See also Stay safe below

Once you've found the appropriate rooms, you're often faced with a new quandary: which one is for men, which one for women?

Fortunately, many parts of the world use familiar pictograms depicting a stylized man and woman. Although you can debate the nuances of the gender expressions these pictograms portray, they're undoubtedly the most useful method for most people. The Mars and Venus symbols (for men and women respectively) are an abstract equivalent. There are other varieties, such as rooster and hen, sometimes used in Finland.

Failing that, you'll usually have to rely on written language. You should learn to recognize the common words written in the language of the places you'll be visiting. Sometimes the first letter of the respective word may be used, either of the local words or a lingua franca.

A few places like to be cute or pretentious with their labels, not realizing the difficulty this might cause for foreigners. Restaurants tend to be the most frequent offenders; instead of the straightforward words "men" and "women", some real-life examples include "guys"/"gals", "hommes"/"femmes" at a French restaurant (in an English-speaking country) and "Zeus"/"Hera" at a Greek restaurant. Assuming you don't know enough of the locally known languages to recognize the word or ask, and don't have Internet access to quickly look it up, you have only a couple of options:

• Take an educated guess. For example, "gentlemen" contains the word "men" while "ladies" doesn't. In Japan, you might notice that 婦 ("lady") and 嬢 ("young lady") are made using the base character 女 ("woman").
• Wait for someone else to come along, and follow them.
• Go inside, and hope it's apparent which one you're in or that people do not mind your using it regardless (as often if it is for use by one person at the time).

Users with a disability or handicap usually require special care, such as a space large enough to fit a wheelchair adjacent to the toilet.

In some countries this is mandated by law, and any restroom (or perhaps restrooms above a certain size) must cater to disabled users.

Larger public spaces may also have a dedicated accessible restroom, which is its own one-person room separate from the men's and women's rooms. It can be used by any gender, and often doubles as a family restroom for changing babies or helping young children who need to be accompanied.

In some countries the accessible toilets are reserved for those needing them, in others, there is no problem in anybody using them, as long as you don't inconvenience those whom they are there for.

The accessible toilets often have an alarm function, such as a red button or a bell-cord (often both, the latter reachable from the floor). You might want to check whether there is a button for marking the incident as handled, in case you invoke the alarm by accident – especially if you visit the toilet with a toddler.

Babies have business to do, too, and this means parents have to find someplace to put them in fresh diapers/nappies.

Some public toilets provide baby changing stations, either in the common area of the room or inside a stall. Accessible or family restrooms are also likely to have changing stations. This is often a tray that folds out from the wall, or sometimes just an alcove that doesn't seem to have any other designated function.

Unfortunately, it's not often marked whether restrooms contain a changing station, so you may have to just enter the restroom to find out. Sometimes there's one only in the women's room; tough luck if you're a man.

Failing all other options, it should be acceptable to change babies on the sink counter. At least there if you make a mess, it will be easy to clean up.

Many countries have public toilets with attendants. Usually the attendants are helpful and able to indicate what and where. If you don't speak the same languages, then you'll probably be stuck using hand signals and gestures to identify where to go, how much to pay, and what the requirements for men and women are.

The flush toilet, a familiar sight in many countries, is the most widely used type of toilet that you sit on. Not all sitting toilets flush; portable toilets collect waste at the bottom to be removed later, and latrines and outhouses may simply leave waste to be naturally decomposed.

A western-style toilet has a U-shaped or O-shaped seat; toilets in private homes also have a lid, but public restrooms generally don't. The seat can be raised to get it out of the way and expose a larger opening of the bowl, which men are supposed to do when they urinate standing up facing the toilet.

Regardless of the previous person's etiquette, it's not uncommon for the seat to be dirty. Hopefully this is just a bit of liquid (and it really might just be water, particularly if there's a sink adjacent). If it looks clean and dry, it still harbors germs as any surface touched by a lot of people does, but rest assured: toilet seats are not a common source of infection, as many germs can't survive long on the toilet seat and they'd have a hard time infecting you when you sit down anyway. In any case, some people prefer to wipe the seat with toilet paper before sitting, or lay toilet paper or a special paper seat cover down to sit on. The seat covers are particularly nice because they are designed to get pulled away automatically when the toilet is flushed.

A seatless toilet has no toilet seat. It may be found in certain European and Latin American countries. Structurally sound and hard rim of a porcelain toilet bowl still allows sitting on it. Use caution not to fall down into the bowl.

Most men are likely already familiar with urinals, sometimes called pissoirs if they're outdoors, which allow urination while standing up. They are simple, quick to use, and require little or no water. Common types vary by region: individual urinals (with or without privacy dividers) versus troughs of varying designs. In some places urinals are also available in a (slightly different looking) female version that accommodates the female anatomy. Several devices have also been invented to allow people with female genitalia to use "male" urinals, though they are not widespread or even commonly known. Events where many people have to use toilets primarily to urinate have experimented with female urinals to cut down on cost for full scale portable toilets and on wait times, and you might consider using them or bringing equipment for using the male version if you intend to go to such an event, e.g. a big music festival.

Although it now seems foreign to much of the world, squatting was historically the most common way to go, and is still fairly common in East Asian countries. It has the advantage of not touching any part of the toilet (or ground, or anything else), so it can actually be more sanitary. These days, squat flush toilets, or "squat pots", are common in industrialized countries that still prefer squatting.

If you haven't used one, it's fairly simple. In a flush squat toilet, there's a curved "hood", which is the front of the toilet. Pull your pants down to your knees, and squat facing the front. Get closer to the hood than it looks like you need to, or else you might miss. To keep your balance, there may be a handle in front you can hold on to. Just don't hold onto the plumbing, lest you break it and drench yourself.

Hovering, half-squatting or semi-squatting over a toilet uncomfortably presses the lower body, so the elimination cannot be complete. Yet as of 2017, all female urinals available on the western market would be wall-mounted and used by hovering. Thus hovering over a toilet should better be limited to dire necessity. Remember to maintain balance. After hovering this time, better try not to hover again next time.

Non-flushing toilets are mostly found in less developed regions, but they still find limited use also in advanced countries.

Campgrounds, natural parks and cottages sometimes have outhouses, standalone buildings containing just a toilet. The toilet may also be integrated with a woodshed or other building, with its own entrance. Outhouses were the norm until modern plumbing and sewers took over. Festivals and special events often use portable outhouses, portable toilets, often called porta-potties or by trademarked names like Portaloo.

Some of these toilets, typically at least the portable ones, have chemical disinfectants. These are used the same way as normal Western sitting toilets, except you don't have to flush afterwards. They are designed to be emptied quite often.

In the case of dry toilets there is often a bucket with some material for covering the litter, such as saw dust, peat or chalk. In high-tech versions (sometimes used indoors instead of normal toilets for ecological reasons) there is a handle or pedal to use instead, to remove the litter from sight and mix it with this material. In some dry toilets urine is separated, either by having a separate collector in the front end or by use of a lever or similar. Small amounts of liquid do no harm in the separating versions, do not worry, but do your best.

This is a fairly common way to cleanse one's bottom. You're probably already familiar with it.

In some countries such as Greece and Turkey or most of Central and South America, you may see toilets with a small trash can next to the toilet. Take this as a sign that the plumbing will clog if you flush toilet paper. In such cases, put used toilet paper (and only used toilet paper) into the trash can. In some countries (e.g. Finland) the can is primarily for sanitary napkins and you should flush toilet paper.

Paper other than toilet paper, such as paper towels also provided in many toilets, is not designed to be flushed. There is probably a wastepaper basket for these.

Contrary to their name, flushable wipes/wet wipes are often not really flushable in many sewer systems, and can lead to clogs.

In some European countries, a bidet (pronounced bih-DAY) is common. This is a fixture (usually separate from the toilet) for spraying your bottom with water to clean it.

In many other countries, from the Middle East through East Asia, a bidet shower or health faucet is common. This is a hand-held spray nozzle that you can reach from the toilet, as opposed to a separate fixture.

In Japan, a high-tech version, often called a "Washlet" after the most popular brand, is very common. This kind is integrated into the toilet seat, and has a control panel attached or mounted on the wall. When you activate it, a robotic arm will extend to provide the cleaning function. High-end units have additional features such as heated seats, blow drying, and controls for the pressure and temperature of water.

In other areas, a simple pail of water is used. In South Asia, it's called a lota, and it usually has a spout like a watering can. (A squeeze bottle can also serve as a good substitute.) In the Philippines, a tabo is a dipper kept in a bucket of water which is used for cleaning yourself, flushing the toilet, and cleaning the floor; be sure to check upon entering the toilet that there's enough water in the bucket.

In many parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, you use your hands to clean your bottom after first washing it with water. Although you rinse your bottom first, and wash your hands after. In some regions, there are still taboos that insist you reserve one hand (usually left) for this purpose, and use only your right hand for other actions such as eating, writing, or handshaking.

Disposable paper towels are the most hygienic way to dry your hands afterwards. Cloth towels with any section used just once before being washed are even better; often-changed ordinary towels are quite good also. Blow dryers are touted as being more economical, but studies have generally shown that they're also effectively high-speed germ blowers.

As with toilet paper, some public restrooms may not have a way to dry your hands, neither towels nor blow dryers. This is particularly common in China and Japan. In such cases, you can let your hands drip dry, or use the same tissues passed out as advertisements as mentioned above regarding toilet paper.

Eventually children become old enough to use public toilets unsupervised, but there's no agreed-upon age at which this happens; depending on the parent and child it could be any age from 4 to 10. It may depend on the situation, too; a huge busy toilet at a sports arena is a very different environment from one in an uncrowded restaurant.

This can be tricky when a solo parent has to accompany their child of the opposite gender, and single-occupancy or family toilets aren't available. Probably the most common solution is to take children into the toilet matching the parent's gender. Less common is for the parent to enter the toilet matching the child's gender; to avoid alarming other adults (particularly for men entering the women's room), it may be wise to take some precautions such as checking if the toilets are empty, making an announcement like "Dad and daughter coming in", or leaving doors open so it's apparent that you're there.

When children are old enough to go solo but not completely unsupervised, you might want to give some advice to them before they go, and talk to them from the doorway so they know you're present if they need help and you know they're safe. You could ask employees or security guards to assist your child, which is probably safer than making the same request of total strangers who happen to be the right gender. However, actual cases of children coming to harm from being unsupervised in toilets are extraordinarily rare, so such measures are likely overprotective.

Transgender travellers have an additional difficulty to face: the consequences for being caught using the "wrong" restroom.

Policies about this vary wildly, and there is much ongoing social and political debate. Ultimately, travellers should be sure to educate themselves about the local laws and attitudes towards public toilet use vis-a-vis transgender people.

Family/accessible restrooms are a welcome sight here: since they're single-occupancy and designed to be used by any gender, they can be safely used by anybody (although staff may want to reserve the accessible toilets for the disabled). Also other single occupancy toilets are often gender neutral. Gender-neutral shared toilets (with multiple cubicles) are also becoming more common in some countries.