Sea to Summit Pocket Towel vs Matador NanoDry

Sea to Summit Pocket Towel Large, or the Matador NanoDry packable shower towel in Large, is a travel-towel choice. Buy the Pocket Towel Large if you want the silky microfiber bath size that stuffs into the EVA case, with a snap so you can hang it off a pack. Buy the Matador NanoDry Large if you want the nanofiber towel in the silicone case with a carabiner, the one Matador rates to absorb about 2.3 times its weight. Confirm Large on both. A hand towel, a Trek square, and an XL beach sheet are different products that photograph like cousins.

Short version. A daypack has room for one of these and no room for a cotton bath sheet. A packing cube is where the damp towel goes if you refuse to hang it, and a travel pack still smells better when the towel dried outside the bag. Check live prices. Then read the size on the case, not the word "packable" alone.

The Sea to Summit card is the Large. The pack photographed with it is marked 60 by 120 centimeters. That is the bath size in this line, not the small hand towel and not the XL. The Matador card is the NanoDry packable shower towel, Large, in the rust color the photo shows, model family that ships in a silicone case. Matador has cut the Large more than one way over the years. Read the inches on the tag of the towel you received. A Trek towel is a face square. A Large is the one you can dry an adult with, slowly, if you wring it.

Sea to Summit's Large pack on this card is marked 60 by 120 centimeters. Matador's listing rates the NanoDry at about 2.3 times its weight and calls this the Large. Confirm you did not receive the Trek or the small.

Who should buy the Pocket Towel, and who should buy the NanoDry?

Buy the Sea to Summit Pocket Towel Large if you want the soft microfiber feel and a simple EVA sleeve. Sea to Summit's Large is the bath towel in the Pocket line. The fabric is the silky polyester microfiber they describe as absorbing about three times its weight, which is a lab way of saying it will dry you if you wring it and use both sides, and it will feel damp if you try to use it like a thick cotton sheet after a long swim. The snap tab is how it hangs from a cord or a pack loop. The EVA case is how it packs. The case is not waterproof storage for a soaked towel. It is a stuff sack with a shape.

Buy the Matador NanoDry Large if you want the silicone case and the carabiner, and you like a nanofiber towel better than classic microfiber. Matador's listing says the fabric absorbs about 2.3 times its weight, that it is lighter than a typical microfiber travel towel, and that a snap loop is sewn on for hanging. The case is silicone, with a carabiner, so it clips to a daisy chain instead of vanishing into a boot. Rust is the color on this card. Other colors exist. The size name is Large. If the tag says Trek, you have the small square and you will be unhappy the first time you try to dry your shoulders.

Buy the small, or skip a "bath" towel entirely, if the trip is a day hike and you only need to wipe your face. A daypack should not carry a bath towel unless the day ends in a swim. A bandana does that job. These Larges earn their place on an overnight, a hostel week, or a boat day when a cotton towel would stay wet in the bag until you get home.

What the Pocket Towel Large is actually for

The Pocket Towel is the one that feels like a thin, slick cloth. That slickness is why it packs small and why some people hate it against their skin. You pat more than you scrub. You wring it hard, shake it, and hang it. Microfiber has a lot of surface, so a hung towel dries faster than cotton in a breeze and slower than you hope in a humid room. In a hostel bathroom it will dry overnight if it is spread out. Stuffed wet into the EVA case, it will smell by morning. That is physics, not a defective towel.

The 60 by 120 centimeter mark on the pack is the size to believe for this card. Centimeters beat a memory of "bath towel." A cotton bath towel at home is often larger and always heavier. This one covers an adult if you move it. It does not wrap you like a robe. If you wanted a robe, you wanted the XL or you wanted to leave the cotton at the house. Machine wash it, with no fabric softener. Softener clogs the fibers that do the absorbing. Air dry it when you can. A hot dryer is how a thin towel shrinks into a different size.

Do: hang it from the snap as soon as you are done. Don't: pack it wet against a camera or a book. Don't: assume the small, the medium, and the XL are the same towel with a different sticker. The Large is the one marked like a bath towel. If the case you opened is a tiny square, you bought the hand size.

What the NanoDry Large is actually for

The NanoDry Large is Matador's shower towel: nanofiber, a silicone case, a carabiner, a snap loop. The 2.3-times-its-weight figure is Matador's absorbency claim. It is enough to dry a person after a shower or a swim if you wring the towel out as you go. It is not a beach blanket and it is not a cotton sheet that holds a puddle. Nanofiber dries quickly once it is open to air. Inside the silicone case it stays wet, because silicone does not breathe. The case is for a dry towel on a travel day, or for a wet towel you have decided to isolate from the rest of the pack for an hour. It is not a drying machine.

The carabiner is the feature the Pocket Towel's soft case does not match. Clip the case to the outside of a pack while the towel hangs from the snap, and you are not digging for a damp cloth at the next trailhead. Unclip it before the towel goes through an airport conveyor if a dangling carabiner will catch. The rust color on this card shows up in a gray tent. A gray towel in a gray tent is how towels get left behind. Pick the color you can see.

Do: read the size on the tag when it arrives. Large is the shower towel. Trek is the small one. Don't: wash it with fabric softener. Don't: store it damp in the silicone case for a week and then blame the fabric for the smell. Hang it. Case it dry. If the trip is a string of wet swims, hang it on the outside of the pack between swims, the way you would hang a cotton towel on a porch.

Where the towel lives in the bag

A dry towel goes in a packing cube or in its own case, not loose against a down jacket. A damp towel goes outside the pack or in a dedicated wet pocket. A packing cube keeps the dry clothes dry only if the towel is not soaking the cube. A travel backpack has a limit. One Large towel replaces the cotton sheet that used to take a third of the bag. That is the whole reason these exist. Bringing both a cotton sheet "just in case" and a packable towel defeats the pack.

On a boat or a lake day, clip the case and hang the towel over a railing or a paddle. A towel balled up on a kayak deck blows away. A towel under a spray skirt stays wet and cold. The daypack can carry the case. The towel itself should see air whenever you are not moving.

Hostel and cabin trips are where the Large earns the word shower. You are not drip-drying in a sleeping bag. You want a towel that covers you and then disappears into a case before the next train. Cotton from the room is fine when the room will wash it. The moment you are carrying the towel to the next town, the packable one is the one that fits.

How to wash them so they still absorb

Both brands say machine washable. Wash them with similar colors, skip the softener, and skip the bleach. Softener is the silent way a travel towel "stops working." The fibers are still there. They are coated. A second wash without softener sometimes brings a towel back. A hot iron is a good way to melt a synthetic towel. Don't. If the towel comes out stiff, it is clean. Shake it. The slick feel returns when it is dry.

Sand and sunscreen are the real dirt. Rinse the towel in plain water before it goes in a pack, or the next wash has to fight oil. Sunscreen stains light colors. Darker colors hide it and still hold the oil, which is another reason a towel that lives at the beach wants a rinse, not just a wring.

Smell is bacteria in damp fabric, not a mystery. Dry it in the sun when you have sun. In a wet climate, hang it in the driest air you have, even if that is a doorway. A towel that never fully dries will smell no matter which logo is on the hem. The fix is air, not a different brand every month.

What actually fails

The snap fails when people reef it sideways. Clip it straight. The EVA case on the Pocket Towel fails at the zipper if you overstuff a wet towel into a case sized for a dry one. Wring first. The silicone case on the NanoDry fails when it is packed under a stove or a boot until it creases and cracks. Cases are not armor. The carabiner is small. Do not use it as a haul loop for the pack.

The fabric fails by pilling and by losing a little absorbency after a lot of washes, which is normal for any synthetic towel. Retire it when it no longer dries you even after a thorough wash without softener. A towel with a hole is a rag. Neither of these is a lifetime cotton sheet, and neither one needs to be. They are the towel that fits the trip.

The other failure is the wrong size. Large versus Trek, Large versus small, Large versus XL. The photos look like cloth. The tag is the product. Open the case at home. If the towel would not dry your back, you do not have the Large, and the return is easier before the trip than after.

What this fight is not

It is not a cotton bath sheet, a beach blanket, or a camp rag you also wipe a stove with. Stove soot does not belong on the towel you put on your face. It is not a microfiber cleaning cloth from the auto aisle, even though the fibers are cousins. Those cloths are small, they are often treated, and they are the wrong thing to pack as a shower towel. It is not the pack itself. The pack carries the towel. The towel does not carry the trip.

It is not a promise that you will feel as dry as you do at home. You will feel dry enough, faster, in a smaller bundle, if you hang the towel up. If you need the home feeling, you are on a trip that has a linen closet. Use it.

So which travel towel should you buy?

Buy the Sea to Summit Pocket Towel Large if you want the silky microfiber bath size, the EVA case, and the snap, and the pack you opened is the one marked 60 by 120 centimeters. Buy the Matador NanoDry Large if you want nanofiber, the silicone case with a carabiner, and the absorbency Matador rates around 2.3 times the towel's weight. Confirm Large on the tag. Hang it wet. Case it dry. Leave the cotton sheet at home unless someone else is carrying it.