Toilets are necessities, but they can also be things of beauty. Lonely Planet collects more than 100 around the world inside its new “Toilets: A Spotter’s Guide,” which features photographs and stories about the places we all use at one time or another.

The ultra-modern men’s restroom at the Sony Center in Berlin. (Werner Monatsspruch / 500px)

“Whatever you prefer to call them -- lavatory, loo, bog, khasi, thunderbox, dunny, washroom or water closet -- toilets are a (sometimes opaque, often wide-open) window into the secret soul of a destination,” the introduction reads.

Who could resist seeking out a fountain made of 10,000 toilets, sinks and urinals at Shiwan Park in Foshan, China. (Al Sol / 500px)


With that in mind, the guide goes on to display photos of toilets that, um, will make you want to go -- visit, that is.

An outhouse with a view, which flushes itself twice a day. It’s on the shoreline of Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands) in British Columbia, Canada. (Chris Kolaczan / 500px)

The visual journey will take you to remote, snowy high points as well as urban sites. (Take a look at 16 of them in the photo gallery above.)

Toilets next to the road in Chott el Djerid, a large former salt lake in southern Tunisia. The ancient lake bed was the setting for Luke Skywalker’s boyhood home in the 1977 “Star Wars” movie, according to the guide. (Lucio Valmaggia /500px)


There’s a toilet on its own island off the coast of Belize; a loo inside London’s Shard skyscraper that offers breathtaking views of the city; two designed as grass shacks on a Brazilian beach; and lobster loos (designed like two claws) in Wellington, New Zealand.

“Toilets: A Spotter’s Guide” is now available and costs $11.99 for a paperback version. (Lonely Planet)

Fifteen toilets in the U.S. are featured in the book. Among them are a vintage watch tower on Alcatraz Island, and a lone restroom in the California ghost town of Bodie.

The paperback is available now for $11.99.


Info: “Toilets: A Spotter’s Guide”

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