When I decided to give up my apartment and begin living in hotels full time I knew there were going to be two aspects of daily life that could be difficult or inconvenient: Eating without a kitchen and doing laundry while traveling.
On balance it hasn’t been that tricky at all. But it can sometimes be a slight hassle or inconvenience. But done right it’s easy and no hassle at all. The main way to make your life easier on laundry day is to know what to expect.
Learning The Laundry Landscape
In the US it’s fairly easy to figure out the most convenient place for doing laundry while traveling. It might be right inside your hotel. This is the gold standard and a killer feature for any hotel. I really wish more hotels included coin laundry for guest use. Typically you can wash clothing at any time of day and just relax in your room while your clothes are spinning.
Unfortunately it can be difficult to tell which hotels have coin laundry and which don’t. Often hotel websites just state that they offer laundry service which can mean DIY but often means they send your clothes out to a local dry cleaner and you pay per piece. This can run $8-12 per article of clothing. So expensive that it’s prohibitive to anyone but business travelers with expense accounts. If you really need to know about coin laundry or are comparing between hotels, a quick call will confirm if coin machines are present.
Searching the Map
In the US it’s typically easy to locate a coin-op laundromat. It’s probably close to your hotel too. If you’re staying in a big city or a beach town it’s probably a complete non-issue. But overseas it can be more challenging. I’m an iPhone user and I can tell you that Apple Maps is very hit or miss when searching for laundry. Even if you search specifically for “coin-op” or “laundromat” it’s likely to show you full service places, dry cleaners… I’ve even been shown janitorial and industrial operations. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re being shown until you walk over there and look at it with your own eyes.
The most important thing about doing laundry while traveling is to start early. Do some recon as soon as you arrive. If you notice a nice looking coin laundry near-ish your hotel drop a pin on the map because you’ll be wanting to remember that location within a week. When it’s actually time to do laundry start early in the day. If all goes well you should have your folded laundry back in your room in less than two hours while you enjoy coffee or lunch. But all doesn’t always go well.
Many laundromats these days run not on coins but on credit cards. A touchscreen on the wall will let you pay and activate your machines. Often laundry soap is included in such places and piped into the washer automatically. Make sure to check before adding your own or if you’ve got sensitive skin. I haven’t found it necessary to be buying my own laundry soap separate from a laundromat single-serve scenario.
Laundry Drop Off
Overseas it’s much more common to encounter full service laundry operations. Typically this is one or a few women in a small shop with several washers and dryers. They charge by the kilo or pound but for a single traveler it only amounts to a few dollars to have everything washed, dried and folded. It’s actually pretty great.
The main thing to know about full service laundry is that you should plan to pay extra for rush service. Typical service will run into the next day. The main problem with this is that I want everything washed and clean at once, to start from a full bag of clean clothes. If I’m doing laundry while traveling I’m typically wearing my last of everything clean.
Even the express service can take six hours easily. So you need to go about your day but also return to pick it up. You also usually have to re-fold your clothes because they fold things inside out or don’t pair socks or whatever. They definitely don’t fold them the same way you like to when packing them in your bag.
Laundry Do’s and Don’ts
As already stated: do start early and don’t worry about carrying your own detergent. But there are a few other things to consider when doing laundry as a traveler.
Carry the Right Bags
I love to carry this tote bag from Uniqlo. I’ve got three of them actually. One for laundry. One for beach and groceries, and one spare. It’s possibly the best $3 you can spend on travel gear. For laundry, the advantages are that you can hang it from a hanger or hook in a hotel closet and just stuff it right on top of your bag or suitcase when half your clothes are still clean. At a laundromat you can just toss it in with the clothes. If you have to travel on a bus or train to reach the laundromat this bag will slide right into a backpack with either dirty or folded clothes inside.
Know When to Re-Use Clothes
I’m not a great fan of re-wearing dirty clothes but there are some situation where it makes the most sense. In a cool climate where you’re not sweating much wearing everything for two days can cut your laundry days from four to two per month. If you’re bound for the beach it makes sense to suck it up and wear dirty clothes because you’re going to shed them on the sand anyway. There’s no sense in letting a clean shirt soak up sweat, sand and sunscreen when you’re just going to shower and change in the afternoon anyway. Likewise a morning workout in the hotel gym calls for wearing your cleanest dirty shirt and yesterday’s socks and underwear.
Don’t Be a Dirty Hippie
If you search online for travel laundry you’re going to see all kinds of ridiculous advice about washing clothes in a hostel, in a hotel sink or bathtub, in a river, etc. You’ll also see plenty of companies trying to sell you drybags, scrubbing bags, solid detergents and whatnot. Don’t fall for this. Not everything has to be “gear.” What are you, Amish? Use a machine like a normal person. Wear clothes you know are fully clean to be comfortable and confident.
Having a suitcase full of clean and fresh clothes is definitely worth the time and effort it takes to get it done.
