Why You Should Never Get in a Hot Tub, According to Travel Expert Who Clearly Never Got Laid in Hot Tub

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Most hot tubs are humid, hot, disease-filled cesspools. Don’t get us wrong, if you have one at your home and you take care of it, a hot tub can be one of life’s great joys. There are few things better than enjoying a cigar or glass of Scotch or a frosty beer while you relax the stresses and anxieties of the day away while you soak in hot, bubbly water. When we talk about gross, dirty hot tubs, we’re talking about the unattended, unmaintained Petri dishes found at bargain motels.

If you’ve ever checked into a cheap hotel, dropped all your luggage, and remembered that the sign out front said the motel at a “hot tub”, you know what we’re talking about. That bubbly water is barely covering the horrors below. The water isn’t clean, there’s skin and maybe even a stray band-aid floating on the surface, and all in all, it seems like dipping a single toe into the murky water will guarantee you’ll contract an ancient disease like legionnaires disease or leprosy.

Maybe you think your fear of strange hot tubs is irrational, but a travel expert agrees with you. Susan Griffin writes for 2Chill and recently wrote about the very real consequences of taking a dip in a dirty hot tub at a shady hotel, motel, or AirBnB.

Not only are many of these hot tubs not maintained accordingly, but since you don’t know who used it before you, and if the water has been changed (it probably hasn’t), you might contract a potentially fatal disease. Yes, really.

Hot tubs, with their hot, humid temperatures are the perfect place to breed all of the worst bacteria imaginable. This includes herpes, E.Coli, and even the aforementioned old-timey Legionnaires disease.

All in all, if you’re staying somewhere, ask how the hot tub is maintained. If you’re happy with the answer, hop in. If not, just jump in the pool instead. You’re much less likely (we hope) to contract a rare, disgusting disease.

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