president’s racist metaphor, but it offers a delightful tour of ingenuity around the world. Each page features a color photo of a striking toilet, a brief description and a small world map. It’s a survey that gets to the bottom of world travel in the most delightful way.

The book opens with a pair of. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

[Jo (The Book Geek) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this sweet little book as a kind of joke gift, I suppose, earlier on in the year. Until yesterday, I'd forgotten all about it, but actually, I'm rather glad I found it, as it was a quick, and interesting read, and if you're a fan of toilets, then this is definitely the book for you.

On every page are toilets from around the world, and next to the pictures, are little snippets of information about it's particular location. There was a few that stood out, and one in particular, was a restaurant called "Sketch" which is located in London's Picadilly Circus, and it houses toilet pods, that look like little alien eggs. Seriously, the restaurant might be lavish, but I'd go there just to see (and possibly use) the toilets!

There were many located in the middle of nowhere, on the edge of a cliff, on a mountain top, or in the middle of the jungle. Some are so unique in their design, that I can totally understand why they've been included in this.

This was interesting and amusing enough, but could have been a little longer. Personally, I recommend that this book is kept in the bathroom, for some possible light reading.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full disclosure, whilst I do have a toilet fetish I did not actually buy this book, it was a gift from the wife, I assuming it is either her announcing she knows about said fetish or she is planning on redoing the toilet…which is fine with me as long as it is one of the ones with a mountain view.

Things I have learnt from this book:

1: As with most things New Zealand do it right, the best looking bogs are there.
2: London has a hidden toilet, no it’s not the whole place!
3: Norway have great views but it isn’t stated whether their seats are heated or not.
4: In China there is a building with a fair few toilets in it.
5: This book is about toilets, but you don’t often see the toilet.
6: The best toilet in the book? UK wins, there is a TARDIS in Warmley, where ya can do ya business…whilst Dr Who looks on I expect.

And that’s about it, some inventive toilets out there and some with nice views, overall the book was pretty dull, I was expecting a few jokes but alas I seemed to have missed them.

Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021...

[Zuzana Be · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kniha o záchodoch. 2x sa tam objavilo aj Slovensko (spoiler: lebo asi to nikdy v živote nikto čítať nebude; UFO bar a Chata pod Rysmi), Japonsko (bohužiaľ) tiež iba 2x (spoiler: tlačidlové wc a SEGA pisoár), škoda čakala som nejaké dizajnové z Tokya, ktorých je tam neúrekom.
Kniha bola vianočný dar, za ktorý ďakujeme a bude mať svoje čestné miesto v záhradnej latríne.

[Natasha den Dekker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not *as good* as Toilets of the World - and there was some crossover but it was fun nonetheless. This one was very much based on the aesthetics of the toilet as opposed to the design + cultural impacts (beyond how it looked). It added a few more from some countries on the African continent as well as South America. But it was definitely not as 'fun' as TotW.

[Luna Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surely a book describing a toilet in the Icelandic outback as a “poo pew with a volcanic view” is the peak of poetic excellence?

[Lucy Caruana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won’t lie, I didn’t read every caption.

[Am Y · Rating 3 out of 5]

Various amusing toilets throughout the world are showcased in this book. Some of them are unique in structure or design, while others are featured due to their location or isolation: e.g. on a remote mountaintop, in the middle of a forest, on a cliff edge, etc. Fairly interesting, though I was hoping for more toilets which really pushed the boundaries of convention.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are certainly some interesting toilets around the world and this book captures many of them! While I really enjoyed the photographs, I felt like the writing was insipid. I would’ve liked a little more meaty side bars and instead they felt like they were written to be cute, either with a lot of alliteration or trying to be funny. I guess I take my toilets more seriously. I was also disappointed to not get very many photos of the interiors of the toilet rooms. The photos were mostly outside and of the views around them, so this book felt more predicated on the settings than on the toilets themselves. If it’s a book about toilets, I would like to see the seats, the washbasins or lack thereof, etc., in addition to the stunning setting. Having said all of this, it is a beautiful book and worth what they charge, I was just left wanting more each time.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why am I reading a book about toilets? Well, it was included in one of the Humble Bundles and it is a quick and easy read; so why not? The book covers toilets from around the world, but there doesn’t seem any order to them, so you jump about. There’s no consistency of why the toilets were included: some are here because of their location (in the middle of nowhere, precariously positioned on a mountain), some are for their building design, and some are for the actual toilet. Many of the entries just show you the outside, but then you really want to know what’s on the inside, even if it was just a standard layout. So you get a paragraph of text and an image, then it’s onto the next one.

[Ietrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange book. It looks like one of those coffee table books. But the theme is probably not fit for the place. The contents is certainly okay and this is one of the more interesting picture books. On the downside, the images are of uneven quality and both picture style and location seems random. The volume would have been a lot better if more thought and effort were put into the project. On the other hand, I don't think I care about seeing another book on the same theme.

[Rob Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my regrets is that when I was visiting Europe in the 70s. was not taking photographs of the odd toilets I encountered. Well, this book is not as much about the pot as about the building around the pot. It is fascinating. My favorite is the one with walls of one-way mirrors. Inside you feel like you are outside, yet no one can see you. Could get a bit unnerving.

[Rue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome toilets! However I'm missing quite a few. They've obviously never been to the Netherlands 😉

[Kashmira · Rating 3 out of 5]

How exciting when you realise that you have actually been to one of the toilets featured in the book!

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das Plumpsklo in Omas Schrebergarten war mir immer suspekt. Spinnen gab es dort, und man konnte von älteren Kindern darin eingesperrt werden. Während eines Camping-Urlaubs in Kanada fand ich die Out-Houses dagegen sehr charmant. Als (trockene) Kompost-Toilette angelegt und aus Holz gebaut, passten die rustikalen Häuschen in die Gegend. Auch im Toiletten-Buch von Lonely Planet ist Kanada mit markanten Beispielen vertreten, einem Exemplar auf den Queen Charlotte Inseln der Pazifikküste und dem Örtchen der Scott Duncan Hut oberhalb von Lake Louise. Spitzenreiter mit seinen architektonisch bemerkenswerten Klos ist in diesem Band Neuseeland. Wer noch einen Anlass für eine Reise auf die Südhalbkugel sucht – Neuseelands originelle Toiletten sind wirklich sehenswert. Neben der Toilette von Dr. Who darf ein grünes Café Achteck aus Berlin so wenig fehlen, wie die japanische Hightech-Toilette. Chonqing in China glänzt mit der derzeit größten Toilettenanlage weltweit aus sage und schreibe 1000 Toiletten. Ob es echte WC-Becken sind oder einfache Löcher im Boden, darüber schweigt des Fotografen und Herausgebers Höflichkeit. Beeindruckend immer wieder das Thema Weltende, wo es weit und breit keinen Baum oder Busch gibt, WC-Häuschen in der Wüste, der Savanne oder der Arktis. In der Savanne stellt sich die Frage, was die Löwen wohl über das Örtchen denken … Georgien trägt einen Mehrsitzer direkt über einem rauschenden Gebirgsbach bei – und die Toiletten-Tür in einem Nationalpark in Brasilien könnte ebenso gut eine Fata Morgana sein.

Fotos in bester Qualität, GPS-Koordinaten und eine Landkarte mit allen Örtchen werden hier geboten. Wer ein witziges Geschenk sucht – das Buch ist auch in englischer oder französischer Sprache erhältlich.

[Nefertari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who has ever stopped at a rest station and boggled at the artistry put into a public bog should take a look at this one - or anyone who has ever boggled at the lack of accommodations in another. From loos made of grass huts on the beach, works of shrimp sculpture in Australia, or a literal open field with a sign - how we go to the bathroom around the world speaks to the essence of our condition.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute little book of photographs of interesting toilets around the world.

The perfect book to keep in your loo to entertain guests. :)

There were a couple I thought should've been included that weren't, but then the UK is highly stocked in quirky and delightful conveniences.

Highly recommended.

[Ron S · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best loos with a view, from around the world. If anyone can explain why New Zealand seems to invest so much in designer toilets, please enlighten me.

[nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a super entertaining book!