laundry

The guide will certainly know.

We went on this trip in 2017, ending on Labor Day weekend in Rome. We do most/all of our laundry in the sink. On that trip, we had an unexpected short spell of rain in Lauterbrunnen Switzerland and got soaked so we did use the laundromat across the street from our hotel. In Munich, some people took advantage of a nearby drop-off wash&fold service the guide told them about where they dropped their clothes off early afternoon and got them back later that same evening. If there were other opportunities I don't remember them but I wasn't really paying attention.

This is something the guide usually discusses in the initial meet-up so if they don’t say anything it’s a good question to ask.

Every city, and most towns, will have a laundromat.

If possible, take clothing that you can wash out in your room. For instance, we have travel undies that we can wash out as we shower, and then dry in the room.

I have taken 16 RS tours over the last 18 years and have always taken along clothing that I can was in the room sink that is quick dry so that it is dry in the morning. Most of my stuff is ExOfficio. A little more expensive but well worth it.

Generally, we find that washing out in the room, possibly in the shower, works well. Sometimes we wash in a machine, but usually just in the shower.

When I took the BOE tour in 1999 there were enough laundry opportunities to ensure I had clean clothes. With the proliferation of self-service laundries since then, you should have no problem keeping up with laundry. Self-service laundries require about an hour to wash and dry, and they'll get your clothes much cleaner and dryer than washing them in a sink and hanging them up overnight to dry (always a back-up plan in a pinch). A few small towns might not have a self-service laundry option or you may not want to carve out an hour that day, so simply plan around any such stops. Using laundry services (those that wash, dry and fold) generally wasn't a good option for timing reasons, meaning there usually wasn't enough time between arrival and departure from a town for the laundry service to turn around a load of laundry.

On every RS tour I have taken, there is a laundry opportunity about at the half way mark. This will either be an agreement with the hotels you will be saying at to wash a specified amount of clothes for a set price (usually a provided laundry bag stuffed as full as you can get it), or laundromat facilities close by that may or may not have a deal if you mention you are with the RS tour. The laundry service provided by the hotel will be simple wash dry and fold with no options for any special care, but at the price has been well worth it letting them do your laundry leaving you free to do whatever sight seeing you want and is usually done that same evening of your arrival. Even the laundromats often provides similarly fast wash, dry, fold service for not much more than doing it yourself. The ones we have used at the guide's suggestion have always completed the service on the same day if you drop the clothes at their opening hour.

I don't like doing laundry in the hotel room. I have washed a shirt or two and other quick drying items in the sink or shower when absolutely necessary. Hotel rooms are not laundries and so you end up with wet things hanging everywhere. Laundry services exist, use them.