Hi everyone! My husband and I are going on the 17 day. Best of Italy tour. We’ve been unable to travel for the past seven years due to the privilege of caring for our wonderful pup for the past 13 years who recently became an angel. For such a long trip, we were wondering, do you just bring x days worth of clothes and then wash them along the way? Like in a major city - here we’re going to Vienna and then Florence so I was thinking if we bought enough clothes to get us from Vienna to Florence maybe we could wash the clothes there? Thank you in advance for your advice.
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
9018 posts
I think you mean Venice
The tour guides will share info on best chance to do laundry
You shouldn’t have to do laundry more than once mid trip
You certainly don’t need a different outfit for each day
There is a lot of packing info here as well
Posted by
Bend, OR
1916 posts
Which tour are you going on? Best of Italy starts in Venice not Vienna then goes on to the Dolomites, etc. Florence looks to be halfway into the tour which would probably be a good place to do a thorough cleaning but depending on where your hotel is. At your first group meeting, your tour guide usually gives you the best options for washing your clothes in route. A number of people, me included, bring quick dry clothes that are easily rinsed out in hotel bathrooms because I do not like to wear the same clothes over and over but that’s my quirk. I usually take some laundry sheets along. RS tour members are usually very casual in what they wear.
Posted by
Ontario, Canada
7086 posts
I will note that if you are on a RS tour, don't forget that you are responsible for taking your bag between the bus and your hotel room. Which may or may not mean stairs instead of elevators. So packing large bags may not be your most practical option. Whether we travel for a week or 7 weeks, I pack outfits that last me a week between laundries. Many items can be worn more than once before needing to be washed. And I often do a quick sink wash of delicates when staying more than one night in a hotel. Florence is a week from the start of the tour, so a sink wash, or a trip to a laundromat during your free time would work.
Posted by
261 posts
We have not been on a tour but since 2022, we spend several weeks a year in Europe, with a lot of time in Italy. Because our trips are for several weeks, we have to do laundry. In Rome, I found a wonderful laundress in Trastevere that I bring our laundry to and she does a marvelous job at a very reasonable price. In Florence, there is a laundromat right down the street from our hotel near the Mercato. I do a fair amount of sink laundry for undies and socks; so a lot of laundering variety. However, the one point I would make in all of this regarding laundry, specifically in Italy, in a laundromat, read the signs (unless your Italian skills are good Google Translate is your friend) because most laundromats automatically dispense the washing detergent. This can be convenient, but some of the laundromats dispense detergent with a very strong scent - just be aware.
Posted by
Washington
1113 posts
I haven't taken the 17-day tour, but on the Venice-Florence-Rome tour, we had the option of laundry service at our Florence hotel. That was the midpoint of the trip. We were at the Hotel Silla. I don't know what your hotel will be, but as others have said, your guide will provide info.
Posted by
Canada
19 posts
I am sorry to hear of your wonderful pup's passing. I am glad you are finding comfort.
I am am very glad you are taking this RS tour. We took this a couple of decades past and it has been the bar that all travel since has been measured.
Once on one of our tours (not the one your taking) we did plan a laundry day. Thanks to RS we learned of a small local self-service laundry and mapped it out and planned the drop off and pick up times. We loved the experience. The laundromat was quircky and we we forntunaite the owner happend to be on site and offered to transfer the wash to dryer for us, at no charge, so that we would not have to return so soon and have more time to explore. It was wonderful experience.
That said, not every tour / stop is that congenial and I dont want to take prescious (and expensive ) vacation time to find and load a machine. Maybe you can work it out. On our 17 day BoI tour, our first RS tour, I was quite obsessed with what would become our routine. And while I am more relaxed now, it worked well.
When first arriving in a new place the usual routine was for the bus to drop us off within walking distance of the hotel perhaps mid afternoon. We'd take our lugagge to the room, immediately one of us would take out the things that needed washing and start washing and rinsing in the bathroom sink. Large pants in a small sink can be a challenge. Bring a flat oversized 'universal' sink stopper as many will not have a closer or it will leak. Wash something in the sink and toss into the shower/tub. Next item. Then rinse hem all in the tub / shower. Ring with a RS microfibre towel (gets so much more water out) and hang on a good (RS) clothes line. Bring some extra hook and loop strips to help attach the clothesline to things. We used dry sheets of laundry soap so little weight and bulk and biodegradable.
We always did this immediately on day 1 so that everything, even heavier pants were dry for packing the next night.
We did this most every stop stop maybe always just a few things and not such a big task. We'd often be last to join the group for our day 1 orientation walk but never struggled for having clean clothes. This routine woked well for us.