Cotton knit tops?

You should look for some of the newer tech fabrics. I don't really like the Polyester shirts but there are a lot of washable silk, tencil, bamboo rayon and even dry tec cotton shirts that work really well for travel. They dry fast enough that you can wash and dry them overnight in your hotel room.

Icebreakers makes amazing tops. Their clothes are made of Merino wool but they do not itch like other wool fabrics. They breathe amazingly well, they don't stink (great if you plan on going a few days without washing), they don't wrinkle, extremely light weight, and they wash really well. I wear mine backpacking all the time and swear by them. They also come in a variety of styles and some of them don't have that "sporty" look. The only downside is they are quite pricey, I buy mine at the end of season half off sales! They sell it at REI or other outdoor stores.

You might wonder on over to the RS store and ask some of his female employees (the ones who also tour) what their experience has been.

I've spent weeks researching and buying clothes for a 3 week carry on only trip to Europe this summer. Here are some websites where I found a lot of choices for quick drying, wrinkle resistant clothes--no cotten.

www.sierratradingpost.com
www.rei.com
www.campmor.com
www.travelsmith.com

Sierra Trading Post and Campmor are discount sites where I've found some really good deals. They are probably last year's model but who cares.

For shirts, I've bought Columbia, Isis, Mountain Hardware, Ex Officio, Travelsmith, Lowe Alpine, Woolrich. After washing and wearing them, my favorite brands are Mountain Hardware and Isis. They don't look as much like travel clothes as the others and the seams don't pucker as badly as a lot of the others do.

I too wear almost exclusively Eddie Bauer cotton tops, as I'm tall and they make tall shirts that don't shrink up and show my tummy after a few wash/drys. I just returned from Europe last week and took along 3 tops, the wash in sink method worked well, I just rolled them in a towel to get out the excess water, and hung on the towel bar to dry. They dried in less than a day. But try it out at home to be sure.

Hi, Sharon - here's my five cents worth: I travelled for six weeks in Europe last year with nothing but my LL Bean pima cotton knit tee shirts, both long and short sleeve and in several colors. They did great; wore them more than once. I took one plastic hanger and washed by hand, hung 'em up and they dried wrinkle free. Accesorized with thin silk scarves/necklace, a couple of jackets. Always felt put together and clean. By the way, I bought a large bottle of good shampoo when I got to Paris and washed everything with that (including my hair). Worked great. Also took a Tide stick for spot removal; also worked well. Take large baggies, in case you need to pack damp laundry; I avoided that by not washing the day before travel. Have a great trip!

Do an experiment at home. Hand wash a shirt, blot it as dry as possible with a towel or camp towel, and let it dry overnight. See how that goes. If you are staying more than one night in a hotel, it may not be necessary for hand-washing to dry overnight. If you are in cities, you can probably find laundromats fairly easily. With the clothing of two people to wash, it might make the most sense just to plan on limited hand-washing with a trip to the laundromat every few days.

I've been to Europe 7 or 8 times now and have always taken my cotton t-shirts. Mine are simple solid colored tops from Old Navy or Gap. Our trips are usually 2 weeks long. I've taken about 8 or 9 tops, they are small, roll up easily so they don't take much space. I find I can wear a top for 2 days, then retire it to a ziplock bag for dirty clothing.

If I have to wash, I use the bathroom sink and a bit of Woolite that I bring with. I hang the shirts over a railing or over the back of a chair and it dries over night with a minimum of wrinkles.

To each his own!

Well Sharon at least you are not travelling in heat, so clothes won't get sweaty fast.
As long as you are staying 2 nights in a place at a time I think hand washing is fine, frankly doing laundry in a laudromat has its own set of problems , like then you have to hang out around there since I would not feel comfortable leaving my clothes unattended unless it was a supervised laundromat.
You didn't say how long trip was, but for anything under 3 weeks I only have to wash a few underthings and a few tshirts so I wouldn't bother with doing a whole load.
If you trip is longer and you take jeans , then I guess you will need to find a laudromat.

I too prefer natural fibers and would rather go to a Laundromat midway in the trip than hand wash excessively. Somehow the clothes just don't come out looking or feeling right.

I can do underwear and socks, but not my tops.

For hand-washing clothes, I just found some "soap leaves" at the AAA store. They come in a very small container and are NOT gel or liquid, so they don't have to go into your baggie for the plane security check. You toss a soap leaf into the ziplock bag when hand washing your clothes and it produces soap bubbles! Cool!

Thanks for all of your suggestions & recommendations.

Regarding the leaves of soap, REI also carries them (http://www.rei.com/product/760091?vcat=REI_SSHP_CAMPING_TOC)
Comes in a plastic case, and the one review is enthusiastic about the soap. Apparently the leaves can stick to each other when being taken out for use, causing you to use more than desidred. But overall I think this is a good idea - and ecologically friendly as well.

Sharon, I've only taken cotton shirts also and agree with everyone's encouragement on washing those in the sink.

I also want to add that laundromats have always been handy for us -- we usually make one or two trips to the laundromat on the trip (for two of us). It doesn't take a lot of time, and we've had some fun experiences trying to figure out washing machine instructions in small French and Italian villages.