In Italy, I have often used a wash,dry, fold service for our laundry. Rick Steves' guidebooks all list places to either do your own or drop off your laundry.

shorts are perfectly acceptable to wear in Italy - for all ages and as Mimar says easier to wash out on your own - or have the kids do it for themselves!

Yes any hotel desk will have info on laundry services that pick up at hotel and return - not cheap of course but do you want to spend hours in a hot stuffy laundromat?

Call me crazy, but I invariably enjoy time spent in a laundromat, meeting the ladies & gents who help me with the unfamiliar machines and chatting while we wait. I have particularly fond memories of one in the 18th in Paris and another in Dijon. Many who come here looking for "non-touristy" things to do and opportunities to meet locals would do well to just go do their laundry. I consider it an adventure of another kind, if one has some free time.

Me too, MmePerdu!

Elberko, I knew I couldn't be alone.

momin...be very careful about having your hotel do your laundry for you. ASK what the charge will be and make sure you get a specific PRICE. We did think to ask our hotel who offered the service and it was over $150 dollars for about 15 small items (cotton t-shirts, jeans etc.)

Also you can not do your own laundry in Venice. The city did not permit it. At least that is what the hotel told us.

What kind of car are you renting for Venice? A hydro-car? LOL!!

Yes Mde. Perdu, laundromats can be interesting places to meet other travelers and locals. In fact while in Florence we ran into our dear friends' (from LA) son! Talk about a small world. He was backpacking through Europe and we invited him to dinner. We later did a call to his parents from all of us.

I usually do my hand washing as soon as we check in to the hotel, rather than waiting until bedtime, because it often takes a lot of time for things to dry. I carry an elastic travel clothesline with me (suction cups on each end) and an inflatable hanger which works well for shirts and nightgowns.

You can buy small packets of Tide at the travel section of most drug stores but I usually use the hotel shampoo because I carry my own and never use it.

You can easily do laundry in a sink. Bring a large ziplock bag if you want to keep things simple.

Put a few clothes in the ziplock fill about 2/3 with water and a couple of drops of shampoo. Seal and shake. Carefully drain water into sink and fill with rinse water. Repeat as needed.

Wring out your clothes and hang so they don't drip all over the apartment. With 4 people you may need more ziplocks. I bring along my own little travel laundry hangers. I have a couple of different ones depending upon the hotels.

If the women wear skirts, there's less laundry for them.

Ask at your hotel's desk for a full-service Laundromat to have your laundry done.

The cost was about 8 Euros per load (wash/dry/fold). Some place I dropped off and picked up one hour later. Some place I had to wait till the next morning after 11am to pick up.

Yes, laundromats can make for interesting encounters with the locals.

Rick Steves guidebooks are good for laundromats. In Madrid ee asked our hotel for a laundromat and they directed us to a very good one nearby.

I agree with HappyTrvlr that a fold and wash is a reasonable compromise between really expensive hotel laundry and less expensive laundry mat. Especially if time is a factor. We left clothing in the morning at a fold and wash in Spoleto, Italy and picked up everything the next day. Be sure to know how to say 'hot' and 'cold water'.

DH and I took 3 changes of clothing for our 2-week trips. We also enjoyed meeting folks in the self-serves. We found one in Venice but it has been a few years. In 2010, we found one in Menton, France.

Hand-washing for things that dry over night is fine.

Please report back!

You can also email your hotels and ask if there are laundromats nearby.

Apartments usually come with a washing machine and drying rack or line. Apartments are a much better choice for a family anyway.