We evaluated this handy portable bidet because once you’re used to using a bidet, it’s hard to go without one on the go
It takes a little work to get the angle right, but the Tushy Travel Bidet does its job.
By Jodhaira Rodriguez
I was bidet-curious for a long time before I finally decided to buy a bidet attachment for my apartment. Until then, I had never used one before and the little I knew about them I learned from videos on social media of people encountering them for the first time IRL while traveling to countries where they are more common.
Almost instantly, I knew I would never go back to regular ol’ toilet paper. I felt cleaner after going to the restroom, was buying less toilet paper, and having less discomfort that often accompanies frequent trips to the bathroom.
I try to avoid going to public restrooms unless it is absolutely necessary. On the occasions that I do go, I’ve always felt uncomfortable post-bathroom trip. That not totally clean feeling made me feel gross. Could everyone around me tell that I had just gone number two?
I’d never considered a travel bidet, or even known they existed, until I came across a travel bidet from Tushy, the same brand that makes the bidet attachment I own.
For a month, I traveled around NYC with my bright pink travel bidet in tow, hoping that maybe I could feel a little less self-conscious about using a public restroom when I needed to.
How the Tushy Travel Bidet Works
The $25 Travel Bidet is a collapsible 11-fluid-ounce silicone bottle. When collapsed, it is about 2.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall. When fully expanded, it is 5.75 inches tall. The bidet comes with a small black pouch for storage and a carabiner to attach it to your bag.
Before you enter a bathroom stall, you unscrew the top, expand the bottle, and fill it with water from the bathroom sink. After you do your business, you flip the nozzle up, aim for your butt, and squeeze. If one squirt of water is not enough, you release and re-squeeze for a second stream of water. The last step is just emptying the bottle of any leftover water and then replacing it in its storage bag. There is no need for batteries or recharging because it is a totally manual bidet.
My Experience With the Tushy Travel Bidet
Initial thoughts: I didn’t have any major travel plans while evaluating the Tushy Travel Bidet, so I took it with me everywhere (as long as it fit in the bag I was using that day). I was worried that I’d feel uncomfortable taking the bidet into the bathroom with me at work, but the black storage bag doesn’t give away what’s inside. On my first trip to the bathroom with the travel bidet, I wasn’t sure what to do with the bottle. Do I hold it in my hand? Do I place it on the floor? I opted for the first option because bathroom floors are gross.
Target practice: The first couple of times that I used it, I had a hard time figuring out what angle to hold the bottle at to avoid spraying water all over my legs. I spent an extra couple of minutes in the bathroom drying myself off with toilet paper after each visit until I got the hang of it. If I had been in a bathroom with other occupied stalls, I’d have felt a little bit embarrassed at splashing water all over the place.
As my aim got better, I stopped having this issue. After the third or fourth trip to the bathroom with the travel bidet, I knew exactly how to hold and squeeze the bottle to avoid getting any water on the floor or on myself. You do have to move a little quickly as you get into position, as water starts coming out of the three holes in the nozzle as soon as you turn the bottle upside down.
When I wasn’t spilling water all over myself, I just used a few squares of toilet paper to dry myself off after using the travel bidet. This was a huge improvement to the usual three wraps around my hand worth I use when I don’t have a bidet around.
Water pressure: If I had to name just one thing that I didn’t totally love about the travel bidet, it would be the water pressure. Compared with my bidet at home, the water that shoots out of the travel bidet isn’t very strong. Maybe if I had more strength in my hands I could give the bottle a squeeze hard enough to get a little more pressure, but as it stands, the stream feels pretty light. Still, this is an easy issue to remedy. Instead of just one squeeze, I pressed on the bottle two, sometimes three times before I felt totally clean.
Water temperature: When I was shopping for a bidet for my bathroom, I opted for the Tushy Classic because it required very minimal plumbing work to install. Because of this, my bathroom bidet only provides blasts of cold water. I loved being able to choose the water temperature when I filled my travel bidet at the sink. The more I use it, the more I wish I had gone with a bidet that could be hooked up to hot water. After a day around the city using my travel bidet with warm water, coming home to my classic bidet with cold water is not pleasant.
Storage and portability: It’s super-lightweight, so it didn’t add any noticeable extra weight to my bag. Though I emptied the bottle each time I used it before storing it back in the storage pouch in my handbag, I worried that I’d find my things wet the next time I reached in for something. This was never the case, and the bottle itself was almost totally dry again each time I used it.
The Tushy Travel Bidet collapses and expands easily.
Photo: Consumer Reports
Are Bidets Better for You Than Wipes?
The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) doesn’t have an official position on bidets and wet wipes. Mark Pimentel, MD, a spokesperson for the AGA, did say that because bidets help cut back on the amount of toilet paper being used, there is an environmental benefit to using them. In my own home, I noticed that I was restocking my toilet paper a lot less frequently after I installed a bidet in the bathroom. And the discomfort I had been feeling due to excessive wiping was gone within a few days of using the bidet.
“Regarding wipes vs. bidets, the bidet is an endless amount of cleaning and so it is likely you can achieve the level of cleaning that you want,” says Pimentel. “With wipes, it can require multiple towelettes to achieve a similar goal. While there is a larger up-front cost to getting a bidet in the home, towelettes cost can add up as well.”
The Bottom Line
I won’t leave home for the corner store without a Tushy Travel Bidet anymore. I don’t expect to have to go every time I leave the house, but if I do, I want to feel as clean as I do when I go at home. It doesn’t provide the water pressure that my at-home bidet gives me, but it’s better than using sheets on sheets of the itchy stuff you find in some public restrooms.
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