STW
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 65
- Location
- Rocky mountains
What boot or shoe do you use for traveling or city walking where you're on your feet all day and may walk miles on pavements?
What boot or shoe can you wear day after day like this without coming to hate it?
Ideally I take one pair of boots on such a trip. I pack light anyway, even for a two week European trip, and an extra pair of shoes takes up too much space in my carry on. But it seems like any boot gets maddening after you wear it for a lot of walking too many days in a row. Even a comfortable favorite at home can become miserable when you wear it day after day on a trip. Maybe others don't find this to be true and happily wear the same shoes for walking day after day?
Such a boot/shoe should be versatile.
--It has to be comfortable enough to wear out of the hotel after breakfast, walk miles, stand for hours in museums, and not really be off my feet all day except for maybe a shady lunch somewhere. For me this usually means a fairly thick sole--not a leather dress sole anyway--and a shaped insole.
--Ought to look right with casual trousers and jeans, but it should also look fine with nicer trousers and a jacket at a restaurant.
--Ideally, it should look ok with shorts, but I never/seldom wear shorts while traveling in European cities. But if I get a work out in the hotel gymn, I'd rather not be wearing wingtips.
Running shoes seem to work for a lot of people for walking-intensive travel. For all the boots I have, I only have one pair of runners and never wear them except when acutally running. And I don't go running on a two week trip because all the walking is enough. But when I have taken an extra pair of shoes, it's been running shoes, and then I usually don't run, and I hate wearing them around town but I do it anyway after a few days when I can't stand the idea of putting back on the other shoes.
Sometimes I've used hiking boots for this, choosing my most comfortable ones, boots that I can wear day after day for a couple weeks heavily loaded in the Wind River mtns. My boots are classic looking welted old school boots, and where I life in the N.American west, you can wear heavy hiking boots to work with hardly a raised eyebrow. But they are less versatile in Europe where mountaineering boots are for mountaineering and if you're wearing them around Brugge, people think you got lost on the way to Chamonix.
On a recent couple weeks in Portugal I took Blundstones which I thought would work because they are really comfortable for walking around at work all day, and they sort of work with a range of dress. But they don't have a lot of arch support and on this trip I discovered I hated putting in miles of walking on them. After a few days, I dreaded putting them on in the morning.
For an upcoming trip I'm now planning to use these. They are comfortable for hours of unladen hiking on mountain and desert trails (an identical pair is for trail use, but this pair is just broken in). My link didn't seem to work so here is the url: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/95075318@N00/4438854611/>
What boot or shoe can you wear day after day like this without coming to hate it?
Ideally I take one pair of boots on such a trip. I pack light anyway, even for a two week European trip, and an extra pair of shoes takes up too much space in my carry on. But it seems like any boot gets maddening after you wear it for a lot of walking too many days in a row. Even a comfortable favorite at home can become miserable when you wear it day after day on a trip. Maybe others don't find this to be true and happily wear the same shoes for walking day after day?
Such a boot/shoe should be versatile.
--It has to be comfortable enough to wear out of the hotel after breakfast, walk miles, stand for hours in museums, and not really be off my feet all day except for maybe a shady lunch somewhere. For me this usually means a fairly thick sole--not a leather dress sole anyway--and a shaped insole.
--Ought to look right with casual trousers and jeans, but it should also look fine with nicer trousers and a jacket at a restaurant.
--Ideally, it should look ok with shorts, but I never/seldom wear shorts while traveling in European cities. But if I get a work out in the hotel gymn, I'd rather not be wearing wingtips.
Running shoes seem to work for a lot of people for walking-intensive travel. For all the boots I have, I only have one pair of runners and never wear them except when acutally running. And I don't go running on a two week trip because all the walking is enough. But when I have taken an extra pair of shoes, it's been running shoes, and then I usually don't run, and I hate wearing them around town but I do it anyway after a few days when I can't stand the idea of putting back on the other shoes.
Sometimes I've used hiking boots for this, choosing my most comfortable ones, boots that I can wear day after day for a couple weeks heavily loaded in the Wind River mtns. My boots are classic looking welted old school boots, and where I life in the N.American west, you can wear heavy hiking boots to work with hardly a raised eyebrow. But they are less versatile in Europe where mountaineering boots are for mountaineering and if you're wearing them around Brugge, people think you got lost on the way to Chamonix.
On a recent couple weeks in Portugal I took Blundstones which I thought would work because they are really comfortable for walking around at work all day, and they sort of work with a range of dress. But they don't have a lot of arch support and on this trip I discovered I hated putting in miles of walking on them. After a few days, I dreaded putting them on in the morning.
For an upcoming trip I'm now planning to use these. They are comfortable for hours of unladen hiking on mountain and desert trails (an identical pair is for trail use, but this pair is just broken in). My link didn't seem to work so here is the url: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/95075318@N00/4438854611/>
