We will be traveling in Norway and England for 1 month. I need help selecting a good pair of shoes that will serve both as street walking shoes and light hiking. Any recommendations?
Walking/Hiking Shoes
Recent Activity
View all Travel Tips & Trip Ideas activity »
- 1 Is it true film gets messed up by x-rays?
- 2 LADIES: FAVORITE UNDER SEAT PERSONAL BAG AND WHAT TO PACK IN IT?
- 3 Sardinia, Italy
- 4 Vacation Destination
- 5
Packing list - 6 months with carry-on only
- 6
Goin' solo...nothing like it! (A trip report collection)
- 7 traveling with fifteen year old grandson
- 8
I TRAVEL THE WORLD ALONE
- 9 train tickets for italy
- 10 iPad use on long flights
- 11 Shoe Trouble
- 12 Good article on shoes for travel
- 13 Rose Bowl Parade
- 14 Single Senior Citizen travel
- 15
BEWARE of Grand Circle Travel SCAMS!!!
- 16 Buying SNCF tickets
- 17 5 week opportunity to travel - any tips where?
- 18 Changes in Travel Insurance: deductible
- 19 How to avoid delays at US border?
- 20 meditation - yoga - retreates.
- 21 Home Exchanges
- 22 Comparison of Budget Booking Sites
- 23 Where to go in August?
- 24 Organic Farming vacations - WWOOF USA
- 25 Enough Connection Time???


You might want to take a look at SAS shoes. My wife swears by them.
Thanks. I love SAS too, but they are more for walking and not so much for hiking.
Consider what you will do if you get your 1 pair of shoes wet whether you step off a curb into a puddle deeper than you were expecting or you hit a muddy stretch of trail. If you decide you want to go with 1 pair, choose shoes described as "cross trainers".
Thanks,tomfuller will consider your advice.
I think you need to get yourself to an outdoors outfitters, which stocks a wide range of shoes, and has people trained in fitting them.
You need to consider what sort of walking you will do so they can advise on which shoes will be best. You then need to try on several pairs to see which fit the best - just because they are your size doesn't mean they fit you. You need to check they are OK on a slope too - most good places should have a slope for your to walk on to confirm that.
I second hetismij2's advice and would add that when you try on a pair of shoes you like, wear them for at least 15-20 minutes in the store and walk around in them the whole time. Any pressure points or other irritants should present themselves in that time period.
I LOVE my Merrell hiking shoes. They have a gore tex lining so they're waterproof, but they look like normal tennis shoes (tan instead of white). They also have hiking boots but those are too tall for normal use. The hiking shoes hit that middle ground of a bit more support/sturdy than tennis shoes and waterproof lining, but still light/small enough for streets. I generally travel with those and a pair of Merrell walking sandals.

As others have said, you need to try them on for a bit and really test them out. Brand new shoes are a scary thought for a long trip.
I love my Merrill hiking shoes & boots too but if I could only take one pair of shoes, I'd take my Keen Newport sandals. I can hike in them, walk miles of cobblestone streets, cross creeks and rivers, bicycle (w/out clips) and I've even worn them with a skirt in Italy out to dinner. I wasn't as fashionable as those stylish Italian women, but I didn't have clunky white tennis shoes on. They have an open heel but protective toe.
http://www.keenfootwear.com/us/en/wall/shoes/men/waterfront
Comment has been removed by Fodor's moderators