Our Top 5 Men's Walking Trousers
A new addition to the Craghoppers' range, these Kiwi Treks are a contemporary twist on the company's classic Kiwi trousers. Made from a soft polyamide and cotton blend and featuring a flexible waist and double faced heel & knee darts, they are more comfortable than their traditional couisins.
There's 8 pockets, including 5 which are zipped, and they are still comfortable when reletively full of items. The fabric has a DWR finish, ensuring its suitable to keep you dry whilst you're out walking in the wet, and it's coated with UPF 40+ sun-protection too.
£42 - Buy Now
If you find yourself regularly being bitten by bugs and critters, then these Rohan's are something you should look at, as they have Insect shield - which significantly protects covered skin against nasties such as mosquitoes, ticks, ants, flies and midges. They also have a fairly amazing sun protection factor of UPF 40+ under dry and normal circumstances.
Being convertible gives the added choice of unzipping the legs and going legless... so to speak... and the colour-coded zips can also be opened part way for ventilation. The fabric is a lightweight and stretchy, making the fit easy and comfortable. There's four zipped pockets - two on the thigh and two rear ones - and the thigh pockets easily take an OS map.
£65 reduced from £100 - Buy Now
Sprayway All Day Rainpant
The idea behind these trousers from Sprayway is to have a something that can be worn all day - despite the wet weather, so to that end, the All Day Rainpant is made from a stretch Hydro/Dry AWP fabric with a water-repelling DWR finish. That means they are fairly stretchy and water resistant too.
They've got two zipped pockets - so not as many as other trousers available but zipped so you can't lose your car keys on a walk - and a zipped fly with button fastening too. The fit is quite slim, but the shaped knees allows for more movement, along with the stretch fabric. They are fairly breathable, but not perhaps a pair to be wearing on the warmest of summer days. However, on most short walks where the weather looks fairly changable, these Sprayways would do the job of keeping your legs warm and dry very well.
£72 - Buy Now
Maier Sports Pants Nil
Royal Robbins Traveller Zip N Go Pant
"Zip n Go" should give you a clue as to where these Royal Robbins come from. With heritage in the Yosemite Valley, USA, you can understand why these have a UPF sun protection of factor 50+.
They also are very comfortable, mainly because of their full-length running gussets - and they are - as you might have guessed - convertible, so you have the protection of legs when in enclosed undergrowth and the option of unzipping and going leg-free when you get too warm. The Traveller's have two decent sized pockets and dry pretty quickly with the minimum of wrinkle - making them ideal for multi-day longer-distance hikes.
£85 - Buy Now