I’ve reviewed a lot of travel towels over the years and the only ones I’ve kept using were from Discovery Trekking. You can see my review of them here: Travel Towels That Actually Work.
A good towel just got better though: this Ultra Fast-Dry Towel now incorporates Polartec Power Dry fabric to improve the drying time without it losing any absorbency.
The elements I liked about this travel towel the first time around are still there. It soaks up far more water than it looks like it will, performing like some “As seen on TV” miracle cloth. It takes a bit longer than with fluffy cotton terrycloth—the price you pay for something so packable—but with an extra minute of effort you can fully towel off a body that’s coming straight from the shower or a swimming pool. Although it doesn’t feel as good as terrycloth either, compared to some of them I’ve used, this one is very soft. It doesn’t feel scratchy against the skin.
The real benefit of this travel towel though is that it enables you to pack one while still packing light. The medium size, which will be fine for most travelers, folds up to about the size of a noise-reduction headphones case, or smaller than a typical guidebook. You can cram it into any corner of your bag and it’ll pop out working fine. If you need to sink wash it, just wring it out after and it’ll dry quickly.
It’s treated with a silver derivative to keep it from getting smelly, but the fact that this one dries so quickly helps. Even in a humid bathroom my test version dried in a couple hours. In the breeze or the hot sun, it was ready in under an hour. This is a big help when you’re a backpacker on the move or you’re camping and need to pack up everything and go. 
If you go on the company website you’ll see an array of 18 colors—including two prints. The eight sizes seem like overkill, but if you want you can go from one barely larger than a washcloth to one that’s 34″ X 58″
The Discovery Trekking Ultra Fast-Dry Towel with Polartec lists for $20 for the medium 34″ X 28″ version I tried. You can get it direct from the company or buy it from REI.
