Other Travel Pants to Take You There

We think that the five pants above are perfect for cycling through the week on your travels, but there’s certainly other options we’ve tested and enjoyed as well. Check out the eight alternates below to help diversify your travel closet.

Men’s Travel Pants Comparison Chart

How We Tested the Best Men’s Travel Pants

There are few other products we test at GearJunkie that are considered non-negotiable in society. Outside the house, you gotta wear pants (or shorts). And if you’re choosing shorts, you’re probably not looking at the right pants.

Travel pants are part of our everyday uniform, allowing us to test them daily. We test pants for the office grind, after-school errands, dispatching weekend chores, and yes, of course, travel, constantly logging test hours to find the best travel pants on the market.

Our Testing Process and Testing Grounds

Cozy in coach, capable of tackling adventure, but formal enough to wear to dinner, travel pants span the use case spectrum. We’ve worn them on intercontinental flights to Europe, Asia, and South America, as well as transcontinental flights from Jacksonville to the Intermountain States.

In warmer climates, we’ve pulled them out of our bikepacking bags on cool nights in Nicaragua and high up on the Colombian Coffee Triangle. One tester even wore his pair to the top of the Grand Teton.

When we get our hands on a new pant, we first take a look at the materials. We gauge the fabric weight, breathability, and the material’s ability to resist wrinkling. Synthetics with a DWR will pack down smaller, bounce back from being jammed in luggage on an overnight flight, and resist stains (and spills) better than cotton.

A touch of spandex affords some stretch and nylon tends to be more durable. We then turn them inside out to look at the seams joining the pants together, looking at where costs were cut and potential quality issues might cause a blowout on the road.

To be considered for our list, pants need at least one pocket that can be zipped shut to safely secure a passport or wallet. The hand pockets should be deep enough to keep keys and change from accidentally spilling out, or have zippers that prevent mishaps. No joke, one pair of pants we tested (not on this list) spit a wallet out at work without us even knowing it.

We then evaluated each pant’s fit, durability, packability, ability to bounce back from repeated wash and wear, and unpacking. We want to find out if a pair of pants can be washed in the sink in the evening and be ready to wear the following morning.

We want to see if the material resists wrinkling. And we want to know if the pants are cut too large, too small, or hike up the legs. The best material and construction alone can’t fake a good fit. We test pants for mobility and proper length. Does the pant bind in the crotch? Are the gussets appropriate? Are the legs cut at a proper length or do they ride up when walking?

Our testing focuses primarily on comfort, versatility, and functionality when in transit, so if you’re looking for something more durable for active pursuits, check out our picks for the best hiking pants. We also have a guide for the best women’s travel pants to get your travel companion ready for the long haul.

Our Expert Testers

Steve Graepel has been leading the men’s travel pant buyer guide since 2015. Over the span of 8 years, Graepel has seen over 240 pairs of travel pants, rigorously testing 155 pants. Graepel has worked at GearJunkie as a contributing editor since 2009, testing everything from packrafts, to bike bags, sleeping bags, winter boots, and trail runners.

His latest beat is travel pants, flannels, and men’s wallets. Before his time as a “fashion blogger,” he wrote for Travel Idaho, National Geographic Adventure, Patagonia’s Tin Shed, Trail Runner, and Gear Patrol.

Graepel has researched and tested travel pants extensively — traveling, working, and camping in the high alpine desert of Idaho, Montana, and Utah, and traveling abroad in a variety of environments including Europe, Asia, Central, and South America. He continues to test travel pants year-round and searches for anyone who will listen to his yarns about the best travel trousers.

In 2020, we tried 27 pairs and listed 15 pants on our men’s buyers guide. In 2021, we tested an additional 35 pairs, highlighting nine new pants on our list. In 2022, we saw an additional 23 pairs, adding six new pants.

In 2023 we looked at 38 pairs, adding seven new pants to the men’s travel pant buyer’s guide. In 2024, we reviewed 30 pants, updating our Men’s Travel Pants buyer guide with nine new pants. And finally, for 2025, we tested 16 new pants, adding six pants to our latest buyer’s guide.

Each year introduces new styles and materials, and we try to reflect the best on the market of that year. Many trousers remain on the list, year after year. They are either so good, or so good of a deal, that they are tough to topple.

To keep a finger on the pulse of pants, we read reviews from top sites and contact manufacturers directly. Steve Graepel has regular conversations with pant brand owners and representatives in the travel pant space. These relationships allow us to stay up to date on what makes pants better every year, and keep an eye on sleeper pants that just don’t have the marketing budget to get mass attention.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose Travel Pants

Fit

Regardless of whether the pants are straight-leg or slim, a good pair is one that follows the human form and doesn’t bag out after repeated washings, or bloat when packed with your phone and keys. The length should fit your inseam or run longer so you can roll them up or get them tailored.

Almost every pant on our list has a great fit. If they didn’t, we’ve shared the cons. Both Jetty’s and UNIONBAY’s pants run a little long. Nomatic’s Outset is a touch slim. Proof, Jack Archer, Rhone, and Public Rec offer a variety of inseams for a dialed fit (from 30″ to 36″). To dial in the fit of the waist for models with belt loops, we typically try to find a travel and adventure-friendly belt that allows us to get through TSA without needing to remove it.

Function

We scored each pant for both its ability to adventure, wear in coach, and hit the streets. Some pants, like Arc’teryx , have a bias for stout use. The Gamma Joggers are coated with a solid DWR and are our choice for adventure trips where you can’t sacrifice durability.

If traveling by plane, we prefer comfortable pants with accessible pockets. While five-pocket styled jeans or chinos wear well on the street, their pockets are harder to access when sitting on the plane. So we usually prefer a comfortable jogger or cargo pant that has vertical zippered pockets and drop-in device pockets on the legs.

KÜHL and KUIU both have accessible pockets while seated in the plane. Nomatic has a clever slash-style coin pocket that works better than most. The angled entry is forgiving when trying to extract the phone. Arc’teryx has a large map pocket that rides over the leg.

For comfort in coach, you don’t need to look past Bluffworks Envoy. They look great and have plenty of pockets to stay organized. KÜHL’s Suppressor Jogger dialed the drop-in pockets and is lightweight and durable, but the material isn’t nearly as soft as KUIU’s soft cotton blend. It’s always a trade-off.

Style Matters

While comfort is key, we also need to be able to show ourselves in public (no washed-out gray sweatpants on this list). The most versatile travel clothes should be able to tackle a hike without getting roughed up, or walk into town looking sharp enough to peruse a museum, and duck in for fine dining afterward.

Unfortunately, the cargo pockets take away some formality while out on the town. With its jogger styling, neither Arc’teryx nor KÜHL designed around Michelin stars. They prioritize function and durability, mapping to utility. KÜHL, KUIU, and Stio each have unique cargo styling that brings a touch of modernity to the military-inspired side-pocket pants. In general, we love cargo-style pants and joggers while sitting on the plane. It keeps all your essentials within reach.

On the other hand, Western Rise’s Evolution 2, Rhone, Public Rec, and Proof’s 72-Hour Merino are fantastically styled everyday pants with a single security pocket to maintain that sleek look. They are our go-to choice for travels to big cities where we want to kick up the look and feel at home while traveling abroad. For equal fashion-forward looks with more security pockets, we were thrilled to see Jack Archer’s Jetsetter Tech Chino, and we look forward to testing them more on future trips.

Clean lines, darker colors, and traditional styling help you blend into crowds and stave off the would-be pickpocket’s radar. The best men’s travel pants should look as good as they feel without shouting “tourist.”

The material should be lightweight and, in our preference, darker to minimize showing the dirt collected along the way. That said, we were astounded by how well a fresh DWR can resist stains on even the fairest beige pants.

Fabric Weight

Lightweight performance fabrics can withstand repeated washings in a sink, line dry overnight, and stay wrinkle-free after weeks on the go. Today’s fabrics offer advanced sun protection and moisture-wicking properties and are often water-resistant or water-repellent, and can even repel insects.

Fabric weight is measured in grams per square meter (GSM). A heavier GSM will take up more room in your bag and take longer to dry. We find a 200-ish GSM fabric weight, like on our top pick from Bluffworks, light and breezy, and dries out quickly.

A welterweight fabric will disappear in the bag and dry out insanely fast, but going too light sacrifices durability. All the pants we tested are durable enough to venture off the pavement.

If you want the lightest pant you can find, give KUIU’s a look. The cotton-nylon-spandex blend is comfortable, water resistant, breathes well, and rolls up tight and is exceptionally durable. Western Rise also uses a lighter-weight GSM fabric, but the pants weigh more overall.

Fabric Type

A cotton blend fabric adds breathability and a cooling effect, which is great for warmer climates, but can also sacrifice durability. And, unless treated with a DWR, cotton can wet out more easily and hold water longer.

Some pants weave cotton into their blend. To beef up the durability, the natural fiber is woven with a synthetic like polyester or nylon and an elastic component for stretch. KUIU does a great job of finding the sweet spot.

If you choose to go with denim or cotton, consider a stretchy fabric with a bit of spandex or elastane for comfort and flexibility while on the road. It will resist wear longer, dry faster, and feel much more comfortable. While not on this year’s list, Aviator’s The Best Travel Jeans in the World are very comfortable and weave in some stretch, but they weigh nearly twice as much as every other pant on the list. Our cotton choices keep the weight down.

Most of the pants on this list are woven from synthetic fibers. Synthetics tend to stand up to more abuse than their natural counterparts. For example, Ornot’s Mission Pant is incredibly durable and is built for men who abuse pants while in the saddle. This is because Ornot weaves the pants from mostly Nylon.

When you think of nylon in outdoor application, you might think of ropes or mountaineering shells — gear that stands up to abuse. It is no surprise that Arc’teryx’s Gamma is constructed from a nylon fabric. Nylon is more durable than polyester but typically doesn’t wick as well.

The downside of poly is that the fibers are porous and can trap bacterial waste, which eventually can cause our workout shirts to stink. This seems to be less of an issue in pants, but if you are looking for durability, we still recommend a nylon material.

Unique to our lists, Proof’s 72-Hour Travel Pant uses a merino wool synthetic blend. Wool is known for its odor-resistant and insulative qualities. Contrary to what you might think, they stay surprisingly cool and breathe well in hot climates. For durability and stretch, Proof weaves nylon, polyester, and a touch of elastane. We wore these pants on a 12-hour flight to Japan, and they were notably cooler.

Weaving in spandex or elastic adds mobility, but can also give the pants a polished, slick finish. KÜHL weaves in a whopping 15% spandex into the material, but most pants will have 2-6% for a combination of durability and mobility. Bluffworks, Unionbay, and Jetty feel more formal with their smooth-faced fabric finishes. Material finishes are more of a personal preference and don’t affect their water resistance, which is added with a DWR wash.

Our favorite pants come from Bluffworks. While the fit is fantastic, they don’t have a DWR. This makes them less desirable if you are traveling to places that rain a lot. However, they excel in so many other ways that they still stand out as our top choice. We noticed the same with our Jack Archer Jetsetter Techs. Water spills off without a DWR.

On the flip side, Western Rise’s DWR not only deflects dirt and grime on the road, but liters of beer simply rolled off them at Oktoberfest. We really took one for the team while testing.

Performance fabrics are standing up to heavy use like never before. Shelling out a few more bucks for quality generally gets you into a more durable pant that should hold up to more extensive use. We’ve put in countless hours testing the pants on this list, so you’re starting in the right place.

Seam Construction

Seams are often overlooked. Out of sight, out of mind, seams bring two patches of fabric together and are crucial for durability and comfort. But this is where we can differentiate the good from the great, and this is where we get passionately nerdy.

Flat-felled seams are best for joining heavy fabrics together. Think denim. The material doesn’t stretch and the fabric is woven from heavy cotton yarn. You want a solid seam to join the pants together. The fabric is joined, then rolled over itself and double stitched for a clean, bomber fasten.

None of the pants on our list are joined entirely from flat-felled seams, though LIVSN and Proof incorporate a flat-fell seam on at least one leg seam. In general, we find it more important to flat-fell the inseam of the pants (which is what Proof does).

Too much material tacked together with a flat-fell seam can cause rubbing against the legs. And most travel pants are constructed from lighter-weight fabrics, so pants don’t always need this extra durable seam construction. It can cause tension on lighter, more fragile material, and eventually wear out adjacent to the seams

Many pants can get away with a less expensive, and more comfortable overlocked seam. An overlocking stitch, or welt-seam, has a lower profile, leaving the raw edge exposed but sewn down to the pant. Plus they are nearly as durable as the venerable flat-felled stitch, but can feel more comfortable (it’s less bulky).

Some overlocked stitches aren’t tacked down. That is, the seam isn’t sewn down flat with a second row of stitching, leaving the surged seam exposed on the inside. This usually isn’t a big deal.

Our main concern would be that the stitching could get caught on something and start to unravel. But we haven’t ever had this experience and it’s a fine option to use when binding two lightweight materials together. Ornot and Bluffworks use a combination of overlocked and welted overlocked seams and both pants are holding strong after a few seasons of wear.

The simplest seam, or plain seam, joins the two sides together with a simple, single stitch. Often the cut material is finished with a surger that overstitches the end material, reducing the chances of fraying, but the joining seam itself is sewn together with a single stitch, and the exposed edges butterfly on the inside of the pant.

This is often used for lightweight material where want to reduce the bulk as much as possible. We see this used on Western Rise’s Evolution 2. In theory, this is not a highly durable seam construction. And we’ve seen this kind of seam unravel on a few pants we’ve tested. We’ve also been beating our Western Rise’s for years now and have yet to see their plain seam blow out.

Price & Value

They say you shouldn’t skimp on the things you touch the ground with, and while pants aren’t quite there, they aren’t far off either. Long days in the saddle of international travel can have you in a seated position for hours on end, and that’s when investing in a good pair of travel pants can make the difference. But not every flight is a long haul, and every trip is different — so considering just how much to spend on a pair of pants is wise.

Budget

If hostel hopping is more your speed, saving a buck or two on your travel pants can make a lot of sense. You can easily snag two pairs of budget-minded trousers for the price of some of the higher-end options in our review. Expect to pay less than $100 for these pants, and for them to use larger percentages of nylon in their weaves. Pocket layouts are typically fairly simple with five-pocket styles.

The UNIONBAY Rainier Travel Pants ($40) have been our budget go-to for a few years running now, and it’s seemingly not going anywhere. A simple construction otherwise keeps the overhead on these pants low, and while they tend to show stains a bit more than other pants we’ve tested, they’re cheap enough to keep as a backup pair.

The Jack Archer Jetsetter Tech Pant ($89) raids high-end Japanese textile mills for its Rebound fabric, and was easily one of the most fashion-forward slacks in our review that we felt equally at home in on the jetway or while dressing up.

Mid-Tier

On another level, the construction of mid-tier travel pants is likely where you will notice the largest difference. And it’s where we see overlocked seams, added gusset panels in the crotch, and higher percentages of elastane to add mechanical stretch. All of these design details take more time and material to build into these pants. As such, you should expect to pay between $100 and $150 to slide into a pair.

Check out the Bluffworks Envoy Lightweight Travel Pants ($125), which cranks the dial up from budget pants with a total of nine separate pockets (essential during travel) and are constructed with all overlocked seams, as well as a double seam to keep them from rubbing on the skin.

The LIVSN Ecotrek Trail Pants ($129) also lean into the upgraded materials. They use an Oceanflex fabric that is 70% recycled fishing buoys, while stitching the whole affair together with a smartly tailored cut.

Premium

If you’re paying north of $150 for a pair of travel pants, there’s likely a good reason: either you’re the darling of airline travel mile programs or intensely serious about seeing all 195 countries. Either way, pants in this price range should be thought of as investment pieces, as their durability will long outlast lesser options. Or their comfort is far outside the norm.

The Jack Archer Jetsetter Tech Pant ($89) raids high-end Japanese textile mills for its Rebound fabric, and was easily one of the most fashion-forward slacks in our review that we felt equally at home in on the jetway or while dressing up.

The Proof 72-Hour Merino Travel Pant ($170) is now $30 cheaper, but still approaching an eye-wincing price. The high-percentage merino wool content is to thank here and makes these some of the coziest pants we’ve kicked around in.

Frequently Asked Questions