Should You Bring A Toilet and Shower On Your Lap Of Australia?
Planning your lap of Australia and still undecided if you should be bringing a toilet or shower? Let us assist you with this decision by sharing our personal experience after five months of travelling Australia full-time in our camper trailer.
Firstly, congratulations on making the big decision to see our beautiful country. The planning itself is a long journey, but it’s well worth the wait when you get there (trust me).
The big question we’ll be covering today is whether it’s worthwhile to travel full-time with an ensuite or portable toilet and shower option.
If you ask me it’s a pretty important decision...
A weekend or even up to a week without a shower is totally manageable, but trust me when I say it’s a little bit different when it’s now your life. One thing I will admit to missing from a house is a decent shower, or more simply having a regular shower.
Before you even begin to consider an ensuite or portable toilet and shower option – you will have to make the big decision on your home on wheels:
What Will Your Travel Set Up Be?
Will you be living in a caravan, camper trailer, tent, swag, rooftop tent, slide-on camper, bus, etc?
With most of those options, you’ll have the space for a toilet and shower however some of those options are pretty limited when you add in all the rest of your gear (for example a ute/4WD with a swag/tent or rooftop tent may not have the space).
You really have to weigh up whether the 1 rego and cheaper fuel bill with those smaller setups outweigh the need for facility campsites.
Once you’ve answered that question – the next one you have to ask yourself:
How Will You Be Travelling Around Australia?
Again, there are so many options:
Caravan parks, off-grid remote locations, national parks, free campgrounds, paid camp grounds, etc.
If you’re planning to stay at places with facilities – you won’t need your own toilet and shower. However, if like us you plan to go “off grid” as much as possible, keep on reading.
The Pros and Cons of Toilet and Shower
Once you have the answer to how you’ll be travelling Australia full-time – lets get into the pros and cons of having your own toilet and shower on the road:
Shower Pros
- Ability to go off-grid
- Cheaper camp sites (especially in the high tourist areas)
- No need to line up to use the shower
- You know your facilities are cleaned regularly
- No need to wear thongs in the shower
- No sifting through campsites on all the apps to find one with facilities
Shower Cons
- Higher water capacity required
- Extra weight (whether you have an ensuite or portable options), which in turn means higher fuel cost
- If it’s a gas hot water system, this will also be an additional running cost for gas replacements
- For an ensuite you have a higher risk of internal leaks
- Extra set up
Toilet Pros
- Ability to go off-grid
- No need to go for the dreaded late-night toilet walk
- No waiting in lines
- Cheaper campsites
Toilet Cons
- Emptying the waste (if you know, you know) – it’s definitely the dreaded chore in our house
- Carting the toilet & added chemicals – again this is extra weight and fuel consumption
- Extra set up
Our Toilet & Shower Set-Up
For now, we have a portable toilet and shower. We’ve upgraded our toilet for this larger canister system and it works with no need for improvement. However, we are still working on perfecting our shower system.
We started with a gas hot water system (similar to this one), a shower pole and a shower head. As great as the shower experience was (once we perfected the gas hot water) we soon realised this used WAY too much water.
This called for the purchase of a canvas shower bag.
The shower bag is great for the conservation of water but our pop-up ensuite that came with our Black Series Dominator Camper Trailer isn’t high enough for us to shower comfortably.
This basically means our showers (which are already extremely rugged) are spent bent over… yeah, like I said we’re still perfecting this.
Do we use our shower and toilet at every campsite?
The answer is no. If we stay somewhere with facilities, you know we are not setting up the toilet and shower.
We only have these so we can go off the grid as much as possible, however with our pretty awful shower set up we do look for a facility site every few stops.
And it’s honestly such an effort to set up, so we do avoid it at all costs.
Generally, when going off grid we try to conserve our water as much as possible (100L goes quicker than you think).
So, by about day 4 (especially with no swimming options), we’re ready to head back into town for that much-needed clean-off.
Would We Travel Australia Full-Time Without A Toilet and Shower?
We did a lot of research on this topic and it seems to be a complete personal experience. Some people are happy with a quick bucket wipe over or digging a hole toilet BUT for me, I can safely say without a doubt – I couldn’t travel full-time without a toilet or shower.
There’s been many times we’ve been in remote locations in the blistering sun, covered in sweat and craving just a quick shower to rinse our bodies.
So, we will 100% be finding a new shower solution to enjoy our time on the road better. And there is no chance in hell we’d start again without having a comfortable shower for when we need it.
As mentioned previously, if the campsite has a toilet and shower, we won’t set up our ensuite. However, if you purchase a caravan with an ensuite – you may just avoid facilities at all costs.
We’ve also been lucky enough to stumble across some free shower facilities, but some will charge as much as $5 a minute… And I don’t know about you, but we are way too tight to pay $10 for a quick rinse-off.
Our Final Thoughts
When it comes to planning your set up, there are so many options for every single category to work out. And honestly, you might think something is a great option but until you’re living the lifestyle, you really don’t know.
Remember, most towns have shops, so you can modify your set up along the way. We certainly have with A LOT of aspects in our portable home on wheels.
If you’re someone who needs to shower to feel clean and plan on spending as much time in free or low cost camp sites, I’d highly recommend considering a toilet and shower option. But if you plan on staying at caravan parks and facility based camp sites, it may not be necessary.
Let us know in the comments below if you have a different opinion about whether travelling Australia full-time requires a toilet and shower option!
