I may also add in that sometimes with towels when the snake backs up on it their scales sometimes get stuck to it so they try to pull themselves out (which I've noticed when I had to dry off my Ball pythons after a quick rinse).
So just a caution, just in case that can pull of scales and what not.
I use aspen, holds humidity well and is easy to spot clean. I absolutely hated cleaning up paper towels then cleaning down the whole tub. Especially with a 4 foot, large-pooping snake.