Pool Towel vs Beach Towel: Do You Need Both?
The pool towel vs beach towel question sounds like a linen-closet problem, but it shows up every summer weekend. There's one bag by the door for the neighborhood pool and another for the beach, and never quite enough towels to fill both. Here's our take: you don't need two kinds of towel. You need one that handles a lounge chair and the sand, and maybe enough of them that nobody argues over the good one.
By Salt Rag ·
What people mean by a pool towel
"Pool towel" isn't a technical category. Usually it means a big terry towel, often in cabana stripes, sized to cover a lounge chair. Hotels and clubs hand them out by the stack.
Its job is short and easy. Cover the chair, dry you off, maybe fold up into a pillow. It barely travels: chair to water and back, or a short walk from the back door. Bulk doesn't matter much when the towel never leaves the deck, or when somebody else does the laundry.
What a beach towel needs to do
A beach towel has the harder job. It gets carried, often a long way: from the car, down the boardwalk, over the dune. It goes down on sand, not a clean chair. It handles wind, wet kids and a second swim, and then it goes back in a bag and rides home in the car.
So the things a pool towel can ignore start to matter: how much space it takes in the bag, whether sand shakes off and whether it can dry out between dips.
Pool towel vs beach towel: why one towel can do both
Here's the useful part. A towel that's good at the beach is usually good at the pool. The reverse doesn't hold up as well. A thick pool towel at the beach is a heavy thing to carry, and the pile gives sand plenty of places to settle.
A flat-woven Rag packs small enough for a beach bag, lets sand shake off before you pack up and dries quickly when you hang it in the open air between swims. Drape it over a lounger and it does the pool job too.
To be fair to the pool towel: if you'll spend all afternoon on a hard lounger and want a cushion under you, a plush terry towel is more comfortable. A flat weave is a towel, not padding. And if the hotel is handing them out, bring nothing and enjoy it.
Lounge chair vs sand: coverage at 40 × 70 inches
Each Rag opens to 40 × 70 inches, about 102 × 178 cm. That's a full-size towel: enough to stretch out on in the sand or drape over a lounger. We break down the measurements in 40 × 70, so we won't repeat them here.
A towel for the pool bag
A pool bag fills up fast: flip-flops, goggles, juice boxes, sunscreen, a book nobody opens. A rolled Rag slides in alongside all of it without taking over.
At the pool, hang it over the chair back while you swim and it'll be ready for the next round. Got wet kids running laps between the deep end and the snack bar? One towel each, hung on the back of their chairs, saves a lot of "which one's mine?" Which brings us to color, further down.
Photo pending: Two Salt Rags packed in pool and beach bags
Moving between the pool, the beach and home
Some days don't stay in one place. A morning swim in the ocean, an afternoon at the pool, then dinner on the porch. One towel can cover all of it if it packs small and comes back to life between stops.
A few habits help:
- Shake it out before the pool deck. Leave the beach on the beach. Whoever sweeps the deck will thank you.
- Hang it, don't ball it. A damp towel stuffed in a bag stays damp. Over a chair back or a car-door frame, it gets air.
- Let it have an inside life. Back home, a Rag over a chair or the end of the sofa is still useful. After the water has more ideas.
When it's time to wash it, follow the care label supplied with your Rag. Our FAQ has the details.
Photo pending: A Turkish towel used on the sand
One Rag, two bags: choosing colors you can tell apart
If you do want a towel in both bags, the simplest system is color. Give the pool bag one Rag and the beach bag another, or give everyone in the house their own color. Nobody walks off with the wrong towel, and the pool bag is always ready to grab.
Pick colors that look nothing alike. The Ahi Rag (Mint) is sea-glass mint with fine multicolor stripes. The Tidemark Rag (Yellow) has warm yellow stripes on a cream base. You can tell them apart from across the pool deck.
FAQ
What's the difference between a pool towel and a beach towel? A pool towel mostly covers a chair and dries you off close to home. A beach towel also gets carried, laid on sand and packed back up, so size in the bag and sand matter more.
Can I use one towel for the pool and the beach? Yes. A full-size flat-woven towel handles both. Use terry if you want a cushion on a hard lounger.
What's the best towel for the pool? If you're carrying it there, one that packs small and dries quickly between swims. If you're lounging all day, one you find comfortable to lie on.
Do you need both?
Probably not. You need one good towel per person and per bag. Shop the Rags to see every color in stock, or build a stack and give each bag its own. There's more on the weave in Why a Rag.
Keep reading: 40 × 70 · After the water · Why a Rag
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