Blankets & Towels

This section covers everything you put between yourself and the sand. It divides into two questions that people routinely merge: what do you lie on, and what dries you. The answers are different products, and buying one expecting the other is where most of the disappointment in this category comes from.

Sand-free means two different things

On a mat or blanket, sand-free usually means a patented two-layer weave: grains fall down between the upper threads and cannot find a path back up through the offset lower layer. CGEAR holds the patent and developed the technology for military use. It is a mechanism, it works when wet, and liquids drain through it too.

On a towel, sand-free means a smooth flat weave with no loops for a grain to hook into, so sand brushes off once the towel is dry. That is real and it is a weaker claim — no towel sheds sand while it is wet, because water creates surface tension that sticks grains to any fabric. People who conclude sand-free towels do not work have almost always tested one wet.

The full side-by-side is in sand-free blanket vs sand-free towel.

Three kinds of blanket

If sand is what annoys you, buy the weave. If packed size is the constraint, buy the packable sheet. If you sit on cold damp sand in spring and autumn, buy the padded one. Most people end up owning two, which is a reasonable outcome rather than a failure.

Towels: cotton or microfiber

Cotton is more absorbent per square inch, feels better and lasts for years; it is also heavy, bulky and stays wet long enough to be unpleasant in a bag. Microfiber dries in a fraction of the time, packs to a fraction of the volume, and does not feel like a towel. There is no winner, only a question: are you walking fifty yards from a car, or packing for a flight?

One brand in this category publishes real figures and deserves credit for it. Dock & Bay publishes a size guide giving 200 x 90 cm (78 x 35 in) and 500 g for its XL. Nomadix publishes a size for its Ultralight and nothing for its Original; Matador and Neso publish no weights at all. The comparison is in microfiber vs Turkish cotton.

The one maintenance rule

Never use fabric softener on a quick-dry towel. It coats the fibers and destroys both absorbency and drying speed, and it is by far the commonest way people ruin a good towel. A hot wash will usually recover one that has been softened by accident. This is not on any label.

Staying put

A blanket is a large flat sheet, which is also the definition of a sail. Three approaches exist: stakeable corners (CGEAR fits reinforced D-rings to its Original mat, which almost nobody else does), corner pockets you fill with sand, or simply enough mass not to care. A woven mat has a fourth advantage — air passes through the weave rather than lifting it, which is why CGEAR calls its Sandlite virtually windproof while a solid nylon sheet balloons.

Start here

• Beach blankets, for the three-type overview.
• Sand-free blankets, for the weave explained.
• Beach mats, if you want a clean floor you can stake down.
• Beach towels, for the cotton-or-microfiber decision.
• Quick-dry towels, and what the speed costs.
• Travel towels, ranked on packed size.

The trick worth knowing before you buy anything

Sand sticks to damp skin because of surface tension, not because it is dirty. A small bottle of talc or baby powder in the beach bag dries skin instantly and the sand brushes straight off. It costs almost nothing and solves more of the sand problem than most purchases in this section — see getting sand out of everything.