What size towel?

I use a microfiber towel that I bought in the car wash section at Walmart. If I remember correctly, I cut the towel in two pieces. It's big enough to roll the clothing in, but not too big. I find that things do dry faster using a towel.

We don't. First, most of our clothing is synthetic or has a small cotton blend so that everything dries pretty quick. For the wool socks we just use the regular bath towel. Don't carry anything extra for drying.

My favorite travel towel is gym size. It came with a car wash kit from Costco (three wash mits and two towels). I like it better than any of the "travel towels" I had before.

I never carry a towel, particularly not just for drying clothes.

We also don't bring a towel. If I wash something, and that's a big if, I use the towel that is provided.

The towels we've used forever are 1.5'x3.5'. They're really nice to have; I roll things up in them, then stand and walk on the rolled-up towel - I have to show some patience because the longer I can stand still and let the towel work its magic, the drier the clothes. They make great padding for beer steins, so I've been told ;-)

We each have the Rick Steves' x-large. We bought a small one and cut up for wash cloths.

I use a pack towel large and I use it the same way you do.

When I wash out my polyester/cotton blend clothes, I wring them dry with the bathmat. I don't mind stepping out of the shower the next morning onto a damp bathmat, but trying to dry off with a damp towel, no way. The other thing, wash out today's clothes today. Don't let them pile up. Two day's of clothes are just that much harder to wash and dry tomorrow.

I bring a microfiber towel in order to not have to use the bath towel for laundry. I agree that I wouldn't want to have to dry off with an already wet towel after a shower.

I used a large micronet towel on my last trip strictly for laundry...after washing my clothes in the sink ( always late evening ) and ringing them out, I found I could lay out everything I washed( I would wash a number of items every second or third night, so typically a pair of pants, couple pairs of socks and underwear, and a couple shirts) on the towel, roll it all up in one go, then twist it to ring it out. Worked great for me and really didn't add much extra weight to my bag( 6 week trip, 20# bag )... all clothes nice and dry by morning. As for clothing material...cotton/poly blend shirts, cotton pants, quality synthetic underwear, wool socks...

Hi, I also used the RS large towel. It made a great blanket on flight across the pond as well as absorbing water from handwashed laundry. It dried very quickly after use unlike hotel towels. Would also make a nice picnic cloth. Sherry

For drying clothes, the magic towel is the MSR Packtowl Original. http://cascadedesigns.com/msr/camp-towels/packtowl-original/product All of the sizes are relatively small and light for what they do, which is absorb up to 10x their weight in water, but the medium or large are probably in the sweet spot. They are available in most outdoor stores, Amazon, etc. The material initially feels like felt and gets softer with use. Most other microfiber towels are terrible at absorbing water and then drying out quickly.

Ah, Kevin - it's good to see the Packtowl is still around in it's original form! Actually, Packtowls are what we use for all of the reasons Kevin mentioned. Also, I've owned them since before anyone talked about microfiber anything and Polartec Fleece was a new-fangled product...and they're much lighter than microfleece fabrics, hold a lot more liquid, and dry MUCH faster than pretty much all other kinds of camp towels on the market. For those who haven't purchased towels but are considering doing so, please check them out; don't let the viscose-fiber texture put you off.

I have multiple microfiber towels that serve different purposes. The Packtowl original is the one to use for drying clothes as I mentioned or if you just want a lightweight travel towel. Make sure to wash it several times if you want to use it as a general towel or it will feel "weird". The MSR Personal (Ultrasoft) in the small size is what I use as a washcloth, but it isn't as absorbent (4x vs 10x) as the original. My wife doesn't like the feel so she still uses a slow drying regular washcloth. This style is also a great size and weight for carrying in a day pack to dry off from an unexpected rain or a hot sweaty day. For glasses and camera lens cleaning there is the MSR Nano (Ultralight). It is important that if you are using a microfiber for glasses and camera lens cleaning that you don't wash it with clothes and put it in the dryer. They'll just grab all the lint and won't be any good for cleaning your glasses and lenses. You can rinse them wet and wring them out, just don't run them through the laundry. I have some other brands, but most of the original microfiber products from years ago seem to have disappeared and have been replaced with stuff that doesn't work particularly well. I didn't try the RS branded products because I couldn't find them at any local stores.

In all the times I have been to Europe and elsewhere on the planet, I have never once, not once, thought to bring a towel ... and I live to tell the tale.

I also pack a chamois, which I use to help dry my hand washing. It works great, absorbs tons of water and wrings to almost completely dry for the next item - much better than going through a room full of towels before you even take a shower.