Travel Laundry – Lets you Pack Light
Travel Laundry lets you Pack Light
Quick!! What is your all time favorite chore? Vacuuming? Washing dishes? Don’t have a favorite chore? That was a trick question. I was just joking – who has a favorite chore??
Good news! When you are on vacation…those chores aren’t a part of the deal. Ah, soak it in for a minute……2 whole weeks/10 days/1 week of NO vacuuming, NO making the bed, NO washing dishes…Sounds like heaven….doesn’t it?
But…………Clean clothes are a part of the vacation. When you travel you have choices!
When it comes to clean clothes on vacation your choices are:
Travel Laundry – Choice #1 Pack Heavy
Bring a TON of clothes, lug them around, keep track of them, cram them into teeny-tiny taxi cabs, lift them high over your head for storage on the train, drag them over cobblestone streets and not do one teeny – tiny bit of laundry. Well, until you come home…because there really is no escaping, washing the clothes, right?
Travel Laundry – Choice #2 Have the hotel do laundry
Bring just a few clothes and have them laundered for you at the hotel when you need. It can be awesome! You put your clothes in a bag in the morning and when you return you find them nicely folded in a basket on the bed. This photo is from Hotel Europa in Madrid.
But, having someone else do the laundry doesn’t work out perfectly every time.
Once, in Morocco, we hired out laundry and it came back in a plastic bag, very neatly folded and WET….too wet to call damp and not drippy enough to call wet. But there was certainly no way you could call it dry! No one wanted to wear it the next day! I didn’t like putting it in the suitcase though I had no choice because it was a travel day.
One hotel just said, “No” when we asked about laundry.
Another hotel said, “We usually do laundry but it is the weekend and we don’t do laundry on the weekend”.
Note to self: You can’t always count on having someone else do your laundry.
Travel Laundry – Choice #3 Find a laundromat
Seek out a local laundromat. I do NOT recommend this because of the time involved (read: wasted) unless you are lucky enough to be traveling for a month or more. If you are doing the typical 10 day – 2 week family vacation, I think your time could be better spent. Wouldn’t you rather be out having fun than sitting at a laundromat??
UPDATE: While vacationing in Greece, which had been a life long dream, we found a laundromat very near our hotel. We dropped off the laundry and in 2 hours we came back to find clean, dry, and folded laundry. Woohoo! It only cost us $15. Read more about this wonderful laundry experience in Santorini. It totally changed my mind on the laundromat issue!
Travel Laundry – Wash in the sink
This is my favorite option and the one we use the most: Do your laundry in the sink.
Don’t panic. It is just a squeeze of soap and a little swishing. No biggie. Just pack stuff that can be washed in the sink and will dry overnight. Try out at home! You can read more about how we do laundry on the fly here. It really is easy squeezy.
You carry less. Your luggage is smaller and thus fits easily in taxis, is easily lifted above your head on the train. You have an extra hand to carry that map, coffee, or hold someone’s hand. Packing less is a really good thing!
You pay less! No oversize baggage fees for you!
Travel Laundry: Get into the spirit
When in Rome…do as the Romans ……or the Spanish, or Moroccans, or Italians, or Gibraltarians..do!
Lots of people in countries all over the world – wash laundry and hang it up! It is part of your travel adventure!
I took all of these photos myself and love how in this way…we are all the same. Laundry has to be done! The kids find it interesting that clearly not everyone has an electric clothes dryer.
Wherever your travels take you, The Educational Tourist can help you plan your adventure!
Happy travels!
Natalie, The Educational Tourist
I’m glad you enjoyed it.