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Travel Tips: May 28, 1998. Traveling and Towels

OK, so towels are not a glamorous issue.  But towels are something you use everyday.  And drying your body with a smelly, mildewy towel is a bad way to start the day.

Regular cotton towels are a problem.  They are bulky, they take forever to dry in humid climates, you have to find a place to hang them out to dry  and, if you shower right before you pack to travel, they go into a plastic bag (wet) into the backpack and come out smelling like the socks you forgot in the gym bag for a week.  Cotton towels are a problem.

So, what's the solution?  A sports towel.

I had heard of them from other travelers.  I looked for them in the US before I left and never found one. (Admittedly, I didn't look too hard.) But here in Honk Kong I found--and bought one. 

When you have dried yourself off, you wring it almost dry (which is very easy to do) and shove it back into the plastic tube it comes in.  The towel stays slightly moist all the time.  It's supposed to.  Otherwise it dries to cardboard-like stiffness. 

Every now and then, while I shower, I soap it up and rinse it out to keep it clean and fresh. 

Besides not getting smelly and mildewy, on top of not having the hassle of having to find a place to hang it out to dry and  in addition to the fact that it can be packed wet, the tube and towel are small, compact and light.  I like that.

Best o all, no more drying off with something that smells like it was lost in a gym bag for too long.  I am sure the people sitting next to me on a long bus ride appreciate that.

I don't know what they cost in the US, but in Hong Kong it was a bit over $10 for a Japanese brand.  The same thing is a "Speedo" branded tube cost twice that.