Whether you’re going on a day hike with friends or tackling an ambitious backpacking route, you’ll need to wear a good pair of hiking boots to protect your feet and stabilize your ankles.
In the span of five years, we wore 47 pairs of hiking boots while trekking more than 1,200 miles and taking over 2 million steps across all types of terrain.
After all that, we’ve chosen the Salomon Quest 4 Gore-Tex Hiking Boots (men’s and women’s) as the best hiking boots.
Made of breathable and waterproof materials, they provide solid traction and support. And these boots have several essential features—including a wide toe box, sturdy heel protection, and a gusseted tongue—that allowed us to hike comfortably for miles.
Our pick
Salomon Quest 4 Gore-Tex Hiking Boots (men’s sizes)
These versatile boots offer trustworthy traction, top-notch cushioning, and the widest toe box of any boots we tested. They’re best suited for longer treks with heavier packs, but they are comfortable to wear on hikes of any length.
Salomon Quest 4 Gore-Tex Hiking Boots (women’s sizes)
These versatile boots offer trustworthy traction, top-notch cushioning, and the widest toe box of any boots we tested. They’re best suited for longer treks with heavier packs, but they are comfortable to wear on hikes of any length.
In 2021, Salomon updated its popular Quest boots from 3D to 4 (in men’s and women’s sizes). Thankfully, the Quest 4 Gore-Tex boots still have many of the features we loved in the previous version, including ample toe and heel protection, solid traction and support, breathable and waterproof materials, and a gusseted tongue. This was already the best boot for those carrying heavy loads; a minor upgrade to the old model adds to that sturdiness, with increased ankle and heel support for carrying weight.
These boots also have a flexible midfoot plate, which makes flexing your foot a bit easier. Though the new Quests had a slightly longer break-in time than the previous model, they also had the widest toe box of any of the boots we tested; that means the boot is likely to fit most foot shapes right out of the box. That said, the Quests are fairly bulky, so they’re best for folks carrying heavy packs or kids on their back. Despite their clunkiness, they’re surprisingly comfortable on shorter hikes, too.
Budget pick
The newly updated Merrell Moab 3 Mid Waterproof Hiking Boots (which come in men’s and women’s sizes) are just as good as their predecessors, offering hikers who are on a budget a no-frills, trustworthy option. These boots have been one of our picks for five years, and each time we test them, we find the Moabs to be a good fit in all the ways that count. They’re waterproof (though not for an extended a period of time, like our other picks); they provide decent ankle support for moderate-length hikes; they’re easy to lace; and they’re fairly breathable.
We found them to be extremely comfortable, too: The updated shock absorption and contoured foot bed make a noticeable difference in preventing sore feet, especially on longer treks. If you have wider feet, you may appreciate that the Moab 2 boots come in both regular and wide widths (and even the regular width is wider than that of our other picks). These boots are also less expensive than most of the others we’ve tested.
Also great
Vasque Breeze Waterproof Hiking Boot (men’s sizes)
These flexible, lightweight hiking boots work well in many different types of terrain, and they last over time. They do run narrow, though, throughout their size range and take longer to break in.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $0.
Vasque Breeze Waterproof Hiking Boot (women’s sizes)
These flexible, lightweight hiking boots work well in many different types of terrain, and they last over time. They do run narrow, though, throughout their size range and take longer to break in.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $0.
We’ve tested the Vasque Breeze hiking boot many times over the past few years, and we’ve found its most recent iteration to be the best yet. The newly updated Vasque Breeze boots (in men’s and women’s sizes) offer the comfort of a trail-running shoe with the ankle support of a hiking boot. The midfoot is flexible enough to allow you to drive, maneuver difficult terrain, and move quickly. But the ankle support is substantial enough to support you when you’re carrying a heavy pack. And the soles grip the ground, no matter the terrain. Though they were comfortable right out of the box, these boots seemed to get better with wear. They formed to our feet as they broke in, so they became even more comfortable after weeks and months of use. We found ourselves gravitating toward these boots over other options.
The Breezes weigh (approximately) 2 pounds 2 ounces, depending on sizing, so they’re the lightest of our picks. Paired with the substantial underfoot support, the lighter weight was especially noticeable after longer hikes, when we found our legs and feet were less sore than expected. The only downside is that these boots do run a bit narrow all the way up; several of our testers ended up with hot spots on their ankle bones. These hot spots diminished over time, but you should expect a longer break-in period with these, compared with some of our other picks. We recommend ordering at least a half-size up from your street-shoe size.
