Washing clothes

Donna, do you mean on one of Rick's tours or on your own? Either way, Rick's guidebooks indicate laundromats in most towns and of course you can always wash by hand in your hotel room although in some hotels you would need to "hide" your clothes in the closet so that the staff doesn't get upset that you might be dripping on the carpet.
I try to save my hand wash night for a town where I'll be staying at least 2 nights; I also try to schedule in a laundromat day (or 2) when I'm planning my trips. Rick has some very handy items for clothes care at the "Travel Store" link above!

i haven't taken a rick steve's tour, but on my 2-week trip to spain, i washed my clothes in the hotel and pretty much all the stuff was dry the next morning if i did the washing by the late afternoon that day. i also didn't have one of those nifty micro-fiber towels that you can roll the clothes up in at first to absorb alot of the water.

Finding laundramats is typically not a problem in most places. RS makes note of ones near his hotel neighborhoods and any hotel should be able to guide you to one. The laundramat will sell detergent and usually will have a change machine (but not always - come prepared with plenty of coins). For doing laundry in your room, you can buy individual detergent packages at major retailers like Target in their travel aisle. Or buy a small empty bottle and fill it with detergent before you leave home. Using the bath or bidet is best because sinks can be very small. Hanging to dry is the biggest issue and many rooms don't have portable hangers or a shower curtain bar. You sometimes have to get creative. I typically allow an overnight and day for things to dry so you need a 2-night stay.

Since I normally travel during the warm months, I buy all quick dry blouses and pants. We travel with 2 of the Rick Steves' travel clothes lines, 4-6 hangers and approximately 6-8 clothes pens. We wash in the sink and hang to dry. Our clothes are always dry the next morning. During our 8 week 8 country trip we used a laundry mat once.

Bringing lightweight clothes is good, too. Jeans take forever to dry, even in dryers over there. At least in Germany, their dryers work on lower heat, which is better for your clothes, but takes a lot longer. As long as I'm not traveling when it's cold, I bring a few pair of lightweight pants and light knit shirts that usually dry overnight.

I frequently hand wash in the sink. I use Rick's travel wash. I bought some dry laundry soap "leaves" to save space in my liquids bag, but I was not happy with how they work. I've used microfiber towels to get excess water out, but I've also done without. I have inflatable hangers that can be purchased at a travel store or online. They work great and help clothes dry faster by letting the air circulate. Every 7 - 10 days I will go to a laundry so things can get a thorough wash and to wash pants, since they are not easily sink washed. My real trick is to try to stay in places with a washer, and even better a dryer!

Washing is easy; it's usually drying that's the problem. Matthew's and Andrea's tip - about rolling clothes in a towel after washing- really helps. I also bring quick-dry underwear and socks such as those sold by Tilley's. www.tilley.com

Donna, The "short answer to your question is "Yes". Are you referring to travel on a tour, or on your own? Which countries will you be visiting? I tend to use "travel friendly clothing" Tilley which can be washed in a Hotel room sink if necessary (especially important for underwear and socks). However, I've noticed over the last few years that some Hotels have signs in the rooms expressly forbidding in-room laundry (possibly because previous inconsiderate guests let water drip onto the carpets or whatever). A few Hotels have retractable clotheslines in the showers, which eliminates that problem. In my experience, the laundry facilities vary to some extent by country and locale within the countries. For example, it's fairly easy in Paris and larger towns in Italy to find self-serve laundry facilities. However, this is not so common in the smaller towns. Some places that I visited in Greece this year had no laundry facilities at all! In some towns, the Hotel has arrangements with "service wash" firms which will take laundry and return it the next morning neatly folded and pressed. That's a more expensive method, but often that's the only option. Happy travels!

I roll my clothes in the bathmat. I'd much rather step out onto a damp bathmat after my morning shower than try to dry myself with a damp towel.

RS in his guidebooks lists various laundry locations and the best one I have used is in Lucca when the instructions are in english/italian. These is usually someone to help you and found this nice Italian lady very helpful. Across the street in Lucca was a martini bar that you could wait while doing your clothes. This machine in Lucca had soap included. I usually bring enough clothes to last one week and then wash all my clothes.

Whenever we travel, we always take small baggies filled with laundry soap and dryer sheets. Then, we look for a laundry. We have followed Rick's directions to laundries and been successful. If we are in a town/area not covered in RS's books, we ask at the hotel desks. We have also found local laundries at which you leave the laundry. I realize one can take different underwear and/or wash things in a sink but we can tolerate doing laundry in the laundromats. While doing the laundry ourselves takes time from travel, we have met many interesting people in the laundromats. Since we haven't used tours in the past, I would assume you would either have to use hotel services or use some of the built in free time if any is available if you don't wash things in the hotel room.

Donna - the only "problem" I've encountered on the RS tours is that you don't have a lot of free time to spend at the laundromat. Washing clothes in the sink works well (woolite, hang in the shower) and most things dry overnight. Plan to do it when you have a 2-night stay. On the GAS tour we had a few hotels that offered to do our laundry for a small fee (they returned it the same day or the next day) so we took advantage of it.

Just so there is no misunderstanding about the use of a towel to help dry clothes, I use a microfiber towel that is used for clothes, not for drying off after a shower. It might add an ounce to the weight of my suitcase, but I find that clothes dry faster than when you only squeeze the water out by hand. The towel drys quickly too.

Donna:
We found self-service laundromats were just as expensive as having someone do the wash and dry (Lava e secco in Italian) for us. It was not a small amount of cash whether self-service or a full service. Just plan on spending about 20 euros per week to do it, and in between wash socks, underwear and lightweight items in your room. Another tip: Purex sheets. They are DRY, contain soap and fabric softener. One sheet does a whole load, or cut them into pieces for small items in the sink. Won't take up part of your precious quart bag of liquids!

The service laundromats are convenient (and usually inexpensive). But we found one in Italy that would ot do lingerie--I think they were worried about the lace or possibly ruining the expensive things with too much heat.

Portable clothes line with wooden pins (the plastic ones that come om them slide!) Small bottle of Woolite- one capful will usually do.
Sink with water. The above combination used early evening will usually result in dry clothes in the morning when hung in the bath. Do a few each day, and not a full size laundry load at one time.

I always bring a small scrub brush, like the ones used for fingernails. Just agitating clothing in a sink or bathtub doesn't seem to get it as clean as a washing machine so a little brush is helpful.

Many thanks to al who replied. I now know it won't be a problem . Thanks for all the tips. Donna

I was unable to find a self-service laundermat in Eastern Europe.

I always take cold water soap powder. I buy it at Nordstrom's or Macy's lingerie departments. It works wonderfully. We wash our clothes in the bath tub and hang them up with portable hangers. Elaine

I do as JB from CA does except I take ExOfficio clothing. Expensive but well worth it to me. I go for one month and live out of 21" RS roller bag. I only take 3 sets of underwear and do laundry, underwear and shirts and pants, in the sink at night and it is dry in the morning, being careful of not making a water mess and careful of where I hang the damp laundry. I have taken 8 or 9 RS tours and most of my "tour-mates" do the same thing. I always feel sorry for those that take clothes that are not bathroom washable and end up taking up valuable time going to a Laundromat when we are on tour. However, I did not practice this the first time I went to Europe but have only learned this the more times I have traveled.

there are many times 1 can do laundry, but what it boils down to is IF u want to take the time!!! thanks, folks, for all the great ideas. i'd like to add a few myself: i too take old underwear on a trip(5), which gives me a little leeway as to when to wash, mostly not when i'm feeling lazy! the empowering part of it is to start discarding them at the end of the trip, until i am left with what i wore on the plane going to my destination! the microfiber towel is great to use on clothes, not the body, and serves as a separator between the clean and the dirty clothes. and don't forget to use the free shampoo that most hotels supply you with. it's much too harsh for our hair and just enough for the few items we need to wash(and you'll use much less for your hair with a good quality shampoo)
Sue

A very large ziplock makes a decent portable washing machine. Normally I wash a pair of socks and underwear a day plus the occasional shirt (all chosen to be quickdry/no wrinkle). I use REI laundry detergent sheets and pack a braided travel clothesline. I plan a laundromat stop every two weeks or so to wash everything.

You always have time to do laundry if you want to bad enough. It just has to be a high enough priority and whether you are willing to do it in the sink / shower or wanting to go a laundromat. Laundromats in Europe can be expensive. Thinking about taking 3 pair of tops and undies in your luggage along with one pair of pants. These are in addition to what you wear. Wash the top and undies each day. The extra 2 pairs are just in case you run out of time, are too tired that day, and to account for the day of arrival. Edwin

We do our laundry in the sink both on the Rick Steves tours and when we're traveling on our own. We did once use a laundromat in the Cinque Terre on a nasty, cold, rainy morning. That was interesting because everyone in the laundromat was American and had a Rick Steves tour book. We've learned what others have: travel friendly clothing, keeping on top of it, and giving up on my plans to become an international fashion icon. Other ideas: 1. CampSuds from your local outdoor activity store. Very concentrated and easy to rinse out. 2. Eucalon from a yarn store. The manufacturer and my "knitwit" friends insist there is no need to rinse your clothing when you use Eucalon. 3. A sink stopper, well not exactly a stopper, more of a rubber disk. Even if your hotel sink has a stopper, it may not work well enough to soak your clothes for 5 minutes. 4. Plastic hangars with detachable clips (from Target a few years ago). Shirts go as usual on some of the hangars, and socks, and undies hang from the clips on others. We usually take 4 hangars between the two of us.
5. Use the bath towel for rolling up and squeezing out the wet clothes and use the hand towel after showering. Not exactly luxurious bathing, but it works just fine for a small person like me. I'll admit that I love the looks of my washer and dryer when I get home. Enjoy your trip!

For sink washing I use a dab of shampoo. On the RS trips, availability of laundromats varies with the country. In France or England, there seems to be a lot of places to do laundry. In Italy self-service laundry may be hard to find. The tour guides or hotel personnel can point tour members to laundromats. It pays to be prepared to hand-wash mostly, if necessary.