Public Restroom Finder Apps

[Mark Sedenquist]

Finding a clean, public restroom is never a problem when one lives in a state blessed with lots of casinos (like Nevada) but this seems to be an issue for many. Especially for those who in this new economy -- spend much of their work day delivering goods and services to people staying at home.

I looked around the App store today and found a few such apps and I am wondering if you have any personal experience with these or (even better) some suggestion for other ways to find clean, public restrooms...

* The Whizz App has been been getting some local TV coverage of late.

* SitOrSquat

* Public Toilet Finder

* Bathroom Scout

* Flush -- Find Public Toilets

* Bathroom Scout Pro

[Mark Sedenquist]

Continuing this thought.

When there aren't casinos near by -- I tend to use businesses that value good hygiene. Grocery Stores and Coffee Houses. I always make a point to purchase something from the business if I use their bathrooms!

And in recent days, I have found the public restrooms at city and county parks are generally ALWAYS clean and well-stocked.

So, how much of a concern is this for you?

Mark

[landmariner]

In addition to the coffee espresso bars, Target and and to a lesser degree, Walmart, are sometimes options. Walmart is usually open 24/hrs a day so can provide some flexibility. But, Starbucks is my go-to and usually open during my target hours of 6a-8p. Gas stations and convenient stores are at the bottom of the list.

Rest areas, of course, on the highways (mostly just Interstates), but these vary widely by State. And a couple of years ago there were very few, I think I counted only one, while driving across Arizona. They were closed for budgetary reasons, but the one that was open looked to be a pet project of someone, avant-garde and spared no costs (no golden fixtures however).

As for apps, there was one a few years ago, maybe Sit-or-Squat, then a few others joined the scene and diluted or tried to monetize too much, and became useless. So, if trying to do some trip planning I use Google Maps for rest areas and sometimes GasBuddy.

[DonnaR57]

Excellent thread idea. :-)

When we travel, our first choice is almost always a rest area OR Flying J/Pilot. The latter seem to have hourly cleaning requirements; more than once I've had to wait for a few minutes while a male custodian finished cleaning the facilities. That's when we're on interstates.

It gets more interesting when we're on US or state highways, as rest areas are pretty non-existent. Let's see....McDonald's is usually pretty clean, and then I can pick up a dollar drink or something like that. Grocery stores - did that a couple of times.

But in recent years, we've parked a camping potty in our pickup's camper shell. It can be challenging to find a parking spot where the user doesn't moon someone while trying to utilize it. This past summer, we found ourselves along US-54 in MO in one of those "rest spots" that was just a pretty wooded spot with a picnic table, no facilities. A few miles further up the road, in Camdenton, we stopped at a Casey's for diesel and their public restrooms were closed due to the Pandemic.


Donna

[landmariner]

My observation for most of the fast food men's rooms is be rather nasty. The women's rooms are not as bad (so I hear). There are some great rest areas with good, clean facilities on US-highways in Kansas and US/UT/local highways in Utah.