· We would recommend taking a water purifier. We use a fairly expensive one but each cartridge filters up to 100 gallons, and produces microbiologically pure water. We filter tap water for cleaning teeth and drinking. Bottled water in India is fairly cheap but you need to check that it is in fact sterile, as the caps may have been tampered with. There is also a distressing amount of plastic waste lying around in India and buying plastic bottles adds to this problem.
James & Halcyon Leonard

· For all the effort of filtering water, it is a lot easier to simply buy bottled. It is very cheap and very plentiful, given the amount you will drink in the heat, and most importantly it is more likely to be cold. If you are doing some hardcore trekking then it may be helpful to have a water filter when up in the mountains for example (there is always something following the water further up stream however pure a mountain stream looks!) but for general travelling around India there is always a shop. Make sure, however, that the seal is intact on the bottle (ask the shop keeper / waiter to bring it out unopened) and on glass bottle carbonated water check that the sealed bottle cap matches the brand on the bottle label - unbranded gold caps are evidence of "soda stream" style fill ups potentially from the tap. Check out lime sodas without sugar - fizzy water with fresh lime juice, far more refreshing than filtered water.
Toby Egelnick