Self-service laundromat
Coin or card, about two hours, and you walk out with dry clothes.
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 room of commercial washing machines and dryers you operate yourself, usually unstaffed and open long hours. It is called a launderette in Britain, a Waschsalon in Germany and Austria, a lavandería automática in Spain, a laverie automatique in France and a coin laundry in Japan and the US. It is the only option on this list that reliably gives you dry, wearable clothes the same afternoon.
How it works, step by step
Nothing here is difficult, but four of these steps are where first-timers lose an hour.
- Find one before you need one. Search the local word, not the English one, and check the closing time — many are unstaffed and lock at 21:00 or 22:00 even though the lights stay on.
- Pick a machine by size, not by price. A standard 8 kg drum takes roughly a week of clothes for two people. Filling it two-thirds full washes better than cramming it.
- Pay at the central kiosk, not at the machine. Most modern places have one terminal for the whole room: you type the machine's number, pay by card, and then start it. Coin slots on each machine are increasingly the exception.
- Get detergent. There is usually a vending machine or an automatic dispenser you pay a little extra for — but the cheapest launderettes have neither, so carry one sachet as insurance.
- Choose 30° or 40° and a normal cycle. That is right for almost everything a traveller owns, and it runs about 30 minutes. Hotter is not cleaner; it is just harder on technical fabrics.
- Budget for the dryer separately. It is a second machine and a second payment, usually charged in blocks of ten minutes, and a mixed load takes 20 to 40 minutes. This is the step people forget when they estimate the cost.
- Stay, or come back early. Unattended laundry does get taken, and a full machine left at closing time is locked in until morning.
In Europe, budget €4–€6 for a wash and €3–€5 for enough dryer time, so €8–€12 for a full load done properly. In North America a wash-and-dry runs about $4–$8. It is the cheapest way to clean a lot of clothes at once, and the worst value if you only have two shirts.
- Dryer time, charged in blocks — the single most underestimated line
- Detergent from the machine, usually €1–€2 a dose
- A card minimum: some kiosks won't take a payment under €5, so a small load costs the minimum anyway
- Occasionally a fee for a locker or a trolley
- You pay for the drum, not the clothes in it, so a half-empty machine costs the same as a full one
- It takes an afternoon you might rather spend elsewhere
- Commercial machines are rough on anything delicate — use a mesh bag or wash those by hand
- The dryer's default heat will shrink cotton and can damage elastane; use the low setting for technical clothing
- One sachet or sheet of detergent, in case there's no dispenser
- A payment card and a few coins — some kiosks are still cash-only
- A mesh bag for anything delicate
- A bag for the clothes on the way there, and something to read while you wait
- Are travelling for longer than a week
- Are two or more people, so a full drum is easy to fill
- Need the clothes back today, not tomorrow
- Are in a city, where these are easy to find
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
Roughly €8–€12 in Europe for a full load washed and dried, or about $4–$8 in North America. The wash and the dryer are charged separately, and dryer time is the part people forget: a mixed load usually needs two or three ten-minute blocks.
Less and less. Most laundromats renovated in the last few years have a single card kiosk where you select a machine number and pay for it, and some have an app. Older and rural ones are still coin-only, so carrying a few coins is cheap insurance.
About 90 minutes to two hours end to end: 30 minutes to wash, 20 to 40 minutes to dry, plus loading, paying and folding. Plan it as an afternoon errand, not a quick stop.
You can, and most people do, but things are taken from unattended machines often enough that it's a real risk. The bigger problem is timing: if the place locks at 22:00 and your dryer finishes at 21:55, you are cutting it very fine.
30° or 40°C for everything you are likely to be carrying. It is enough for normal wear, it is what most travel clothing's label asks for, and it avoids shrinking cotton. Save 60° for bedding and genuinely soiled workwear, neither of which you are travelling with.
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.