Does anyone do laundry when travelling for more than a few days?
 

My wife and I travel several times a year but usually our trips amount to 3-5 days at a time and so we always pack what we need for the trip, use the hotel's laundry bags for our dirty clothes and just pack them up and bring them back with us when we return. Now we are planning a trip where we will be gone about a week and I am not sure I want to pack a lot of clothing for the trip and then bring a suitcase full of dirty clothes back with me.
My question is simply, for those of you who do take longer trips, what is your strategy when it comes to laundry when travelling? Last hotel we stayed at in NYC charged $13/shirt for laundry and $25 per piece for dry cleaning so that would not be at all feaseable for us. Any advice from those with experience would be appreciated.

Many hotels also have a guest-laundry. For a few quarters you can use the machines, washers and dryers.
Use it at a dull moment or take a book....

<b>It depends.</b>

If you are going to a major city like NY, Paris, London, Boston, SF or other places with a high density of residential mixed in with the hotels, then there will likely be multiple wash/dry/fold laundries within a few blocks of your hotel which cost a fraction of what a hotel will charge you.

In places like beach towns, LA, Las Vegas, Florida resort areas and other places that lack a high density of local residents amidst the hotels you are out of luck.

I'd never do the hotel laundry routine unless I was on a major company expense account. There are often local laundromats where you can also leave your laundry and they'll do the work, wash, dry and fold. That's infinitely cheaper.

Many will suggest you wash things out in the sink and hang up to dry. Count me among those who don't like to live among laundry hanging up all over the place and who don't like wearing stiff underwear and socks that were air dried.

On the other hand, I'd never pay good money just for the privilege of bringing home clean clothes. I'll bring them home dirty and wash them there for &quot;free&quot;.

I usually travel for 2-3 weeks at a time and come home with a suitcase full of dirty laundry, but I can't see doing laundry on my vacation.
I have managed over the years to pack everything in a 22&quot; suitcase, I have to check it but it is small and easy to handle.

I once went on a 13-day trip across Europe. I went to the local Goodwill store and picked up T-shirts for 50 cents and threw them out as I travelled.

Regarding my &quot;unmentionables&quot; I took along those that were in very sorry shape and disposed of them as I went along also.

This way I lightened by load as I travelled and made room for a souvenier or two.

On another similar trip, I mailed home a box of dirty clothes from Switzerland.

We often wash smaller items like underwear, swimsuits, tshirts and shorts right in our room, either in the shower or the sink. Then we hang them to dry on the patio, shower-line, or around the room. Just bring some Woolite...even shampoo or soap works in a pinch.

For a week's vacation, I will just bring extra clothing, esspecially if I am travelling in the summer when clothing is lightweight. If I am travelling in the winter when clothing takes up a lot more space, I might do a load or two part way through the trip - usually in the hotel laundromat or a local one.

Traveling in the U.S.A. we can always find a wash-and-fold service, offered by laundromats with attendants. Just check the yellow pages and call around.

The drill is that you take clothes in early in the day and pick it up in the afternoon. The cost is usually about $1 a pound, with a minimum charge.

This service is much more difficult to find in Europe, South America, etc. However, it is sometimes available.

Traveling overseas, we go prepared to wash underclothes and socks, if necessary.

It depends on where I'm staying, how long I'm there and how busy I am. I've had the hotel wash items before, but it's not cheap. I've also rented condos or houses with washers &amp; dryers in them - definitely the preferred way to go. And I've also brought my Woolite and done the bathroom sink thing.

However, unless I'm gone more than a week, I'm usually way too busy to care about washing anything. The way I look at it is usually no one knows me so I can get away with wearing the same clothes 2 or 3 times. (Unless they stink of course!) I always bring more than enough clean underwear though! I couldn't possibly ask the hotel to clean those. :-]

We normally only pack for a couple days and do laundry half way through. I can always get small samples of laundry detergent and fabric softener from the internet and pack them so that isn't a cost or weight to consider. Most hotels have facilities for guests, so we just pick up a bottle of wine and have Happy Hour waiting for the clothes to get done.

I forgot to mention that most hotel rooms come with an iron and ironing board these days and, when these are not in a room they are usually available from housekeeping.

(I wrote this so people who never iron will have a chance to tell us about it.)

I usually don't want to spend vacation time doing laundry. Vacation time is too precious. However, when we ski, we stay in a condo, and I'll do laundry during the trip.

I usually send it out. In Europe, the stuff comes back looking better than it did when you bought it. In NYC you can usually either go one block in any direction from your hotel and find a laundry that will do it, or ask the concierge for the location of the closest one. You'd probably have to send it through the hotel in most other cities in the US. I don't want to spend time overseas looking for a washeteria so for me, it's worth the cost.

I've never understood the 'take ratty underwear and throw it away' as you go method of packing.

My underwear doesn't take up any space and can be rinsed out easily in the shower.

I'll rinse stuff out occaisionally but I don't do laundry unless I'm staying in a condo.

got to be careful on this one. I fully expected to do laundry at a laundromat in Stockholm, 1/2-way through a Scandinavian tour last summer, to find that there are like 2 only 2 laundromats in all of Stockholm. Go figure. Not convenient at all and when we happened upon family and friends and asked to borrow their laundry rooms, no one seemed to have a dryer that worked. The Swedes love to hang their things out to dry. Even with the long days of sun, we were never in one place long enough (4 of us, including two teen girls with lots of heavy jeans that don't dry easily) for all our clothes to dry well. Moral of the story: We overpacked, but I'm glad we did!

On our road trips, which average 14 days, we always hit a local laundramat at least once. It's a pain. But, unless it's very crowded, we can usually do two or three loads at once. So it really doesn't take that long. And there's no way we could fit all our luggage in the trunk if we tried to take enough to last that length of time without washing.

For a week, I bring all the clothes and don't do laundry. Longer than a week, we take it to a service and have it done, unless we're in a condo in the US and then we do it ourselves. I actually have found it easy to find places in Europe and latin america to get laundry done. They just aren't listed in guidebooks, but if you keep your eyes open when you walk around you will see places.

For a trip of 1 week, I simply wear each outfit a couple times and don't do laundry.

For a trip of 2-3 weeks, I either visit a self service laundry matt or wash a few things out in the sink.

Depending on the location, sometimes I use a drop off service (Mexico) where they wash, dry, and fold within 1 day service, and reasonably priced.

I always pack extra clothes. We have been away on multi destinations in 1 trip and have never done laundry. I have sent clothes to the hotel cleaners...I know it's expensive but some things you ust have to suck up. If I get a stain on an expensive article of clothing I send it to the hotel cleaners ASAP. For my DH and myself, I pack 2 large suitcases. One suitcase is a regular suitcase for folded items and the other is a wardrober for hanging clothes. It is amazing how much it holds. Sometimes investing in really good luggage saves you time and money in the long run, you can pack more clothes and do not have to go to the laundry or spend money on laundry service. As long as your going to check a bag or two, might as well make it worth your while :)

Another great thing to travel with is Tide on the Go. Sometimes you might just get a spot and the clothing isn't really dirty. This will clean the spot and not leave a mark. you can buy it in the supermarket...it's the size of a magic marker.

When packing to go home, I pack all the dirty clothes in 1 suitcase and the clean in the other. If you are going away for a week or more there is no getting out of having dirty clothes...unless you shower 5 times a day :) you either pack less and either wear worn clothes and do laundry or pack more clothes.

Shout wipes are good, too---and easily carried in one's purse or backpack for those unforseen &quot;pasta incidents!&quot;

We sometimes do laundry 3,4 or more times on our road trips. Most laundry facilities provided by the hotels/motels have only a few machines available and for the most part are in use when we would need them... When you are mixing camping in with your travels you can sometimes have a mess. We have found it best to find a laundry that has many units available so you are able to do everything at one time and be on your way.

I like to use the laundromat service if i'm gone for a long time. Pay by the pound and they do the work. Depending on the situation, it will vary on what I run out of first... if its sox and underwear I have been known to go to Walmart and buy new stuff before I will force myself to do laundry. Sometimes I will use the hotel facilities.

I don't want to waste precious vacation time doing laundry. Plus, I'm allergic to fabric softener, so am reluctant to us public washers &amp; dryers.

When we're touring the US for about one month my wife usually does a bit of laundry twice during our trip. I usually take a swim before we prepare to go for our dinner in the evening so since she does not swim she the does the laundry. This is done in the Motel6 laundry on pay machines.Paul

I always take more than enough underwear for the trip (unless it's Europe where I buy some!)and although I don't find the time to do laundry I always find the time to shop! :) I buy an extra outfit or whatever I need and this fits in the space in my case which was filled by my kids' snacks!

Everyone gets a new souvenir tshirt each trip if we run out of clothes!

I definitely prefer to pack light rather than do laundry and usually I can fit 10 days worth of clothes in a smallish case (22'?)....I admit shoes are tough though :(

Depends on where I'm traveling to and who is ith me! During an 18 day trip to Australia, my husband did laundry once and I did hand wash a few things but we checked bags, were in no hurry and did not mind finding a laundry mat during our stay.

If its domestic here in the states I prefer to pack light and NOT do laundry! :)

When we went to Canada over Christmas/New Year's with our three small children I needed to bring lots of layered clothing and snow clothes for 5 which takes up a lot of room! (Gloves, boots etc..)I packed exactly hald of what we needed and did laundry once. I was glad I did it this way because I we could not have handled any more luggage. Looking back, I'm pretty proud of my packing/planning abilities... no doubt learned here on Fodor's!

We never have. We recently were in Africa for 19days, and our trip included a hike up Kilimanjaro, the safari and then Zanzibar. So we basically packed for everything. If we were doing more hiking stuff, we definitely would have washed our Kili stuff, but since we knew we didn't need any of that gear, we just kept it in our pack and had the safari/beach stuff in a separate suitcase.

Normally, I'd rather just pack an extra shirt of pair of pants/jeans, rather than spend the money on laundry and risk the place doing my laundry losing or ruining my clothes.

We had good luck with reasonably priced wash-and-fold service at washaterias in England and Scotland. I even came home with an &quot;extra&quot; souvenior -- a cheery pair of green-striped men's boxers!

Wow 19 days in Africa would definitely require 38 pairs of underwear and 38 pairs of socks before I started even thinking of anything else! Short of having my own crew to haul my steamer trunks, I can't imagine anyway not to do laundry in that amount of time.

Maybe not everyone is like me, but there's no way I'll shower and clean up for dinner and the evening after a heavy day of safari or hiking and then put on the same socks and underwear, yet alone shirt or pants.

We pack light. There are laudry facilities throughout. I use to bring clothes, and we could have stayed for months and not wash. I have learnt to downsize. Sounds like you dressup while traveling. We are casual people, and I do the laundry. Be a cold day before I would drop it off and have them do it. We try to get a motel/hotel with the facilities and do our own. Otherwise almost any town even the smallest have facilities.

We have travelled the world using only carry on luggage so of course we do laundry on trips. We wear our dressiest items on the plane (sport coat for him, knit or non-wrinkle type dress and low dress shoes for her) and take causal clothes that can be layered or interchanged. This only works of course if you are NOT planning to go to dinner with the Queen or a Gala event in Paris, etc.)The shoes come off and fluffy socks or slippers go on once the plane takes off. We take enough underwear for the 8 - 10 day trip and roll it up and and stuff it in gallon sized zip lock bags. They take very little room. Then we pack for 4 days of changes in outerwear. Sometimes we rinse items in the hotel sink but usually find a laundomat. We chat with locals and find out about non-tourist places they recommend to make the trip more enjoyable. We found a nice laudromat across the street from the University of London, talked to a lovely little lady who had lived in the area all her life. We loved hearing her accent and she enjoyed meeting us I believe. My husband even found an internet place right next door, where for a couple of dollars he sent reports back home. Just outside of Death Valley we talked with an ambulance driver who recommended a fun &quot;road house&quot; for supper. I never consider the time wasted. It is a great place to write post cards, fill in your journal, check bus routes for the next day, REST, etc. It isn't that big a deal and much better than trying to lug huge suitcases everywhere you go. We buy the detergent at the laundromat but I usually take along dryer sheets from home. Regarding bringing a suitcase of laundry home - Assuming you are not going on Safari or digging for opals in Australia, by the end of the trip you can probably consolidate the clean items into one suitcase and use the other one for dirty laundry. Also, this may sound extreme to some, but if you fold the used clothes, rather than stuff them in, it takes much less space - afterall just HOW dirty can they be that you cannot handle them long enough to fold them down? (Back to the Africa exception)lol
Have a wonderful time!

We travel with a rollaboard and a carryon, each. I mean a *small* rollaboard. We pack lightly...mix and match.

We never travel for less than three weeks.

In Florence and Mexico I took laundry to a laundromat where they do it for you and you pick it up.

In Alaska, and Oslo and Sydney and Vancouver and Homer and Arequipa and other places, I either used the facilities in the hotel or found a laundromat locally and did it myself.

(The latter is not a waste of time. I met some really nice locals who gave me hints on what to do and eat in their city.)

On a three week European river cruise I washed fast drying undies in the shower and used my handy dandy stretchable clothes line to dry them. I let the boat laundry people do some of the heavier things. Expensive.

I don't mind having undies drying in the bathroom overnight.

One week - pack it all. More than 1 week, find a laundromat, or send it out.
It also depends on your living situation, and what you need to bring. You can also try those compression bags. They save space when packing, and on my trip, I just throw items to be laundered into them as I go along.

Never heard of &quot;Tide on the go&quot; or &quot;Shout Wipes&quot; but both sound like a great idea. I'll try and find them before our next trip. My wife always packs a bottle with a spray nozzle so she can fill it with water and spritz her clothes. Helps a lot with the wrinkles from a heavily packed suitcase.

We're in our late 60's and try to go light. We do wash in the room, and never had a complaint. I take plenty of drycleaner bags and protect anywhere they might drip or seep. Our first trip to Europe was 33 days and I remember a time or two where we traveled with a wet garment in a plastic bag. So?

As most people said, avoid hotel dry cleaners, especially in the States, ESPECIALLY someplce like New York.

I have used hotel laundry in Cambodia, India &amp; Tanzania. The service was cheap and the clothes came out great.

While we were in Africa for a month, I hand washed some of my special quick dry clothing in the sink, hung it up and the next morning was ready to go.