Let’s be honest: Most people don’t put that much thought into the best bath towels. You grab one off the rack, dry off, and move on with your life. Maybe you’ve even had the same set for the last 10 years. (We’re not judging.) But if you’ve ever stepped out of the shower and been greeted by a damp, scratchy towel that smells vaguely like mildew, know that you don’t have to live like this. A great bath towel can make your bathroom feel like a spa and your morning routine feel a little more grown up, and a cozy bath towel is a great way to impress a house guest.
Just like bed sheets, the universe of bath towels includes options in tons of fabrics, weaves, and textures. Some are ultra-soft but never seem to dry. Others are quick-drying but about as cozy as a dish rag. And then there are the elusive just-right towels—the ones that hit the sweet spot of softness, absorbency, and speed.
The Best Bath Towels, at a Glance:
Looking for Something Specific?
Unlike beach towels that get used once before getting tossed into the washing machine, the best bath towels need to dry quickly enough to be used day after day. It’s taken our reviewers some trial and error to find the right towels, but we tested a whole stack of them to find the ones worth your shelf space. And considering how low the stakes are, it might be worth trying out several of our favorites for yourself to see what you like. You certainly don’t need to own 50 towels, but nobody ever complained about having a few extras lying around the house.
The Best Bath Towel Overall: Brooklinen Plush Towel
The Brooklinen super-plush bath towel is ridiculously cozy and drapes on you like a dental X-ray vest. In fact, this towel is so plush and so soft that you’ll never be able to go back to using ordinary towels again, and it’s proven to be a hit among our reviewers and readers alike. Made from long-staple Turkish cotton, it still feels wonderfully soft after dozens of washes. (It shed a little lint the first few washes, but it’s not a factor after that). The downside to this ultra-absorbent heavyweight towel is that it takes a long time to dry—although not quite as long as you’d expect given the almost-sponge-like absorbency. Some water does tend to get trapped in the thick 820-GSM fabric. But as long as you’re not showering twice a day, or own more than one towel, that’s not a huge deal.
The Best Waffle Bath Towel: Saatva Luxury Waffle Towel (3-Piece Set)
Saatva is a luxury bedding brand known for their organic mattresses, and have now ventured into the bathroom. Given the brand’s attention to detail and investment in high-quality materials in the bedroom, we knew their bath products would be up to par. This waffle towel feels strikingly similar to the Onsen, just with a bit less bounciness and weight to it—so it dries just a pinch faster but doesn’t feel quite as soft. This set comes with a hand towel and washcloth, which is great if you’re trying to upgrade everything at once. We just wish you could buy them à la carte for when you inevitably want more.
The Best Long-Lasting Bath Towel: Frette Unito Bath Towel
Frette is the kind of brand that instantly signals “five-star suite.” The beauty is in the details—the rounded edges, cotton piping, immaculate stitching, and finely embroidered brand name. The towels don’t feel super soft at first touch—in fact, you might even side-eye them when they arrive—but after one shower, you’ll get it. The terry is dense and tightly woven, giving it a satisfying weight that feels more like a wrap than a towel. It dries quickly, holds up through wash after wash, and lends your bathroom the subtle flex of someone who’s got elite taste. And while the price tag is one of the highest on this list, Frette fans will proudly exclaim how their towel has lasted over 15 years and counting, while other towels are left sad, frayed, and coarse.
The Best Plush Bath Towel: Luxome Plush Performance Bath Sheet (2-Piece Set)
If you want to replicate your favorite spa experience, this bath sheet is for you. It’s thick—like really thick—and absorbs water very quickly but thanks to the poly blend and something called “dual loop technology” (each loop grabs and then releases moisture), it dries faster than you’d expect from something this fluffy. The result? A truly luxe post-shower wrap that won’t stay soggy until the next day. Just know: These things are beastly. They’ll take up a fair chunk of space, so maybe don’t order more than you need unless you’ve got the closet real estate to match.
The Best Organic Bath Towel: Quince Organic Turkish Waffle Bath Towels
Looking for the aesthetic of the popular waffle towels without the usual price tag? For the cost of one trendy towel from elsewhere, you get a matching set here—without sacrificing the Instagram-worthy texture. These organic Turkish cotton towels are lightweight, quick-drying, and soft enough to use daily. They look just as good hanging on your towel rack as they do folded on a shelf next to your fancy shampoo. They don’t come in as many colors as the Onsen towels do, but you’ll still have some solid options to choose from, like Terracotta or Mineral.
The Coolest-Looking Bath Towel: Quiet Town Tam Bath Sheet
If you’ve ever looked at your minimalist bathroom and thought, “Needs more excitement,” then here you go. Quiet Town is known for their design-forward, statement-making shower curtains, but you know what they also do really well? Towels. Each one comes in graphic print—retro checkerboard, chunky stripes, fun colors—and is made with organic cotton. These bath sheets are thinner, more like your favorite beach towel, but the cotton is soft and absorbent enough to do the job. And despite their XL dimensions, they fold down neatly, so you won’t have to Marie Kondo your entire linen shelf to make space.
The Best Lightweight Towel: Onsen Bath Towel
The Onsen towel is made with Supima long-staple cotton, which gives it its softness. (If you’re not familiar with Supima cotton, it’s the fine cotton fabric that’s ideal for underwear—and towels, apparently.) It’s surprisingly squishy despite being on the thinner side, and the texture feels lightly exfoliating in the most satisfying way. Its unique waffle weave texture gives it a bit of bonus surface area that can grab water from your body, while remaining exposed to air. That means it’s more absorbent than you’d expect from something this lightweight—and it dries just as fast as any thin towel. Basically, the perfect medium if you want something lightweight for summer or need to save on storage space. Plus, waffle towels just have a real visual appeal to them—drape the Onsen over the back of a reclining chair by the side of a swimming pool sometime and get ready to field a lot of questions and compliments. It’s also the kind of towel that will serve you well in any size, from hand towel to full-blown bath sheet. One note about these towels is that they can snag easily, so you may need to be a little delicate when slinging them over the shower door or towel rack.
The Best Quick-Drying Towels: Coyuchi Temescal Organic Towels
If you haven’t heard of Coyuchi, we think that’s a damn shame. The California-based textile brand puts a heavy emphasis on sustainability, and all of its products use certified organic materials. Coyuchi may lack the name-brand recognition of brands like Avocado or Brooklinen (for now), but this is a bath and bedding brand that should absolutely be on your radar. Coyuchi’s Temescal bath towels aren’t quite as plush as Brooklinen’s famously fluffy towels (don’t worry, they’re still plenty soft), but that’s because they were designed to dry ridiculously fast.
In our testing, they dried just as quickly as towels that were half as thick. (They dry so fast that we recommend air drying them after you toss them into the washing machine to conserve some energy.) To make these towels, the brand weaves “long-staple Turkish cotton into a lightweight yarn” and uses a ribbed texture to achieve above-average absorbency and faster drying times. And as much as we appreciate the eco-friendly materials and manufacturing, we also appreciate the stylish color options. Instead of getting cheap towel sets from Amazon, we recommend investing in these soft, long-lasting towels that will beautify your bathroom for a long time to come.
The Best Standard Bath Towel: Boll & Branch Bath Towel
Picture any towel in your head, and you’re probably envisioning this one from Boll & Branch. It’s medium thickness, but with a tall pile. It feels plush, but not the kind of plush where it feels like you’re not getting dry very quickly. It’s soft, and feels just as good after 10 washes (trust us, we counted). Added plus: Boll & Branch ensures their product is sustainably made with organic cotton.
The Best Gigantic Bath Sheet Towel: Coyuchi Air Weight Bath Sheet
All of the towels we recommend come in a bunch of different sizes, but if you’re looking to embrace the humongous bath sheet life, consider one more option from Coyuchi: The air weight bath sheet. This super lightweight towel is a bit thicker than the Onsen, which gives it a slightly softer hand feel, especially after that first wash. Each spot picks up water quickly, but because of its massive size, you’ll never want for a dry spot to wipe off a new part of your body. The problem with a thicker oversized bath sheet is that it can take an absurd amount of time to dry, and take up a lot of space while doing it. The Coyuchi bath sheet doesn’t have this issue. Even if your roommate squishes it on the side of your towel rack after your morning shower, these large bath towels will still be invitingly dry when you pull them off the hook tomorrow.
The Best Statement Towel: Dusen Dusen Bath Towel
For a certain kind of design-conscious shopper, buying a set of printed Dusen Dusen towels is a rite of passage—a 30″ x 56″-sized step towards adulthood. The brand’s sunny housewares are impossible to miss, but chalking up their appeal to sheer aesthetics ignores how luxe they feel. Those endlessly-‘grammable designs mask a dense layer of brushed terry cotton, as soft as it is absorbent. They look great strewn oh-so-casually in the corner of your selfies as bathroom decor, but also make drying off at home after another day of Zoom-hopping feel a little like setting your body to OOO.
The Best Spa Towel: Cozy Earth Luxe Bath Towels
Despite the 600 GSM, Cozy Earth’s luxe towels feel just as plush and thick as anything else on the list, but what makes them stand out the most is their softness. Like, gasp-out-loud soft. These towels might be some of the most luscious that’ll ever grace your body (and they’ll soak up water real fast) but the only problem with thicker towels is that they tend to take a little longer to dry, so make sure your bathroom is well-ventilated to avoid the dreaded wet dog smell. However, they have such a sumptuous texture that it’s worth having to run them through the wash more frequently just so that they’re fresh out the dryer more days than not. And no, you’re not drying off at the spa—it’s your own home. Unlike Brooklinen’s Super-Plush bath towels, Cozy Earth only offers its towels in neutral colors, although that’s hardly a dealbreaker.
The Best Personalizable Bath Towel: The Company Store Company Cotton Bath Towel
If you’re looking for your first grown-up towels, then it doesn’t get more grown-up than a personalized monogram. For $12 more, The Company Store can add monogramming to your new Turkish bath towels. You can specify your initials or select a simple word such as “Guest” when picking out your towels online, and these personalized towels would also make a great gift. These towels are thick and fluffy, and they’re available in 30 colorways from neutral to bright and vibrant.
The Best Dirt-Cheap Bath Towel: Sonoma Goods for Life Bath Towel
The cheapest towel on this list is the Sonoma Goods bath towel, which is made by Kohls (so it’s already a win according to your mom) and features a lightweight “hollow cotton” fabrication that’s supposedly extra absorbent. Other towels are thicker and more plush, sure, but if you’re on a budget, this option is remarkably soft and dries quickly for the price point. Texture-wise, one side feels smoother and fluffier, with the other slightly coarser like an oversized face cloth. Mercifully, it also stands the test of time. Our tester has owned one for nearly a decade and despite numerous spin cycles over the years, this one has accumulated only a few loose threads over time and virtually no discoloration.
More Bath Towels We Like
This wildly soft bath sheet from West Elm isn’t quite as luxurious as the Coyuchi or Brooklinen products featured above, but it’s still solidly plushy and absorbent. The size of a couch throw, West Elm’s organic cotton “fibrosoft” towel dries quickly and has a fluffiness and heft to it that genuinely feels like you’re wrapping up in a blanket post-shower. Despite its generously thick weave, it’s also mighty absorbent so you won’t detect any traces of mildew after getting it soaked.
This Turkish long-staple cotton bath towel is extremely soft, smooth, and durable. Its thick surface feels lovely against your skin because of a plush, tight pile. And even after several washes, it’ll feel and look just as nice as it did new. For a premium experience, we’d still recommend the Boll & Branch towels, but these are very solid runner-up Turkish cotton towels.
Shinto’s Yukine towels are incredibly plush, just like the ones from Brooklinen and Riley, but they have a unique, almost squeaky feel. The manufacturer says that’s because of how its towels are refined, a process that takes place after the full towel construction as opposed to before the fibers are woven together. Some may prefer the more natural, fuzzy feeling of Brooklinen or Riley, but if you’re game to try a towel that’s somehow both plush and slick, you’ll dig the Yukine.
What to Look for in a Bath Towel
When conducting our survey of some of the best towels out there, we searched high and low for towels that avoided the thin, flimsy quality of a cheap guest towel and instead embodied a soft, pliable feel (no matter whether it’s a thin waffle bath towel or a lush bath sheet). Usually, that comes down to the quality of the materials each towel was spun from. We’ve found that the best ones are made from long-staple cotton fibers, rather than synthetic materials loaded with fabric softener that feel nice at first but fall apart quickly. There are some notable exceptions, of course, like the plushiest terry towels. If sustainability matters to you, then you may also want to look for organic fabrics that meet the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). Likewise, OEKO-TEX certified fabrics will be free of harmful synthetic materials.
Most importantly, how well does a towel absorb water without getting so waterlogged it turns to a moldy rag in your poorly ventilated bathroom? To measure overall absorbency, check out the towel’s GSM, or grams per square meter. GSM—usually varying between 300 and 900—will let you find out the weight and density of your towel. The lower the number, the lighter and less absorbent; the higher the number, the heavier and more absorbent. Other perks, especially if your towels are displayed in a highly trafficked bathroom, are how respectable they look against the polished marble and tile of a modern bathroom. You’re not in college anymore, buddy! You and your guests deserve more than stained and faded towels.
How We Tested
There’s really no way to know whether a towel can actually live up to its jargon until you’ve used and washed it. A lot. So that’s what we did. Over the last few years we’ve tested dozens of towels from a bunch of different bedding and bath manufacturers. Absorbency and a speedy drying time in between showers were the highest priorities in our towel reviews. After measuring absorbency and how well it dried us off, we checked to see how well it dried itself off without developing a funk shortly after. Like mattresses, you shouldn’t be replacing your towels every couple of years, so we also tested for how well they hold up over time. We noted how they felt out of the box (important even though you should be washing it before you first use them) and then tracked how much that changed over the course of weeks, then months. Lastly, we asked ourselves whether the best towels we tried were actually worth the dinero, and whether they lived up to their marketing superlatives. After all, a pricey towel may look nice on the rack, but it should also be able to withstand a spin cycle or two hundred without emerging frayed, dusted with lint, or sprouting loose threads and excessive pilling. No matter the level of softness, absorbency, or drying time you prefer, you’ll find the right fit for you in our list of the best bath towels in 2025. Just please remember to wash and dry these top picks more often than your last set. We can still smell the mildew from here.