I don't think anything is as durable as cast iron. Generally speaking, the Kohler Villager is usually available at HD or Lowes very reasonably. It's quite a low tub, so it might be a good choice for the purposes you mentioned.

For the Princeton and other similar tubs, if you do a search here for Americast you can find plenty of opinions both for and against.

Thanks Writersblock. Since I posted this message I have settled on Kohler cast iron, but not the Villager. I think for this bath I want the Bellwether by Kohler. It is very classic in shape.

If and when I do our 2nd smaller bath I will consider the Villager. The chevron on the Villager will not go with the aesthetics I am aiming for in this rather public bathroom. I used a Villager as a shower/bath installation at a very nice hotel in Minneapolis and would definitely consider it with the next BR job. Very functional.

IIRC, you need to be careful about tub spouts with the Bellwether. I believe that's the one that has a kind of slope in that end that requires a longer spout.

What does this mean - slopes and longer spout? Can you give me more details?

See this thread, for example, and I've seen similar complaints elsewhere.

Thanks Writersblock, I will take that into consideration.

What about the Kohler Mendota cast iron tub, or the Memoirs tub? Or a Toto cast iron tub?

The mendota is pretty normal, as are the toto tubs. American Standard also has a plain old cast iron tub.

The cast iron memoirs is a pretty tub, but it's very expensive and I think it's on the deep side.

Yeah, the memoirs seems deep to me too. Thanks for the info on the mendota.