BootsnAll Travel Community

I've used those small quick-dry travel towels before and other than being small and drying quickly, I wasn't please with their performance for anything other than being quick drying. They're not terribly comfortable use in wiping down and you cannot use them as a wash cloth for washing your face. In addition, they smell bad after their wet.

Has anyone got a recommendation for a good travel towel or can speak to experience on one?

After 7 years of trying out 3 different quick-dry towel models, I've come to the conclusion that I'm better off packing a thin cotton towel and/or a sarong.

My thin cotton "travel-towel" is just an well-worn 2x3 foot regular bath towel. A bit thin in places, but that just helps speed up drying. The nice part is, that I can use a corner of it as a wash cloth as well.

I agree with you about the "smell factor" which is a pain when traveling long-term. Though I'm sure they're great if you have access to a washing machine to give it a thorough clean once in a while.

BootsnAll is a forum and not a reference library, so I will always encourage unlimited discourse on the issue of towels.

However, if you just want to "cut to the chase", then click here for the 'towel tag' to see what has been said before regarding towels.

Now then: we continue with our regularly scheduled program.

I wonder how well a Shamwow! would work. From what I hear, you'll be saying Wow! every time you use it:

http://www.shamwow.com/

That commercial is on far too often on certain channels.

quote:

Originally posted by Applette:
After 7 years of trying out 3 different quick-dry towel models, I've come to the conclusion that I'm better off packing a thin cotton towel and/or a sarong.

My thin cotton "travel-towel" is just an well-worn 2x3 foot regular bath towel. A bit thin in places, but that just helps speed up drying. The nice part is, that I can use a corner of it as a wash cloth as well.

I agree with you about the "smell factor" which is a pain when traveling long-term. Though I'm sure they're great if you have access to a washing machine to give it a thorough clean once in a while.

Thanks for the tip. Yeah, I've thought about just bringin a plain old regular cotton towel. That might seem to be the best bet and just what is it with quick-dry type materials that make it smell bad after it gets wet?

If you aren't going to the beach, and don't need to wrap up and head out a regular sized cotton hand towel works for getting dried off out of the shower. (Might take some experimenting for the long hairs...)

When you are finished, wring it out as tight as you can and find somewhere to hang it.

You can also squeegee off a good bit of water with your hands to reduce the Total Water Volume, or the Total Towel Work Load. TTWL...

I'm not a huge fan of the microfiber stuff, because salt and soap seem to stay with them forever. Same deal with grease. I'm not sure why they take on that certain odor... Half BO/half chemical waste dump.

quote:

I wonder how well a Shamwow! would work. From what I hear, you'll be saying Wow! every time you use it:

http://www.shamwow.com/

That commercial is on far too often on certain channels.

Ha! That commercial is hilarious...

"You spend $20 a month on paper towels anyway. You're just throwing your money away!!!"

Quick dry camp towels, if they are even a little bit wet when you pack them, will smell HORRIBLE when you unpack them.