The Best Towels on Amazon Are a Boon for Your Wet Bod

What Amazon Reviewers Say: “Very fluffy, very absorbent: These towels are reasonably large, fluffy, and absorbent. Very like hotel towels (which is why I got them, they even have that hotel towel smell). They’re not particularly lightweight, but that isn’t a minus to me. One towel arrived with malformed stitching. I sent a photo and short e-mail to their customer service, and they sent a new one with no hassle.”

The Best Beach Towels on Amazon: Ben Kaufman 100% Cotton Velour Towels

Oh, you wanted color. In a recent GQ guide to the best beach towels (miss u, summer), Amazon only placed one option: these colorful cotton velour towels. Priced at just $10 each, these oversized beach towels are made using fast-drying combed ring-spun cotton. If these towels are a bit too colorful for you, then we also like the brand’s striped beach towels.

What Amazon Reviewers Say: “Vibrant colors: Perfect heaviness, vibrant colors, great quality, now if only they would offer this in a 40 x 70 size…surprisingly not too much lint in dryer after first wash, that’s a good sign.”

The Best Bath Towel Set: NY Loft 100% Cotton Bath Towel (4-Pack)

If you’re buying in bulk for your guest room, this NY Loft set includes four plushy, textured bath towels for $90, which is a pretty bulletproof value. Not only are they made from 100% cotton, but the fabric is also OEKO-TEX Standard 100-certified. Unlike other towels on this list, these feature three different surfaces in one (one pebbled, one ribbed, and another with a box-weave pattern) so that they absorb more water and dry more quickly. Reviewers praise their absorbency and soft handfeel after a shower. We should note that they’re slightly smaller than some of our other picks, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for more coverage.

What Amazon Reviewers Say: “These are exactly what we were looking for. A soft towel that absorbs everything. And doesn’t just glide off your body doing nothing like most towels. And so far they are not all worn out from the dryer and usage. We love them.”

The Best Patterned Bath Towels: Marimekko Terry Cotton Bath Towels

Helsinki-based design studio Marimekko has been making fabrics with its distinctive patterns and prints since 1951. The two bath towels pictured above feature two different designs on on each side for a little more variety and there are even more to choose from at Marimekko’s storefront on Amazon, all dreamed up by the company’s top textile designer. The towels themselves are made from a soft terry cotton, and one of our editors (who uses them as hand towels) vouches that they have a gentle handfeel and easily brighten up a humdrum bathroom with their cheerful designs.

What Amazon Reviewers Say: “I bought this for my new black and white bathroom and was pleasantly surprised when I washed it because it got softer. It’s a good quality towel and I’ll be ordering a few more.”

What Distinguishes a Meh Bath Towel from a Great One?

To find the fluffiest, plushest, long-lasting towels, we used a three-part rubric.

GSM and Feel: Textile companies use the GSM (grams per square meter) metric to measure a fabric’s thickness. It’s similar to thread count, though we think with less B.S. baked in. Bath towels with a higher GSM rating will be thicker and potentially fluffier. They’re also more absorbent, so your towel won’t be soaked through before you even get to your legs.

Quick-Drying: If you prefer quick-drying over maximum absorbency, you’ll end up with a thinner towel. There’s reasons to go that route: fast-drying towels won’t get as funky, as soon, in a poorly ventilated bathroom. Amazon’s selection of towels doesn’t include many of our favorite towels in this category, but we found a few solid ribbed and waffle-weave towels worth considering.