The Best Travel Pants for Women of 2024

Our travel activities are diverse, and we need pants that can cover all the bases. Thankfully, we’ve legged it just about clear across the country in the best travel pants for women and settled on this wardrobe of winners for your next trip.

While comfort and mobility are essential for an active traveler, we also looked for versatile styles that transfer easily to a night out on the town or even a work event. We’ve worn top picks like the Patagonia Happy Hike Studio Pants everywhere from redeye flights to afternoon hikes, and cheaper options like the Mountain Hardwear Dynama Ankle Pants are great for padding out your travel choices.

Lead traveler Katie Griffith tested 13 different pairs of pants for this guide, wearing them all over the Western U.S. and beyond for almost 2 years. The broader testing team traveled as far north as British Columbia and all the way south to Joshua Tree, Calif., with countless stops in between. These pants have kept us cool during summer heat waves, comfortable on over 5,000 miles of road-tripping, and classy exploring downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. 

We are active travelers, always seeking diverse adventures when we leave our front doors. When testing, we focused on comfort, style, versatility, durability, and relative value when comparing these pants. We’ve selected the best styles to keep you moving through the world, wherever you may go. 

Check out our comprehensive Buyer’s Guide and Price & Value sections for helpful tips. And have a look at our Comparison Chart if you need help in steering your decision-making.

Editor’s Note: We updated our Travel Pants for Women guide on November 11, 2024, to add a new Price & Value section, as well as additional information on comparable pants to our top picks.

The Best Travel Pants for Women of 2024

Travel Pants for Women Comparison Chart

How We Tested the Best Travel Pants for Women

Our Expert Testers

The author of and main contributor to this guide, Katie Griffith, works as a seasonal climbing guide and spends much of the year traveling for work in her cargo van. When she’s on the road, her wardrobe is limited to whatever she can fit in a duffel bag, so she knows well the value of multi-purpose, wrinkle-proof clothing. 

Katie regularly hosts camping-based climbing and yoga retreats, where she needs to present a trustworthy, professional appearance to her clients. After a day of guiding, she often takes clients out to dinner at local restaurants. If one pair of pants can carry her through the whole day, that’s a definite win. 

Our Testing Process and Testing Grounds

Our team of testers has worn these pants while traveling all over the American West, from the desert to the rainforest to the cityscapes of Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland. We even made it up to British Columbia to scale the granite cliffs of Squamish and explore the international cuisine of Vancouver. We’ve worn different styles while climbing, hiking, and biking, visited museums and aquariums, hosted dinners for clients, and logged (too many!) long days of driving. 

Our travel needs are diverse, so we’re looking especially for versatility. If we wanted a technical pair of climbing or hiking pants for a specific objective, we’d pull from our gear guides detailing the Best Climbing Pants or Best Hiking Pants for Women. 

For travel, we want pants that can do all of the above. They need to have enough comfort and mobility for active exploration while still looking put together for an evening out. Bonus points if we can sleep in them, too. Pants with large logos or super sporty styles did not make the cut, and neither did pairs that restrict movement or limit comfort. 

While on the road, our access to laundry is limited, so wrinkle and stain-resistant fabrics are also highly desirable. A durable water-resistant (DWR) finish can help prevent fabrics from absorbing liquids, and a UPF rating protects us from the sun. Pockets are also a must, ideally deep ones that secure phones, wallets, and keys. At least one zipper pocket is a huge plus for added security. 

We’ve scrutinized every detail of the pants in this guide, to make sure that they are up to these standards. Whether you’re hopping on a flight overseas or planning a cross-country road trip, we know these styles will serve you well.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose the Best Travel Pants for Women

Finding the best pair of travel pants depends on the type of trip you’re planning. We tested a variety of styles, some of which would fare better on a trip that’s heavy on outdoor activities, while others looked sharper for a fancy dinner or work event.

All must be comfortable while in transit, whether you’re road-tripping or traveling by air. Read through the categories below and consider the most important elements for your adventure.

Versatility

A pair of travel pants need to do more than just go for a hike. They should be in line with current styles, be appropriate to wear to a work function or dinner if needed, and include special features that make the travel experience a breeze.

The Outdoor Voices RecTrek Pants easily transition from activewear to everyday life, making them our top choice for versatility. The Patagonia Skyline Traveler Pants excel in several of the categories below, which is why they were in close second place for the versatility prize. We like how neither of these styles looks super sporty, but their fabrics are actually pretty technical. They both are quite stretchy, quick to dry, and water resistant. And both have great zip pockets.

The versatility competition between these two depends mostly on your personal style; do you prefer a skinny leg or a roomy fit? The RecTrek Pants are also a tad less breathable than the Skyline Travelers.

Comfort and Mobility

An overseas flight or cross-country road trip always brings a certain level of discomfort. You might spend hours jammed in the middle seat of an airplane, or perhaps you’ll end up sleeping in your car at a rest stop. Exploring a new destination often means hours of walking through museums, riding bikes around town, or venturing into the mountains.

When you’re away from the comforts of home, your wardrobe makes a big difference. Knit waistbands, fabric blends that include elastane (spandex), and lightweight materials all increase comfort and mobility factors. The comfort of the Patagonia Happy Hike Studio Pants and the Mountain Hardwear Dynama Ankle pants don’t sacrifice style and function, making them both excellent pairs of women’s travel pants to consider.

Fit

While the ideal fit varies depending on body type and preference, the best travel pants keep you looking sharp, no matter the activity. Baggy lounge pants or cargo styles lost points with us, and we didn’t include any leggings or sweatpants on this list. 

The pants that made the cut represent a variety of fits, so you can choose according to your personal taste. One of the main differences between styles is leg width. The Patagonia Skyline Traveler Pants and the Mountain Hardwear Dynama Ankle Pants have slim, tapered legs, while the Outdoor Voices Rectreks and the Athleta Brooklyn Ankle Pants have a more roomy fit. Despite differences in fit, all of the styles above have enough stretch to be comfortable. 

While it’s always nice to try clothes on in person, we realize many folks shop online out of necessity. So, another helpful tidbit is the relative fit of the various options. We found the Lululemon Stretch High Rise Joggers to run a bit small compared with the other styles, while the prAna Sancho Boyfriend Pants run large. Patagonia adjusted the fit this year for the Happy Hike Studio Pants, so these run a bit slimmer than in past seasons. 

Shoppers will find the widest size range in the Athleta Brooklyn Ankle Pants, with sizes from 00 to 26. The Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Pants also make it easy to dial in the perfect fit, with regular, petite, tall, and plus sizes up to 24W.

Style

The best pairs of women’s travel pants include aesthetic details and a flattering fit while retaining mobility and comfort. 

The ideal style for your trip depends on your intended activities. Do you plan to spend a lot of time outside, hiking, biking, or climbing? A pair of high-stretch joggers like the Happy Hike Studio or the Dynama Ankle Pants will suit you well. With elastic around the ankles, the fabric won’t get stuck in bike spokes or get in the way of your climbing shoes. 

For checking out museums and art galleries, you might feel more put together in a cotton style like the prAna Sancho Boyfriend Pants or Topo Designs Dirt Pants. We like the faux zipper and side panels of the ultra-comfortable Athleta Brooklyn Ankle Pants, details that help make them our favorite pair while traveling for work.  

Pockets

We love a pair of travel pants that keep our credit card, keys, and phone safe with functional zip pockets. Since we’re also keeping style in mind, a low-profile zip pocket is preferred over bulky cargo pockets. Almost all of the women’s travel pants we tested have at least one zip pocket. We like the hidden zips of the Athleta Brooklyn Ankle Pants for added security, though these would only fit a small key or credit card. 

Our favorite pockets are the two big zippered ones on the Outdoor Voices Rectrek Pants. With the roomy fit of these pants, we were able to secure keys, phone, and wallet in the depths of these pockets without them showing much bulk.

UPF Treatment

Whether you love walking around cities or exploring the mountains, traveling typically means more time spent outside. Clothing treated with UPF, which stands for ultraviolet protection factor, makes it easier to keep your skin protected during long days in the sun.

When a fabric boasts of UPF treatment of 50+, it offers your skin the maximum possible protection. The minimum rating you’ll see is UPF 15 — anything lower doesn’t provide much protection from UV rays. A pair of pants with a high UPF rating and fabric light enough to wear on a hot day is a win — yet another reason why we love Mountain Hardwear’s Dynama Ankle Pants!

Fabric Weight and Breathability

Unless you’re headed for a winter destination, lightweight, breathable fabric is key to a good pair of travel pants. Remember, you’re going to be hauling your luggage through airports, back and forth from hotels, or possibly hiking into the mountains, so weight matters for all of the products you pack. Lighter fabric also packs down to a smaller size, reducing bulk in your luggage.

If you’ll be traveling in warmer weather, a breathable fabric will promote better moisture transfer as you work up a sweat. This will keep you more comfortable if you want to wear longer pants or sleeves to protect against the sun’s UV rays. The lightest and most breathable pants on this list are the Mountain Hardwear Dynama Ankle pants. These have become our go-to pants for hot-weather activities. The Patagonia Happy Hike Studio Pants are also quite lightweight. 

On the heavier, more weather-resistant end of the spectrum are the Outdoor Voices RecTreks and the Eddie Bauer Guide Pros. These fabrics performed better in windy, cooler conditions; we loved the Rectrek pants during an unseasonably cold desert trip this spring. Cotton fabrics will also feel heavier and less breathable than those made with nylon or polyester. 

Water-Resistant and Wrinkle-Proof Fabric

When access to laundry is limited, spill-resistant fabric is a big benefit. Several of the styles we tested, including the Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Pants and the Patagonia Happy Hike Studio Pants, are treated with a light DWR finish that causes liquids to bead and run off without leaving a stain. This also makes them more water-resistant if you find yourself out and about when a storm rolls through.

The cotton styles we included won’t perform as well against spills or rain; the Topo Designs Dirt Pants and the prAna Sancho Pants are slower to dry and less water resistant than those made with nylon or polyester. We didn’t include any travel jeans on the list, but denim performs similarly to cotton when it gets wet. In fact, we would probably only consider jeans to be “travel” jeans if they had added stretch from elastane or spandex. 

On most adventures, your life is packed into a backpack or suitcase. Even the most meticulous clothing folders benefit from wrinkle-resistant fabric. If a pair of pants look fresh a week into a Europe trip, we’re stoked. We were surprised with how sleek the Athleta Brooklyn Ankle Pants looked after weeks of being stuffed in a duffel bag.

Price & Value

Budget

It seems that to find the features we’re looking for — versatility, style, comfort, and good pockets — you’re likely to pay around $100. Almost all of the pants we included here fall between $95 and $100. 

One of our favorites, the Mountain Hardwear Dynama Ankle Pants, came at a slightly lower price tag of $85. We have noticed over time that this pair doesn’t hold up quite as well as some of the others; the fabric tends to stretch out and pill over years of use. However, that is also true of some of the more expensive options. For padding out your travel wardrobe, we’re willing to mend a few holes here and there.

Mid-Tier

Bumping up a little (and we do mean a little) in price nets you a bit more versatility, durability, and style. The Patagonia Happy Hike Studio Pants ($99) are versatile enough to wear from the yoga studio to the airport, and nets you nicer materials overall, including recycled polyester and spandex, as well as a number of pockets (and a few with zippers).

Spending a bit more can also get you a pair of pants that you can stretch the utility of into different aspects of life, like the work-ready Athleta Brooklyn Ankle Pants ($99) or the stylish Topo Designs Dirt Pants ($99).

Premium

On the higher end, you’ll find the Eddie Bauer Guide Pro Pants clocking in at $150. These are constructed with more technical fabrics, which likely explains the higher price tag. With stronger wind and water resistance, the Guide Pros are made to withstand a wider variety of elements. This is typical of premium pants, which will lean further into the speciality realm and while they’ll do excellent at what they’re made for, they might not do it all perfectly.

Frequently Asked Questions