Towels

Like a devout "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" fan, I've been pondering this a lot myself: towel, or not towel? Big, or small? Washcloth? The joy of hygiene... Pre-trip butterflies.

The answer, twenty years of hostels later: yes towel, small, microfibre, and skip the washcloth.

Microfibre had only just arrived when this was written and it settled the argument. A medium one packs down to the size of a fist, weighs a couple of hundred grams, and dries in an afternoon on the back of a chair, which is the entire point. A cotton towel in a pack is a wet cotton towel in a pack by the second day.

Two things worth knowing. Go one size up from whatever seems sensible, because the small ones are technically adequate and genuinely miserable. And microfibre goes sour if you keep packing it damp, which every hostel-hopping trip guarantees you will; wash it hot occasionally, without fabric softener, which clogs the fibres and is why the towel stops absorbing.

The reason to carry one at all has not changed either. Plenty of hostels now include linen and charge for a towel, some charge for both, and the ones that do not charge are usually the ones where you would rather have your own.

Posted 28 May 2003 by Ant in BootsnAll Travel Community · updated by Chris