I actually travelled for 3 months with this towel I bought from a camping shop, it was basically a schamy, but it worked like a charm.

I wouldn’t recommend taking a full size bath towel, or even a medium sized one.

It’ll smell, and make all your clothes reek within a week or two.

My fave towel to travel with is one I &quotermanently borrowed" from a Holiday Inn once. It’s really thin and worn-out so it packs up really small.

I’m not a big fan of those specially-designed pack towels, because I find they turn all fuzzy and leave fuzzy remnants all over the rest of my stuff. And they don’t really dry much faster than a regular towel.

I’m with segacs on this one. A really cheap, thin "normal" towel is what I travel with , having tried the chamois Pac towels and the rubbery aquis towels.

is the original posting spam? funny how first post is promoting a website that sells travel towels….from my travel experience I would skip taking a travel towel (shamy type) and take an inexpensive thin cotton towel…it will dry out quickly and only cost you a buck or two..and the best thing you won’t feel bad if you forget the towel at the last place you stayed.

Is it really necessary to pack your own towel? We’ll be staying in 1 and 2 star hotels since there will be three of us travelling together. I’m assuming that towels will be provided there. We’re also staying in The Beehive hostel in Rome. Will we need to provide our own towels there?

Geez. For a 1 star or 2 star hotel I wouldn’t even be expecting a comfy bed. Even if they did have towel I’d suppose they would be skinny thin ones that are pretty useless. I would like to stay dry on my trip, but that’s just me.

If you follow this board much, you will see that some posters are well-respected. This is because they offer insightful comments from experince. On this thread, I have to agree with Segacs and Sailor.

As for Jave’s comment about the towel smelling, make sure to wash it when you do your laundry. Also, if you have a thin small towel and dry it out before you pack it, you really won’t have a problem with it smelling.