Gatorskins would be my recommendation I currently use them on my commuter and love them. I ride through a lot of nasty roads that are pocked with potholes and glass and other crapola and don't have issues with flats. My new touring bike is going to be running Gatorskins or Gatorhardshells as well. The only bike in my fleet that won't be rocking gatorskins is the Cilo my vintage road bikin' baby and I guess the DT till i sell it because no Gators in 26x1.5 or 1.75 but I haven't had issues with the Contis that came with it.

Love my marathon plus tires, wouldn't ride anything else.

Went on an 18 mile ride yesterday.

The Continental Gatorskin Hardhsells are a lot smoother riding than my Marathon Plus tires. And despite missing a turn, by 100 yards, resulting in a turnaround, I shaved 10 minutes off the course. I rode the same route a week ago. So 10 minutes over 18 miles...I would consider that a big improvement and I am guessing it is all done to the tires. I think it took me from a ~10.8 MPH to a ~11.4 MPH average speed.

Will be doing a long ride today with some gravel thrown in and will see how that compares too.

I have ridden several hundred kms of canal paths fully loaded on 28mm Hardshells. Not the perfect tire for tow-paths, but no adverse effects either.

Over the years I have ridden pretty much every tire mentioned on this thread. However a fellow forum member summed it up best for me. Do you want to change tires or fix a flat while touring in the rain? I do not so I ride Marathon Plus tires. I tour. Therefore I carry weight. Received two new MPs today for the Trek 520 I recently purchased from a fellow forum member. They will be mounted tomorrow and there will be nothing else for me to think about. The tour is the tour. I have no desire to constantly worry about equipment.

Also keep in mind that the marathon plus is kinda like a stiff heavy touring bike. Unloaded it's a drag but fully loaded the tires become alive. We had marathon plusses on our last tour and they were awesome. Supple, fast and I didn't have to worry about tire failures even on gravel. I don't worry solely about punctures but also about sidewall failures etc. With marathons I don't have to worry. With a vittoria voyager hyper I would worry constantly since the sidewalls are so dang thin.

No mention of Schwalbe Mondial, although my LBS swears by them

I highlighted these two comments and would counter with this statement--horses for course--depending on what sort of pavement and gravel roads you are on, for me this is the major deciding factor for type of tires.
My experience of 25 years of touring and regular commuting on good to reasonable paved and gravel roads has shown me that riding with narrower and less tank like tires can be perfectly fine. I have never had a sidewall failure in all my riding life, and have not ridden in goat head country. Riding on various kinds of roads, and using regular common sense in terms of not riding into sharp stuff that can damage a sidewall, the concerns here have never been an issue for me.

I know riders who I see regularly riding up against rocks and whatnot with the sides of their tires, who just are not spatially aware of how they ride close to sharp objects and lean into stuff from the side, so in a lot of riding situations, how you ride is a factor and how you hit stuff, unload your bike a bit if you do go into holes etc etc.

that said, if I were to ride loaded somewhere with much more dubious roads, and or much rougher/sharp/deep gravel, stones and dirt stuff, thats a whole other kettle of fish.
I bring this up because I figure the majority of people here tour in first world areas, on reasonable roads, in N America or Europe, and my experience of this has had no issues at all with lighter, less tank like tires. If going to South America or something, heck even doing more backroads here in Canada or the US, where you just dont know what sort of surfaces you'll be on, thats a diff story, but my experience goes against the fear of tire failures in a lot of conditions that I regularly ride in.

The thing is that I don't know what kind of roads we'll be facing. Europe has quite a bit of different possible road surfaces. There are roads in the Alps (which we might or might not ride) which would shred a road tire to pieces. Some of our local roads gravel roads are bad for tires no matter how good a rider you are. I do not want to bbe in a situation where I might have skip an interesting looking road because I wanted a lighter tire.
I won't regret the marathons even if we end up rideuing all of our tours on glass smooth tarmac (although I hope we won't. Some of the coolest stuff can be found at the end of a bad road)

That's a first. Never heard of Marathon Plusses described with adjectives of "supple and fast". You do often hear bullet proof, bomb proof, can be used as a boat anchor when worn out, if in fact you can ever really wear one out.

go with what you are comfortable with, but really, have you ever damaged a road tire like you say? But I hear what you are saying, you can comfortably go down any road without worries, so what the heck, have fun and dont worry.
And yes, the supple and fast comment is a bit odd, but hey, you are getting out there going on a trip, so who cares.
Enjoy

I may replace my 26"X1.5" Marathon Plus tires with lighter, comfortable tires someday.

It doesn't seeem like the Marathon Supremes are mentioned very often. Would that be a good replacement for the Plus?

The weight of the Plus are 870g/1 Pound 15 Ounces (26X1.5) and the Supremes are 440g/16 Ounces (26X1.6).

About 2 pounds difference for a set.

It's a truly horrid tire when riding unloaded, but fully loaded it's awesome. But I am a heavy set guy so for me it's naturally more comfortable than for someone half my weight.

I've cut up road tires pretty badly on our local gravel roads when ridin unloaded. One to a point that it was destroyed by the cuts.
I can't imagine the damage I might do when fully loaded and riding gravel. Then again some of our roads can actually destroy a wheel in 50 yards if ridden quickly enough. Not even holes, but this wave kind of surface.

Continental Travel Contacts get my vote for touring. Around town I switch to gatorskins, but when I'm touring over a variety of road and off road conditions, the light weight, flat centerline, and knobby sidewalls of the Travel Contacts make them ideal IMO. I rode a couple of tours with Marathon Pluses, but they are very heavy (and you do notice that weight on moving parts of the bike like tires). I have had nothing but trouble with Specialized tires, including Armadillos.

being a light guy, my experience has pretty much been the opposite. I am certain being light makes it a heck of a lot easier on everything, plus how you ride. I tend to ride "light" by nature anyway.

Makes it easier on equipment sure. With marathon plusses you can always ride lower pressures to make them more comfortable at the expense of speed. However the marathon plus tire is so stiff be default that it really starts to get nice on fast rolling pressures after a certain weight limit passed. Don't really know what the weight limit is, but I certainly pass the limit with gear. Also the noise they make is pretty rad as well.

But to make things a bit easier on both me and my SO i'm using a lighter tire up front (marathon) and a heavier tire in the back (marathon plus). I also have Vittoria Voyager hypers lying around so I might give her one as a front tire, give her a marathon as a rear tire and use a full set of marathon plusses myself. She doesn't break tires nearly as effectively as I do so she might be much better off with lighter tires.

Having a floor pump with a gauge is nice just because you can quickly try diff pressures on diff days, ideally on the same route where you know the bumps, and relate to how diff pressures feel and you can roughly compare ride times--good to prove that lower pressures don't necessarily mean slower

I bought a set of Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elites as an experiment. 700X30. They were for a very good price, so I didn't get hurt too bad! They run at quite a bit higher pressure than the Supremes ---- but ----

They feel heavy and slow. I'm going back to Schwalbe Marathon Supremes - not soon enuf! The only downside of the Supremes is that they hate snow and ice!

Sometimes, I don't know why I keep experimenting!

I love my marathon supreme touring tires. Tough tire, handles well, and has a good road feel.

Conti Travel Contact has the Gatorskin sidewall mesh Feature, and is made in 559-47, 26x1.75" ...

I went ahead and ordered the Marathon Supremes for a great price (tires and shipping) from Chain Reaction in the UK. I have heard good things about them...I'll see.

I know trying to lighten up the weight of a bike can be $$$, but I think I'm getting good bang for the buck with 2 pounds weight savings for a little over a hundred bucks. I'm not going to get rid of my Marathon Plus tires...I'll keep them just in case. I can't avoid some of the glass lanes (excuse me, I mean bike lanes) around here for safety and I'll just have to see how the Supremes work out.

Do yours have the reflective strip around them? The Schwalbe website says "No", but an internet image search shows it.

Anything special I need to know in mounting these folding tires?

I bought mine from Chain Reaction as well and they had a reflective stripe. They've been tough performers and I have them currently mounted on a vintage mtb that sees both commuting and rough road duty.

Nothing special about mounting the tires. They're a bit tough to mount but the kool stop tire jack helped a lot.

Probably the biggest thing is tire pressure. I think they take something like 35-80 psi and I run them around 50.

2 pounds of weight saving on the wheels is something you will notice; I'd say that was a good investment.

I don't think which tire makes a whole lot of difference...other than anything that Continental makes. Continental and I have a very poor history and they have, literally, left me flat on too many occasions. I have used Panaracer RibMo on my most recent tour in the eastern US which included many miles of dirt roads and unpaved towpaths. The C&O Canal is more mountian bike trail than bike trail and the RibMos did quite well. I've also been using Vittoria Randonneurs as my commuter tires for about 4 or 5 years now and they are an incredibly good tire. I recently picked up a set of Vittoria Hypers for my commuter and they seem to be a good tire as well. They are wider than "normal" tires...the 35 is actually a 37mm tire...but they ride really nicely.

I have yet to try any of the Schwalbe for various reasons. The main on is that they just haven't been available when I needed tires but when I look at the weight of the tire, they all seem much heavier than other tires I've used. That's one of the reasons I picked up the Hypers.

Ordered my Supremes on Friday afternoon from Chain Reaction. Shipped from Belfast, Ireland to Missouri. Arrived today, 5 days later. I am impressed. Tracking says the package left Belfast just yesterday. DHL tracking is really detailed.

I mounted one Supreme on my LHT in the front, and one on the wife's bike in the front to test them out. We went for a short ride this evening and I did notice that things were a little smoother and the front tire handles the bumps better. I think I had them about 70PSI. Probably could lower that some. They mounted easily without tools which was a plus. Looks like Chain Reaction only has one other Supreme our size in stock so I'll wait until they get them and order 2 more for the rear.

I do notice a pound weight savings...if not on the scales, in my mind. It's no contest in the weight department which tire is the clear winner when holding a plus in one hand and supreme in another. I carry my bike everyday I ride up and down 3 flights of stairs.

Are folding tires compatibility with most modern rims? Mine have the hooks on the inside (Alex DH19 558X18). Also, looking at Sheldon Brown's chart on tire widths & rims it looks like I'm about at the max width of tire (42mm) for this rim. Sound about right?