Can a Towel That Packs to the Size of a Mug Actually Dry You? The Fit-Flip Microfibre Review
Buy the right size and you may never pack a cotton towel again. Buy the wrong one and you will be drying yourself with something a reviewer compared to a handkerchief. The Fit-Flip is both of those towels at once.
Most of the bad reviews of the Fit-Flip microfibre towel are about a decision the buyer made at checkout, not about the towel itself. That sounds like a brand excuse, so let me show my working. Across Amazon UK this listing sits at 4.3 stars from 34,256 ratings, which is an enormous sample for a piece of fabric. Dig into the 100 most-recent reviews, though, and the average drops to 3.73, dragged down by 24 one-star reviews. Read those one-star reviews and a pattern jumps out immediately: 14 of them are complaints about size. "Tiny." "Too small." "Like, smaller than a handkerchief." One buyer photographed the towel and its bag next to a mug to prove the point.
Meanwhile, 56 of those same 100 reviews are five-star raves from swimmers, campervanners and backpackers who say it outdries their regular cotton towels. Both camps bought from the same listing. The difference is almost always which size they picked, because this listing pools its reviews across every size and colour Fit-Flip sells, from a 30x50cm hand towel up to a 100x200cm beach sheet. So this review is going to spend less time asking "is it good?" (mostly, yes) and more time on the question that actually decides whether you will love it: which size, and for what job on a UK campsite.
A Towel, a Mug, and 24 One-Star Reviews
Start with the angriest corner of the reviews, because it tells you exactly what to avoid. The small 30x50cm option is the one that generates lines like "I thought I was buying a beach towel and I got one for an ant" and "Smaller than a tea towel no use at all". Scott Mclean put it best: "What a rip off it's not a towel it's a face cloth !!! The girl in the picture must be tiny for the 'towel' to look that big". He has a point about the photography. The lifestyle images show adults wrapped head to toe in fabric, and if you skim past the size dropdown, the picture wins.
One December buyer, Riaz, went further and measured his: advertised at 50x30cm, "it's closer to 40 x 20 cm" by his tape. We can't verify his measurement, but it was one of the most upvoted recent reviews, so it clearly struck a nerve.
Four-star reviewer Michael had little sympathy: "People were complaining about the sizes...duhhh! You've obviously picked the wrong size." That's blunt, but the five-star reviews back him up. Almost nobody who bought a medium or large complains about the dimensions. The lesson: a 30x50cm towel is a gym-and-washbag item, and Amazon's pooled review system has buried that distinction under a single star rating.
It Looks Like a Bedsheet, Then It Outdries Cotton
Now for the part the one-star crowd never got to experience. The single most repeated arc in the five-star reviews is suspicion followed by conversion. Lee, a returning swimmer, admitted that when he opened the package "I was very skeptical, and I was completely wrong", reporting it dried him faster than his regular towels without sticking to his skin. Loulou17 had the same wobble: "it's more like a thin sheet but OMG, it dries so well!" She swims regularly, has no tumble dryer, and pointed out a bonus that matters in a damp British winter: "it's nearly dry when it comes out of the machine".
Lord Gordon Duffy called the feel weird, then conceded it is "the only towel I've ever used that drys me off without having to keep rubbing my skin". The Truth Seeker, who has owned several microfibre brands, rated this one "hands down the thickest, most absorbent and best made of them all".
The listing claims the towel packs up to four times smaller and five times lighter than a terry towel, dries much quicker than cotton, and has an antibacterial effect against odours. Reviewers can't measure the multipliers, but the no-musty-smell point gets independent support: one long-term owner of a couple of years reported "no weird smells that you can get with some towels", and campervanner Claire said the same after campsite shower-block use. Each towel comes with a mesh storage bag and a press-stud hanging loop, both of which get regular, approving mentions.
The Size Chart Is the Whole Buying Decision
Fit-Flip's own size chart runs from 30x50cm up to 100x200cm, and the reviews map onto it neatly, so treat this as the most important paragraph on the page.
30x50cm (this listing's small): a flannel-sized cloth for the gym, the washbag or the campervan sink. C Noble calls hers "quite small" and uses it as a hand towel by the camper van sink, rating it four stars for exactly that job. Buy it to dry a whole human after a shower and you will be writing one-star review number 25.
Mid sizes (60x120cm to 70x140cm): the swimming and backpacking sweet spot, with one caveat from Kurtis and Aubrey about the 140x70: "It is wide enough to go around the waist, but it's too long (almost like a long skirt)", while the next size down wasn't wide enough. If you plan to wear it sarong-style at a shower block, ponder your proportions first.
90x180cm and up: the full bath-sheet experience. CeeDee wrote: "I got the 90x180cm size which is ideal as a UK size 14/16 with plenty of towel left over", and Michael found the 180x90 "huge" yet still suitcase-friendly once stuffed in its pouch. Claire bought the largest size for campsite shower blocks and then bought a second for her husband.
Worth repeating: the 4.3-star average is pooled across all of these variants, so check the dropdown, not the photos, before you order one.
The Texture Argument: Suede, Not Terry
Size is the loudest complaint, but it isn't the only disagreement. Microfibre feels nothing like the fluffy cotton you grew up with, and a minority of buyers never make peace with that. One reviewer, john, found it "seems to stick to your skin which makes it impossible to dry yourself" and called it not fit for purpose. Interestingly, Lee raised the exact same fear and reported the opposite: "It didn't stick to me like I was a little worried about either, just dried me with ease." Same fabric, opposite verdicts. The technique matters: microfibre works by pressing and patting rather than the vigorous rub you'd give a terry towel, which is why Hannerz's measured four-star take rings true: "Takes a bit of getting used to as it doesn't work like a traditional towel."
Kurtis and Aubrey describe the feel fairly: "it isn't hard, just not the typical towel material". Think soft suede or chamois rather than fleece.
One quality outlier deserves a mention. Ugne reported the fibre felt rough, shed on her skin ("my skin is covered in micro pieces of it") and suspected it aggravated a rash. Hers is the only shedding complaint in the 100 most-recent reviews, against owners reporting repeat purchases and a couple of years of use, so it reads like a dud unit or a skin-sensitivity mismatch rather than a pattern. If you have reactive skin, it's still worth knowing.
Wash Day Small Print: Dye Runs and a Contradictory Label
This is the complaint cluster that would worry me more than size, because you can't fix it with a dropdown. Four of the 100 most-recent reviewers mention dye coming out of the coloured towels. rmsusieb's blue towel "leaked blue over everything that it was washed with". John 29 expected some shedding in early washes but found it kept happening "even after many washes" and now washes it exclusively with dark colours. Rivka shrugged that the listing "specifics it runs so cant be helped", which is generous of her.
Amanda spotted the deeper problem: the listing says machine-washable at up to 60°C, but "on the leaflet inside the towel it says HAND WASH as may leak dye!!" That contradiction between the product page and the in-box leaflet is a fair thing to mark the brand down for. Ken Matthews adds that the towel shouldn't be tumble dried, a warning he only spotted after the fact: "That's a challenge when you live in Northern Ireland".
The counter-evidence: CeeDee reported "no dye transfer" after multiple washes, and plenty of owners machine-wash theirs without drama. My read is that some colours, the blue especially, run more than others. Practical advice: wash it separately or with darks the first few times, line-dry it (it barely needs more than an afternoon), and if you want zero risk, pick a darker colour. Fit-Flip would do well to fix the listing copy.
On a UK Campsite: Who Should Buy One, and Our Score
For camping specifically, this towel solves a real problem: cotton towels never dry in a British spring. Pack one wet into a tent bag on a drizzly Saturday and by Sunday it smells like a pond. The Fit-Flip's whole pitch is escaping that cycle, and the camping reviews say it delivers. S Curtis calls it "a camping must have". Claire keeps hers for campsite shower blocks and reports no damp smell. Natasha Davies bought one for the campervan and ordered a second before using the first. Neil throws his in a day pack; RoofRays Ltd took one hiking in Egypt and praised how quickly it dried. The mesh bag clips to a rucksack so it can air as you walk, and the press-stud loop hangs off a guyline or branch.
So, the score. The fabric does what it promises and the five-star majority is deserved, but the size-photo mismatch keeps catching real buyers, the dye-run reports are too frequent to ignore, and the wash label shouldn't contradict the listing. That lands it at 4 out of 5: a strong buy if you choose the size deliberately and wash it with darks, an avoidable disappointment if you shop by photo.
Buy it if: you camp, swim or travel hand-luggage-only and you want a towel that dries overnight in a tent.
Skip it if: you want the warm hug of cotton after a shower, or you refuse to read a size chart.
Fit-Flip Microfibre Towel
Compact, quick-dry microfibre towel with mesh bag and hanging loop. Eight sizes from washbag-small to full beach sheet, so check the dropdown before you buy.