How to pick the best shoes for your summer trip
A few sturdy and comfy suggestions from travel pros
It’s often the most overlooked travel accessory — an afterthought to your itinerary that barely registers on your packing list. It’s your shoes. That could be a painful mistake, experts say. The right footwear can make or break your next vacation or business trip, and that’s especially true during the frenetic summer travel season, with its torturously long sprints through the train station or airport terminal.
“Travelers don’t pack shoes based on the function of the shoe as much as its appearance,” says Tim Swartz, a podiatric surgeon with Kaiser Permanente in Washington. “And people are traveling to places where they will be doing a lot of walking, touring and hiking that would require a shoe built for mileage.”
Choosing the right pair — that’s not easy. Because the way you dress is so personal, I wouldn’t presume to tell you what shoe to wear. I have, however, tested some of the best travel shoes and I’ve talked to travelers, so I have some insights you can take directly to the shoe store. Bottom line: It’s a question of finding the right balance between comfort, function and style.
If you don’t? Well, let me put it this way: I walk about 10 miles a day, and I decided to try some of the shoes I tested on my regular walking path. I discovered that some of the footwear that boldly promises comfort actually does not provide it, and I have the blisters to prove it.
So let’s talk comfort. For Susan Stevens, a retired press secretary who lives in Philadelphia, that means a pair of Eccos (us.shop.ecco.com).
“They look nice, and they’re good for serious walking,” she says.
I own a pair of well-worn Ecco sandals, too, and have never been blistered or chafed in them. Alas, they can be pricey. Mine cost $130. If you have only one pair of shoes to take on vacation, I wouldn’t recommend sandals, but when it comes to a good fit, they have other styles that work for the road.
Function is also critical. I wear a Keen Oakridge hiking boot (keenfootwear.com, $125) as an all-around shoe when I’m on assignment, a recommendation that Jonathan Ronzio, a fellow traveler and filmmaker, seconds.
“Mine are 5 years old and have kicked dirt through the approach to Aconcagua base camp, spent four months trekking through South and Central America, and now, just a day off a month in Thailand, they got me through a volunteering stint at Chiang Mai’s Elephant Nature Park,” he says. “They’re still going strong.”
Well, that’s a little more adventure than my Keens have seen. Still, my boots hold up nicely to the rigors of travel without being too conspicuous. I’ve worn them to business meetings, and I’m pretty sure I got away with it.
The real wild card is style, of course. I’ve never been accused of having any kind of fashion sense, and rightfully so: I’m a journalist.
For fashion advice, I defer to people such as Linda Anderson, a frequent traveler and a retired florist from Tolland, Conn. She loves her GH Bass Propel shoes (ghbass.com, $39.99).
“They’re great for travel,” she says. Not only are they light, but they offer lots of support, and they look good. She has spent eight hours a day walking around Manhattan with zero blisters and even took them to fashion-conscious Rome, where I’ve personally witnessed a woman in stilettos navigating cobblestone roads without looking down (how do they do that?).
There’s another shoe I tested, Sperry’s new 7 Seas (sperry.com, $89.95), and it didn’t blister, weighed practically nothing and looked sharp. It’s available for both sexes.
Put it all together, and you should feel like moving. “A good pair of shoes not only supports good alignment and posture, but it can translate into a healthy emotional state,” says Erica Hornthal, founder of Chicago Dance Therapy, a movement therapy and counseling service in Deerfield, Ill. Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate and editor at large for National Geographic Traveler. Contact him at chris@elliott.org or visit elliott.org.