The machine where you're staying
The cheapest option there is — but usually there's no dryer.
Yes — pack fewer clothes
This is what the packing calculator means. With this available, a week's trip needs about five days of clothes instead of seven.
What it is
A washing machine in the apartment, the hostel's laundry room or the campsite's wash block. It is free or nearly free, it is available at midnight, and it is the single strongest reason to filter for it before you book rather than after. The catch is one that surprises almost every visitor to Europe: a great many apartments have a washing machine and no dryer at all.
How it works, step by step
The work here is mostly done before you arrive.
- Filter for it when booking. On every major booking site "washing machine" is a searchable amenity, and it costs nothing to prefer a flat that has one.
- Check whether there is also a dryer. The listing will say so separately, and if it doesn't, assume there isn't one. This is the difference between washing on the last evening and washing two days out.
- Find the detergent, or accept that there isn't any. Hosts sometimes leave a box; hostels usually sell a sachet at reception. Carrying a couple of sheets means you never have to find out at 21:00 on a Sunday.
- Read the dial before you start it. If the labels are in a language you don't read, the symbols are the same everywhere — the care-symbol reference on this site covers them.
- Choose the shortest sensible programme. Many European machines default to a two- or three-hour "eco" cycle; a 30° short or "express" wash is 30 to 60 minutes and is what you want for a mid-trip refresh.
- Hang everything up straight away, with air on both sides. A drying rack by an open window, or hangers spread along a curtain rail, beats a heap on a radiator every time.
Free in an apartment you have rented, and €2–€5 a load in a hostel or a campsite, usually paid by token or card at reception. Add a euro or two if you have to buy detergent on site.
- Detergent, which is only sometimes provided
- A separate charge for the dryer, where there is one
- In some apartments, a cleaning-fee clause about leaving laundry hanging — worth a glance
- In most of Europe there is no dryer, so you still need a night and some airflow
- "Eco" programmes on modern machines can run for three hours, which is not what you want at 22:00
- A hostel has one or two machines for the whole building, so evenings are queued
- You have to be there for the end of the cycle, or the next person unloads your clothes onto a bench
- Detergent is rarely included, and it is the thing nobody remembers
- Detergent sheets or a solid bar — light, no leaks, no liquids bag
- A travel clothesline, and a few pegs
- A couple of collapsible hangers
- A mesh bag if you're mixing delicates in with everything else
- Have booked an apartment, an aparthotel or a longer stay
- Are travelling with children, where the laundry is constant and unglamorous
- Want to pack for five days and travel for two weeks
- Are somewhere with dry air or a balcony, so overnight drying actually works
Turnaround is measured door to door — from handing the clothes over to wearing them again — not from the machine's timer.
Questions people ask about this
Whole-apartment listings usually do — it is a normal part of a European flat — but it is an amenity you should filter for rather than assume, especially in studios and city-centre micro-apartments. A private room in someone's home may have one you are not invited to use.
Usually not, in Europe. Tumble dryers are common in North America, Australia and the UK, and comparatively rare in apartments in Spain, Italy, France and Germany, where clothes are dried on a rack or a balcony line. Plan on hanging things up, and be pleasantly surprised.
Because the default programme on most modern machines is an "eco" cycle that saves energy by washing longer at a lower temperature. Look for "quick", "express", "rapid" or a 30-minute setting; for lightly worn travel clothes it is more than enough.
Sometimes in apartments, rarely in hostels, and never reliably. Hostels normally sell a single-wash sachet at reception for a euro or two. Carrying a few detergent sheets removes the question entirely and weighs almost nothing.
Almost never — hotels route laundry through their paid per-item service instead. Aparthotels are the exception and often have a guest laundry room, which is one of the practical differences between the two.
The calculator asks whether you'll have laundry. Start with this answer filled in and it will size the list around washing once mid-trip instead of packing a fresh set for every day.