In our common area bathroom we have just a handheld in the shower/tub. It's not a huge tub just the standard one piece acrylic variety. I think having both a shwerhead and a handheld would be too much for ours.

Everyone likes the handlheld. It makes it easier to clean and has several settings so you can make it a bit more forceful or more rain like. It's nothing special but we like it. Got it at Home Depot.

In the master bathroom we have a combo system. I really like that as the showerhead is not high enough for me. I tend to use the hand held more.

I should add the in the master bathroom it's a stand alone shower 50" x 50" so there's more wall space for both.

if this is a bathroom that is not used on a regular basis it could work with a really good quality hand held and the tub faucet.
IF it is a daily use I would probably go with all 3.
We have all three in our master but in the others that are not used much we have a really good hand held and the tub faucets.
You can get handhelds now that have a large head and can be almost like a rain shower or switch it to the center jets for a more condensed spray. Almost like 2 in one.
What you might add is another holder for the hand held that is lower down the wall in case you have someone that may need to sit on a bench to shower. I have those in all of my showers, they are suction on so can be put anywhere.
I have to use a shower chair/bench and the lower hand held is exactly what I need.

Thanks for the input. Just the kind of info I am looking for. Any other suggestions/insight will be appreciated as well!

I have a setup similar to Lotteryticket's. Shower over acrylic tub, standard 5-ft. alcove. I went just with the faucet and handheld. After it was all done, I wondered if I should have gotten a plain shower head as well, because my handheld isn't super forceful. But, on further review, I think it's fine the way it is. As someone else mentioned, with an end wall that size, you can get too busy with multiple fixtures.

One thing I do know. I would never be without a handheld. If you can only choose one fixture, get a handheld. It makes quick work of the stuff left behind after a shower.

agree with ravencajun that there are some really nice handhelds out there that rival or even beat a basic fixed head, plus their utility for cleaning is critical to me. Another option is to place the handheld on a slide bar so you can adjust to different heights. This is especially nice for kids or folks with very different heights.

Unless you have a wide tub, I would be inclined to go with a really nice handheld on a bar and the tub spout, otherwise as linelle pointed out it will get busy with so many fixtures.

Plus you will need additional diverter valves and trim for extra fixtures and you may decide that money might be better spent on upgrading the shower head (or some other part of your redo)

We went all out in ours, but it is a good sized shower only - but you can see what it looks like in the picture below with two fixtures on one wall. I forget the exact dimension, but it is probably at least 40" across.

Here is a link that might be useful: Master redo

We plan to do handheld on bar with tub spout. Where should we mount the "drop ell" (where the water comes out of the wall)? Up at the fixed shower head height with the long hose hanging down parallel to the bar? Or lower near the faucet with the bar centered over the faucet?

Thanks for your opinions!

Dianelouise, I would put it where ever I could get the best reach in the shower area. I use mine to hose the area down at times. I would then look at esthetics. I don't have a tub, but put my water outlet for the hand held is at the level of the controls. I have a dedicated shower head up high as well as the hand held. I will mount my hand held on a post and not on a bar. I won't be using the hand held as a wall shower.

This is how mine is set up. I'm not sure why the water comes out where it does (drop ell?), but the location of mine is fine with me.

Linelle, you get a better reach with the hose, with the "ell" in that location, (for cleaning the tub) rather than the location that dianelouise was wondering about - up at the shower head.

BTW Linelle you've got a beautiful tile job in your shower :)

We thought the drop ell location up at the top would allow someone to replace it with fixed if they wanted later. We decided to go with all three just to be safe. No bar on the handheld since there will be fixed. Thanks for your feedback.

We have a tub/shower combo that our two teenage boys share that we are remodeling. One son isn't a hand held kind of guy. The other son LOVES the hand held at his grandparents, so we are doing a shower head like they have (different collection). This is Trinsic by Delta. Many collections carry shower heads with the hand held function.