For decades I thought that damp-towel smell was just a part of life. I’d used terry-cloth towels post-swim for years (at the beach, pool and lakeside), and it took hours for them to dry, even when hung out in the sunshine.
Then I met a friend of a friend who exclusively uses Turkish towels. She gushed about how quick-drying, lightweight and easy to pack they are. So when I saw Wirecutter’s budget pick, the Huckberry Mediterranean Turkish Towel, on sale for Prime Day, I snapped up four of them.
Budget pick
This soft-but-strong 100% cotton towel dries quickly and folds up small for easy packing.
Turkish towels were used as far back as the 1600s to provide privacy in Turkish baths. They are most often woven in Turkey of 100% long-staple cotton, which produces a smoother, stronger yarn to create a soft and lightweight towel.
“My parents lived in Turkey when I was born, so my mom always had a bunch of Turkish towels on hand for our beach days,” says senior copy editor Holly Gallo. “The Huckberry version is hand-loomed in Turkey, and it’s just as lightweight and beautiful as the ones from my youth. They’re so beautiful, in fact, that I now use them as bath towels as well.”
