Laundry, showers and toilets on a road trip in the United States

Nobody mentions it in travel stories, and everyone wonders about it after five days: where to wash your clothes, where to shower when you’re sleeping in a van, where to stop on a road with no villages. The United States is fairly well equipped, provided you know the right places.

Laundry

Leaving with a week’s worth of clothes and washing along the way halves the weight of your suitcase (see packing). Three solutions.

The hotel laundry room

Many motels and chain hotels have a self-service laundry for guests (guest laundry): one or two washing machines and a dryer at the end of the corridor. It’s the most practical option, since you start the machine when you get back and collect the washing after your shower.

• Price: 2 to 4 dollars a wash, the same again for drying.
• Payment: in 25-cent coins (quarters), sometimes by card or app.
• Detergent: in single doses from the vending machine or at reception, for a dollar or two.

Check whether the hotel has one when you book, and place the laundry stop in the middle of the trip.

The laundromat

In town, search for laundromat or coin laundry in Google Maps. The machines are big, and you can wash a week’s clothes for two in one go.

• Price: 3 to 6 dollars a wash depending on the size, 25 cents for every 6 to 8 minutes of drying.
• Time: 30 minutes for the wash, 30 to 40 minutes for drying.
• Coins: a change machine turns notes into quarters. More and more laundromats work with a rechargeable card or an app.
• Wash and fold service by weight: you drop the bag off in the morning and collect the folded laundry in the evening, for 1.50 to 2.50 dollars a pound.

Stay on the premises or come back on time: washing forgotten in the machine will be taken out by the next customer.

Campgrounds

Private campgrounds, such as KOA, almost all have a laundry. Those in the national parks rarely do, except in the big villages as at Yosemite, the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone.

American machines are often top-loading and wash in thirty minutes at a low temperature. The dryer runs hot: dry anything technical or woollen on low heat.

As a stopgap, travel soap, the washbasin and a hanger take care of hiking socks.

Showers, when you’re sleeping in a van

At campgrounds

• Private campgrounds: hot showers included in the price.
• State parks: often showers, free or coin-operated.
• National parks: rarely at the campsite. A few parks have paid showers in their villages, for about 5 dollars.

In coin-operated showers, a few quarters give four to six minutes of hot water. Get everything ready before starting the timer.

At truck stops

The big truckers’ stations (Pilot, Flying J, Love’s, TravelCenters of America) rent out private shower rooms, clean, with towel and soap provided. Allow 14 to 17 dollars a shower. You pay at the till, you’re given a number, and a screen announces when the room is ready. If there are two of you, ask whether you can share the same room: it’s often accepted.

At gyms

This is the long-term traveller’s solution. A monthly membership of a national chain gives access to the showers of all its clubs. Planet Fitness, with its Black Card plan at about 25 dollars a month, plus an annual fee, is the most widely used: it has more than 2,000 clubs and lets you bring a guest. The sums only add up for a trip of several weeks, and you have to remember to cancel.

The other solutions

• Public pools and recreation centres: an entry fee of a few dollars gives access to the showers.
• Beaches: outdoor cold-water showers, for rinsing off.
• Solar shower: a black 10- or 20-litre bag left in the sun, for wild camping.
• A motel night every four or five days: shower, laundry, a real bed and recharged batteries.

Toilets

In the United States, you ask for the restroom or the bathroom. The word toilet refers to the bowl itself and sounds a little crude.

On the road

• Rest areas on the motorways: free, clean on the whole, signposted several miles in advance. They’re sometimes 80 or 100 km apart in the West.
• Petrol stations: open access, sometimes with a key to ask for at the till. The big truck stop chains and Buc-ee’s in the South are the best kept.
• Fast-food outlets and cafés: in theory reserved for customers. A coffee or a bottle of water settles the matter.
• Supermarkets: always have toilets, generally at the back or near the entrance.

In the parks

• Visitor centers: toilets with running water.
• Trailheads and car parks: vault toilets, with no water or washbasin. They’re maintained, but keep hand sanitiser and a little paper in your bag.
• On the trails: nothing. If you need to go, you move 60 metres away from the trail and from water, dig a hole 15 centimetres deep, and carry the paper out in a sealed bag. In some canyons and in the desert, you have to carry everything out in bags designed for the purpose, handed out or sold by the parks.

In town

Public toilets are rare. The places to think of: department stores, shopping malls, hotel lobbies, libraries, free museums, stations and Starbucks. In New York, parks such as Bryant Park have well-maintained public toilets.

For van travellers: waste water

• Grey water (sink, shower) and black water (toilet) are emptied only at a dump station. You find them at campgrounds, some truck stops and rest areas. iOverlander and Campendium list them.
• Never in nature, or down a storm drain.
• Fill up with clean water at the same place, from the tap marked potable water, not the rinsing one.

The rest of the logistics are in travelling by van and where to sleep in a van or at a campground.