I know some people find glass doors difficult to clean but I think I hate grout more. How large would the tiles be and would the grout lines be grid-like?

I don't think glass or tile would make any difference in terms of warmth in the shower since either tile or glass could go to the ceiling.

My shower was converted from a bath/shower combination so follows that kind of configuration - i.e. is a rectangle rather than a square.

I recently remodeled and have tiled walls to the ceiling on three walls. I have a frameless shower glass door on one of the long walls. The door doesn't go to the ceiling but has a smallish gap on the top. The fixed portion of the glass does go to the ceiling.

I have a large comfortable built in bench which I use whenever I shower and my shower gets lovely and steamy and warm almost immediately so it's very relaxing just to sit in there.

My choice was pretty obvious since the other side of the wall has my toilet and it would have made no design sense to have a glass wall so my toilet is exposed in my small urban bathroom. This way my toilet is in somewhat of a hidden nook behind the tiled wall.

ETA - I opted for Showerguard for my glass and it's incredibly easy to keep clean. I just hose it down with my hand held shower head after I shower to get rid of any blotches of shampoo or conditioner. I have also learned on this forum that one should use liquid soap as bar soap is responsible for causing scum buildup - not that I ever used bar soap in the shower anyway since I love shower gels.

We were told to use combo of vinegar and water to clean our shower glass doors.....and NEVER EVER anything else. So far so good. But the after every shower squeegee business is a pain. If your water “spots”, that squeegee is a must-do. So, the less glass the better.

We used to squeegee, too, but got lazy in our middle age. I don't see myself getting more energetic as the years go by, so yeah, whatever makes cleaning easier, I'm game!

tartanmeup, I'm aiming for as large tile as I can get away with, mainly for the grout issue. I look at subway tiles (with all that grout) and tremble!

Squeegeeing after every shower was definitely NOT something I would do and so I planned accordingly when I remodeled - it was a non-starter. I have a squeegee for the housekeeper to use if I need to actually clean the glass.

So far the Showerguard is performing as advertised as there is nothing to squeegee as my glass dries without any spotting or streaking.

My experience; a whole-house water softener, "gel" soap (as opposed to "bar" soap) and a quick wipe down with a microfiber cloth after use keeps shower glass spot free...no "cleaning" needed for months.

I would think glass is probably easier to clean but I think I like the look of tile in the bathroom better.

I opted for large tiles (2'x2') and a curtain. No glass to clean. I would have done corian or similar on the walls for no grout lines, but didn't have luck pursuing that approach in our area. Life is short and cleaning sucks.

Rain glass. Any spots show a lot less than plain clear glass. Both are easier to clean than tile with grout.

I converted the original master bath's builder's special shower - 4 1/2' x 2 1/2-3' with built-in seat on one short wall, 3 tiled walls and a glass door - to a walk-in shower that is 5 1/2' x 3'-4 1/2'. No glass and the 30" opening does not have a threshold and is ADA compliant. (We live in an active adult community and I did that for resale.)

Although people warned me it would happen, I've never been cold. I stand in the "dry" end to towel off so I'm still in the warm air of the shower.

I was definitely working on a budget and kept the original shower space with seat, just lengthened it with new extended wall on one side. We have 10' ceilings and I ran the tile to 8'. No fancy tile inserts or decorative glass tiles, etc.

Used a "plain" blue/gray 12" x 24" tile for the walls and seat and a coordinating 2" x 2" tile with more colors in kind of wavy lines on the floor in a criss-cross pattern that looks mosaic. And gray grout !!

Easy peasy to clean and the colors, picked specifically to not scream "clean me!", could be called plain but all who have seen it are excited about anything that is not the beige tiles the developer used everywhere. I used Kohler antique bronze fixtures and they look great against the blue/gray. The remaining floor in the bathroom is 12" x 24" wavy lines tile. In other words, I got what I wanted - updated and looks good bathroom with no glass/no grout to clean - without lots of fancy tile work.

In another standard 5' x 7' bathroom with tub/shower that we did at the same time (both were gutted to the studs but I didn't move plumbing in either one), I used 12" x 12" white tile with a very dark gray grout. Super expensive multi-color glass mosaic tile - little tiny squares - just in the shower niche and as backsplash to the green glass top of the vanity (vanity and top ordered online, not expensive!). And a colorful shower curtain.

I never wanted to see white grout again. Except...I have it in my kitchen (another gut job) with glass tile and most definitely used epoxy grout there.

Can't recommend epoxy grout enough but can't stress enough that you have to make sure your tile installer knows what he/she is doing. It's like bubblegum and dries almost immediately.

I cannot and will not give up my pink Camay bar soap, however. I do have to clean up the pink spots on the tile but I can live with that. ;)

as jslazart said, check out "corian or similar". It is what we have and it is the best decision made for our showers. Our goal was similar - minimize maintenance.

I think it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

You should probably prioritize the design and the look that you like. If it is built with quality materials and you have an experienced, quality tile pro, you will have a well-built shower that is not hard to clean. The most important thing is the waterproofing.

We have 12 x 24 tiles, a pony wall with glass above that goes to ceiling, a glass door with tilting transom window above, and a tiled ceiling.

For any glass, get the factory-applied treatment on the glass. I've never had to scrub the grout. I do wipe down the glass *sometimes* but DH does not. We leave the door open inward, and transom open, with the exhaust fan running after the shower. If you want warmth, you have the option of running the glass (or tile) all the way the ceiling, tiling the ceiling, and putting a tilting transom window above your shower door. If you want, you can be all closed up to get a nice build up of steam, or you can leave the transom open and run the exhast fan to limit the steam build up. I find it helpful to allow the door to swing in and out (same hinges, just that the stops are not put in); that way any drips fall onto the shower floor, and the door isn't open to your bathroom, so it doesn't crowd your space.

I think it's code almost everywhere that shower doors have to open out. If one swings both ways (pun intended), that probably meets code.

The easiest to clean is one piece fiberglass/vinyl or what ever they are made of. No grout, no caulking, no water spots. But if glass or tile is your only choice I would go with the glass. At least you don't have to scrub grout lines with a toothbrush.

Yes it meets code because it can open either way. We prefer this because we like to leave the door open after showering and we don't want it sticking out into the room.

I mentioned it to the OP because they said they like the shower to be warm. One way to make it warm is to take glass to ceiling so it's all closed up. But that also means it's going to get extra steamy in there, so you want to vent it out really well afterwards. For that, we find it helpful to leave the door open inward.

AJCN, I actually forgot (until now) that we will have a raised/sloped ceiling in the master, so probably not going to be able to have glass up to the ceiling. You have a tiled ceiling? Wow. Photo?

Mittens:

I’m not home right now, but I can take a picture tomorrow.

Our bathroom ceiling is flat, but the shower ceiling is sloped.

Is this a remodel or a new build? Do you have a drawing you can post? I know you initially asked about cleaning, so sorry if I’ve taken your post off track. I wanted to address your comment about warmth. Your shower can still be plenty warm with normal glass that doesn’t go to the ceiling, for sure more warm than being open. Taking glass and tile to the ceiling adds cost, but that’s what we wanted.

We've had a steam shower, custom built, with a steam generator, tiled up to and including the ceiling. Used frosted glass with lines (have to find a photo somewhere - Kohler made a similar glass) that looked fine on the outside, lol, because the "frosting" hid the interior.

AJCN, this master bathroom is a new build (part of a remodel + addition). Right now, the master bath is still just slab and frame, but our GC is just back from a 3-week vacation and I'd promised I'd have all these decisions made by the time he returned. Oops.

Anyway, this photo doesn't show the ceiling unfortunately (though I think it's only about 9 feet high where the shower is located--in the corner on the right. The shower will be about 4'x3' and will be next to a built-in tub that will be 60"x32" (I think).

We're going to do a couple of radiant heat mats on this bathroom floor, so I think we'll survive the winters...here in SoCal. :)