Towels

[hilary]

Recently I was in a travel store checking out gear and noticed that you can buy travel towels for a lot of money.

However, when I went to Australia I used a couple of cotton sarongs as towels. They do a great job plus in a warm climate they dry really quickly just spread over the top of my bag or hung up. They're also a lot cheaper and can be used as a shawl, cover-up, and even a light blanket.

[Reditor]

A note on the quick dry travel towels .... they are reat, but if you're going somewhere with salt water, these thigns tend to STINK once they've gottten wet and dried a couple times (whether you use them to dry yourself as well or not....girls, guys, anyone I know that has used one had this problem)

A mild irritant to some, but a drawback to others.

[Rob]

The quick-dry towel seem like a waste of money to some people, and some of them are. There are a few companies that make far superior towels than other companies. I use on my trips (by Aquis) thats one of the best, and I've never had a problem with it smelling bad.
They are also not supposed to just be quick drying, but ultra absorbant.

You could find the towel I use on my website.

Rob
http://www.jet-setter.ca

[kangaa]

As a veteran traveller who has never taken a full size towel and has spent up to 9 months on road at one time and typically on the move every other day - this is my experience -

The "towelling" style microfibre travel towels are great (the other chamois ones and "smooth" ones are not so good). They absorb heaps, can be rinsed, rung out and then packed damp - but best in some ventilation to strart drying - that is why they come in mesh bags. If I'm in dusty conditions they stay inside the pack, but I pull them out for air/some drying out when out of the dust/dirt.

They work better in humid environments.

Before these things I used a lightweight cotton sarong (which is btw the absolute best thing for beaches because sand shakes right out of them - but they blow away in the wind really really easily!) and used to take a small "mitt" washer and a small hand-towel. The washer to get the water droplets off and then use the towel/sarong to get nice and dry.

In humid enviromnents cottons just don't dry quickly and they do get smelly if packed. The synthetic expensive ones also don't dry, but they still absorb and dry. I haven't had trouble with "stink" from them, only the old cotton stuff.

In dry environments (such as parts of Australia/Africa) the sarong, travel towels dry like lightning, but normal terry towling takes a lot longer AND is heavy when damp.

So now I use the synthetic travel towel in the "bathrooms" and the sarong in outside bathing/swimming. A sarong is also a great sheet, modesty thing, laundry bag etc.

[samtheman]

a towel what is that again, been on the road for over 3 years now, and never had my own...

[sandra_gal101]

At the risk of sounding like a spammer, I will suggest a travel towel which I have used on several occasions.

It's like a sarong, but since it's terry cloth you can actually use it to dry yourself, and it can be used like a beach towel. I've used mine for quite some time and although it does not dry as fast as a microfibre sarong, since it is organic cotton, it does dry reasonably fast.

Anyway, it's called the Towelini and you can get it online at http://www.towelini.com/

[littleengine]

All this towel stuff is a bit confusing... what works best where? I'll be heading to Central America in the fall (rainy season and humid at the best of times) so I'll need something both absorbant and fast drying. I saw one at MEC, the Bilt Designs Microfibre Towel, that says it's microfibre, but has a more terry cloth look and feel to it. Does anyone have any experience using this one? I bought one for a previous trip to Belize... a rougher blue chamois like one... I don't think that one worked so well so I don't want to run out and buy the wrong one for where I'm going and waste more money.

[sinecure]

We took the Bilt and the Adventure Towel's to Asia, and the Adventure Towel's out preformed the bilt by quite a bit.

[Dennis]

do they supply beach towels around the pool

[mrzeszow]

This all depends on where you're going and the hotel you're staying at. For the most part, I would say no. But I have seen sometimes you can pay extra for a towel. Usually your hotel has towels in the room (depending on what style of tour you take) and we would just take those with us to the pool.

[marwin24]

it has some draw back as well as good drawback is u now best quality if so its wastage of money and also spread particles and gems. it good when u have reactive water absorbent towel it help u wear like a blanket its work three in one. save money.

[jenington]

K, so I'm on my way to south africa for 6m of backpacking. I got the towel, hopefully it will do the trick because its the most expensive towel I've ever bought, but I'm also looking for a sleep sack. Whats the scoop with these things? It seems to me that being all cooped up like a 'mummy' would be uncomfortable. Not to boot, but unless I order off line, They're around $80 canadian. ouch?! Any thoughs or advice?

[sinecure]

Are you talking about the liner sheets? Like this http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442412559&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302701579&bmUID=1257064329883

[ExplorerWannaBe]

jenington --

Usually sleep sacks refer to the sleeping bag liners or sheet-thin sacks used in warm climates (or when you're not too sure about the hotel's sheets). I think you mean a real sleeping bag complete with insulation liners. You generally get what you pay for but there are a lot of good ones available online for $50-100 US as long as you're willing to get closeout models.

Most of the sleeping bags are fairly roomy, even the mummy styles. The mummy styles are generally designed to give you a balance between elbow room and minimizing the dead air space you have to warm up with your body heat. I once thought I might find mummy bags claustrophobic but have found they don't bother me at all (of course I've been camping with the Boy Scouts for 30 years now so YMMV).

I suggest a good quality sleeping bag with polyester insulation (down gets heavy and loses insulative value if it gets wet). For 3-season camping, I'd suggest something rated to at least 0 C, preferably -5 C -- you can always open up some zippers or even sleep on top of it if the weather is warm.

[ballu]

The link sinecure posted is the one I have...it squeezes down to about the size of a softball.