Tesalate sand-free towels - are they really the best for travel?

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably seen the Tesalate towels advertised, with claims of it being sand-free, ultra-absorbent and so compact - but is this all really too good to be true? For the last couple of months we have been using one to see if it really is worth the hype!

* Although Tesalate gave us one of their towels, I have not been paid for this blog post and I don’t receive any commission if you buy one. This review is my honest opinion of our experience with the towel.*

We are always on the lookout for products that are going to make our life easier, especially when it comes to living in our campervan. We’ve got a Toyota Hiace Commuter van that we have converted into our home on wheels and it is definitely not big.

It seats and sleeps us all comfortably, but that is just about all there is space for!

We love the beach and have always packed a beach towel for each of us - they take up a lot of space, take ages to dry and if they are packed away wet they start to smell! So I was very excited to try out a Tesalate towel!

Tesalate sent us their new “Bohemian XL” towel for two to try.

Their website says that this towel is:

• Sand-free. Leave the beach at the beach.

• Double sized beach towel: 160cm x 160cm / 63 x 63 inches.

• Ultra absorbent; over 2 litres of water.

• Rapid-drying. Half the time of a regular beach towel.

• Compact when rolled. Fits in your bag.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

So we put it to work to check out these claims!

Sand-free - it really is! A quick shake is all it needs to get rid of any sand (even wet sand). It means that there is no scratchiness, so it is soft on the little ones’ skin, and it's great for the van as it doesn't bring half the beach in with it!

Double sized - it fits all four 4 of us, so we use it as a picnic rig as well. Hurrah for even more space saved!

The only issues we’ve found with the size of it is that if we are drying the little ones in a wet bathroom, it does tend to drag along on the floor and soak up some floor water.

It is also too big to wear around like a sarong or to wrap around wet hair.

For these reasons we don’t use it as a bath towel, but for a beach towel and picnic rug, it is a great size!

Ultra absorbent - it dries all of us and still doesn’t feel soggy. It seriously has replaced 4 beach towels!

Rapid drying - it is much quicker to dry than our old beach towels. Even on days where we have had a swim and then packed up for a drive right away, when we hang it over the back of the boys’ car seats it dries quickly and it doesn’t get that stinky wet-dog smell that our old towels would get after a few uses! This is very good news if you don’t have regular access to a washing machine!

Compact - it is so tiny! When the package arrived I couldn’t believe how small it was.

We fit it in our backpack if we are hiking, along with all our water bottles, food and whatever else we need!

And instead of taking up a huge amount for storage space in the van for 4 beach towels and a picnic rug, it fits easily in a drawer.

Also, I have to say that the design on the towel is beautiful!

The colours are vivid and haven’t faded at all. I was a bit nervous about the black and white on the back, as we are not the best at keeping our whites white - but it is still looking nice and white after a couple of months of use.

So what is our verdict?

The Tesalate towel isn’t the cheapest towel ($79 for the one-person size and $139 for the XL one that we have) but it is very well made and looks like it will last. I am happy to pay more for a product that does a great job and won’t need to be replaced for a long time.

I am really loving our big XL size towel - it is perfect for our family with two little kids. If I was a solo traveller or had older kids, I would probably buy a couple of the smaller sized towels rather than the XL version.

So the Tesalate XL towel makes it onto the list of our favourite products for travel with kids!