I've been thinking a lot about footwear for travel and hiking lately.

But instead of just asking my team for feet pics (which I did anyway), I wanted to try and make our experience somewhat useful to you.

Because with all these years on the road, we've inevitably made a good few packing mistakes and have worn out many, many pairs of shoes.

I know that picking a single pair of shoes for a trip can be quite hard, especially if you plan on doing a whole bunch of different activities...

So I wanted to make this our topic for today: if you could only pick one pair, what would be the best shoes to take travelling?

The case for trail runners

I love a good showdown, and whilst planning this one out, the big battle seemed to be the one between hiking shoes and trail runners.

The team is not 100% set on either side, because there's valid points for both.

A lot of people like to go on nature walks and hikes when they travel, so they end up taking hiking shoes as they're usually comfy, waterproof, and can pretty much take up any kind of terrain.

But they're also heavier than most of their counterparts... and that's when trail runners just can't be beat.

Jeff was pretty adamant on trail runners being the ideal travel footwear because they're lightweight and versatile, which is basically what you want when travelling.

You can walk long distances comfortably in cities, you can go hiking, and you can even sneak in a cheeky run if you're feeling sexy.

They're more rugged than your standard pair of sneakers, and they're more flexible than hiking boots. They're basically perfect.

Samantha, on the other hand, had a bit of a different opinion.

She can't go without her trusted Salomon boots, and they've taken her across countless miles of trails around the globe.

But she’s often hiking in extremely challenging conditions, crossing glaciers and navigating sketchy terrain, so she needs proper ankle support.

And no one does ankle support like a good pair of hiking boots.

She loves that they feel light on her feet and that they're they're (mostly) waterproof. And that brings me to my next point...

To waterproof or not to waterproof?

If you’re doing anything that’s actually wet (sustained rain, river crossings, sloppy mud), your feet are getting wet anyway.

And when waterproof membranes get wet (Gore-Tex and the like), they make the shoes much heavier and almost impossible to dry.

For most cases, as good as having waterproof shoes can sound, they won't be nearly as important as you think.

But, of course, they can still serve their purpose ☝️

Especially as waterproof is usually a given in hiking boots that might be important for other types of scenarios (like in Samantha's case).

The verdict is...

All in all, unless you're doing multi-day alpine hikes, you won't need to lug around heavy hiking boots (or worry too much about waterproofness).

If you're doing any type of mixed travel (mixing cities with trails/day hikes and moving around), I strongly suggest you give trail runners a go.

Our friends at REI are running some deals on footwear at the moment, so it could be a good time to upgrade :)

If you're not in North America or don't have an REI account, try Amazon instead!

And if you've got any controversial thoughts on footwear for travel, I'd love to hear them ;)

See you next time.
​- The Broke Backpacker