Laundry and light packing

I'm doing the MW14 too- in just a couple of weeks- Sept 18th! I don't know about the laundry situation for sure, however; when I was on the 21BOE two years ago we had 2-3 laundry opportunities (to send the laundry out). Most of the bigger cities will have Laundromats and your guide can help you find them. I know for certain that one of the places that does laundry was in Monterosso in the Cinque Terre. You could fill a bag, drop it off, and a few hours later it was folded on my bed. Our hotel in Paris was only a couple of blocks from a Laundromat.

Laundry shouldn't be a worry. :-) Enjoy your trip!
Lisa

Rick's advice: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/health/laundry

We always wear clothes multiple times. After traveling in Europe on our own and 7 RS tours, we pack light!
I take travel laundry sheets, right now I can't remember the brand, but they look like the dry sheets you put in the dryer, except you put them in the washer and they release the detergent. We actually use them in the sink in the hotel to wash mostly underwear and shirts. When we change towns on a 2 night stay we wash when we arrive and hang clothes in the room. Often we hang on the radiator. Since we don't travel with blue jeans (too heavy and take too long to dry) we occasionally wash our slacks. On some of the longer tours, the guide showed all of us where the laundromats were. I like the drop off in the morning and pick up in the evening kind. They were washed, dried, and folded (folded better than I do).

For packing, I travel with black slacks and tan slacks. Every shirt, sweater, vest has to go with both colors, so I do a lot of mixing and matching. We are able to take a 22" roll on RS case on the plane and a small backpack for meds, makeup, and iPads. It works for us,

Have a Great Trip!
Mimi

The sheets I used were Purex. I was able to buy them at Super Walmart. They actually say that they have detergent and fabric softener in each one. Since I planned to use them in the sink, I cut them in half before leaving home. They weigh almost nothing and don't take up much room in a suitcase in a zip loc
bag. There are probably other brands, but haven't used them

Hope this helps, gives you some options
Mimi

Another type of soap sheet is available at www.magellans.com

They are packaged in a small plastic container about the size of dental floss. Definitely work for handwashing in a hotel room sink.

These look even easier to travel with than what I have been using. I'll certainly give them a try on my next trip.

REI also sells them but they are a different brand. I find the one's they sell, Sea to Summit, have a milder frangrance. $4.50/pack of 50.

I use "Charlie's soap" for doing laundry in the sink while traveling, it usually comes in a large container and we would put some of the powder in a zip lock bag but now they make it in individual packets for a single washings and we just toss 4-6 of those in our bags for a 2 week trip with planning on doing laundry every 3 night. I find it much easier to to do the laundry in your sink just before you go out for supper, that way things are always dry by the next morning. It only takes about 10 min. to wash and squeeze a few items and hang them up to dry (I only take clothes the are made of quick dry material). I find that European laundromat's wash okay but the dryers are very slow and it takes forever to get things dry.

Even though I'm a proponent of Rick's "Backdoor experiences" I find sitting in Euopean laundromats boring!

We've tried all the mentioned soaps for sink washing and always come back to the stuff Rick sells on this site. Low suds,clothes get clean, rinses easily.

Pretty much every stop of the tour will have some laundry facility, but I'll just mention the middle of the route.
* Rick's book lists several laundromat options in Munich and your tour manager or hotel staff will also know what's closest.
* I've always been too busy to do laundry in Venice, but it's possible.
* It's easy to get a load of laundry washed and dried for you in Monterosso. Many of the hotels have a pick-up agreement with the laundromat in the new town. Plan to take care of this right after checking into the hotel and you'll have your stuff back within 24 hours (about 13 euros for a small load).

I did this tour a few years ago and had already be travelling for 2 weeks before the tour, so I was desperate to do laundry. There was a laundry service in Switzerland but it was very expensive- 25 Swiss Francs. The laundry in Monterossa was the best. About 9 Euros and it was returned nicely folded and packaged. I don't know about Munich, but it's worth asking about.
Happy travels!

We did the 8 day Ireland Tour in May. Weather was warmer than expected but still not really warm so our clothes were worn multiple times. I did wash socks, underwear and a few shirts in the sink but we just used the hotel shampoo. My husband was so worried about packing light but we are both sold on it now! Last 2 weekend trips to Baltimore and DC we did in backpacks. So much easier--and no waiting for luggage at the carousel!

Now that we've learned to pack light we would not do it any other way.
We just completed the 14 day Best of Europe and last year the 12 day Portugal trip. I do our laundry in the sink or occasionally the shower. I have a small nylon bag which contains a small bottle of Ivory Snow liquid, and these hangers, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004F3MQIM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CZT4L8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Whenever we're in a hotel for more than one night, I do laundry on arrival, and other than Switzerland, I've had no problems with drying.

"Even though I'm a proponent of Rick's "Backdoor experiences" I find sitting in Euopean laundromats boring!"

I find it the exact opposite!

Not that I want to spend time every day doing laundry, but I have had some fun experiences meeting and talking with the locals who also used the laundry. My favorite was in Prague where I was served tea while they did my laundry for me at the same price it would have cost if I did it myself there, and it got done a lot faster in their machines than the coin ones. Met some college students who were very interested in talking with someone from the US.

We had our laundry done in Lauterbrunnen, because it was about our half way point (we got to Paris a few days before the tour started). It was a drop off place, and it was returned folded but not very well so. There were three of us, requiring two loads, so it was expensive. I think it was about 40 or 45 swiss francs. We had done sink laundry and were ready for machine-clean clothes, so we didn't have much regret. Sounds like you'll have much better options in Munich.

We were part of Rick's Rome 7 day tour in June. However we spent a week on our own both before and after Rome and packed everything in a carry-on. We washed everything in the hotel sink. It was 90 degrees many days so I ended up wearing my one super-cool dress many days in a row; I just washed it out at night and hung it over the AC each evening. Didn't matter if it was a still a bit damp in the morning! I also brought 2 lightweight pants that dried quickly and traded them off with Ts. Don't worry about being fashionable, just comfortable!

"Didn't matter if it was a still a bit damp in the morning!"

That's what we call "European dry."

Do any of the hotels on the 21BOE trip have towel warmers? If so, can you use them as a place to hang your clothes to help with drying?

We were on this tour in September/October of 2015 - it was wonderful! It was so much fun that we are leaving next week for the My Way Alpine Tour beginning 9/21. As far as our laundry experiences: We spent several days in Amsterdam, then went to Bayeux for two nights to tour the Normandy Beaches, then took the train to Paris a day before the tour started. We packed light. I made the mistake of sending our clothes out to be cleaned - I would advise against it, since it was enormously expensive. If you're only coming in a day or two before the tour starts in Paris, you'll be fine. If you're coming a week earlier, find a laundromat. Because we left Paris with fresh clothes I didn't do laundry again until Venice, and it was a rather fun and comical experience. The laundromat was only three blocks from our hotel and there were also several sidewalk cafes in the immediate area. A group of us (10?) threw our clothes in and went to a cafe, with someone assigned to go check on them and report back. People came and went, we had fun, good food and clean clothes! Aside from that, I know that two couples sent their clothes out to be cleaned in Montesorro and were happy with the results. Nobody on our tour did laundry in the Lauterbrunnen Valley - there is simply too much to see and do. I did wash a few things in the sink along the way just in case, but I like to bring more underclothes than what is recommended. I hope your trip is awesome!