Microfiber Towels: Choose the Right One for Your Next Trip

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was right – a towel may well be the most useful thing to bring on any intrepid adventure.

Dry yourself off with it, clean up spills, wipe off sweat, pack it around fragile things, sit on it, swat away flies – the options are endless. And thanks to advances in microfiber technology, they’re more packable and absorbent than ever.

To help you find your perfect match for your next camping trip or overseas holiday, here’s our guide to picking the perfect packable towel.

A good travel and camping towel should be five things

• Ultra absorbent
• Quick to dry
• Machine washable
• Soft
• Light and compact

Ultra Absorbent

Packable towels should be far more absorbent than your normal towel, which is why our whole range utilities microfiber technology. Microfiber, with its minute channels built into the yarn, absorbs water in a way that natural fibers can’t—so even a little material goes a very long way.

Quick to Dry

You don’t want to shove a wet towel in your pack any more than you want to be held up watching material dry. Microfiber has a surface area of around 40 times that of a regular fiber, allowing it to dry much faster than your average towel.

Machine Washable

Travel and camping towels should be easy care—and that means being machine washable with a normal detergent. However, to maintain a high level of performance, keep your microfiber towel away from fabric softeners and dryer sheets, which clog up the microchannels in the fibers. Microfiber towels are not colorfast-dyed. Make sure to wash your new towel separately a few times before washing it with other items to prevent discoloration of your laundry.

Soft

Just because you’re roughing it outdoors doesn’t mean your towel needs to feel like sandpaper. Our towels use quality microfiber with a high recycled polyester content, making them soft to the touch. Our towels also come in a number of different textures or ‘handfeels’. The Airlite Towel is smooth and the Pocket Towel soft and silky. The DryLite Towel has a suede feel and the Tek Towels are thick and fluffy.

Light and Compact

Our towels range from 1.1 oz Airlite Towels to extra-large and extra plush Tek Towels, weighing in at 15.7 oz. All towels come in a storage sack or soft case and can be as small as a chicken egg.

Sea to Summit’s Travel and Camping Towels

Size, weight, absorbency, handfeel and more – here’s everything to know about our packable towels.

Airlite Towel

Our lightest and most compact towel in our range, the Airlite towel is for the minimalist who values packed space and weight savings above all else. Ranging from 1.1oz to 2.4oz, these elongated towels act as everything from a dishcloth to a bandana or bath towel.

85% recycled polyester, 15% nylon microfiber and comes in a lightweight stuff sack.

Pocket Towel

Compact as it is absorbent – and ultralight to boot. The Pocket Towel feels a little like a silk scarf – one which soaks up a lot of water and dries lighting fast.

100% recycled polyester microfiber and comes in a soft, zippered EVA case.

Drylite Towel

The ideal synthesis of quick-drying, lightweight and compact. The Drylite Towel is more absorbent than the Pocket Towel but takes up just a little more room in your bag. It’s available in five sizes—ranging from hand towel to beach towel sized—and has a ‘microsuede’ finish.

80% recycled polyester, 20% nylon microfiber and comes in a mesh-faced storage pouch.

Tek Towel

Our plushest, most absorbent towel. The microfiber of the Tek Towel feels similar to your towel at home. Due to the greater surface area (compared to the other three towels) this the most absorbent in our towel range. The four sizes of Tek Towel—ranging from hand towel to beach towel—are heavier than the equivalent sized DryLite Towel, but still light and compact enough for many, many outdoor activities—including drying the dogs off after a swim at the lake, or cleaning up the kids after soccer practice.

80% recycled polyester, 20% nylon microfiber and comes in a soft zippered EVA case.

Whether you’re off to surf Manly Beach, backpacking through South East Asia or packing for a ski tour in the Tetons, make sure you take the right lightweight, packable towel with you.