Need suggestions - women's lightweight hiking boot
 

I have a friend coming to visit and she is looking for either a boot or cross trainer that she can wear here in the <i>Southwest and in Italy</i> next month.

Has anyone got Merrell Moab Ventilator Hiking Shoes? They look pretty good and maybe what she is looking for in a boot.

She prefers low cut boot/shoe.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!
Debi

Are these shoes for hiking or walking? I found a non-hiking shoe that is soooooooo comfortable for walking and it is fun and trendy too. The shoe is made by Dansko and is called the Meredith. You can order it from www.zappos.com and they will ship them to you for free as well as take free returns. I love them and bought them for a trip to Europe next week for the much walking that I am going to be doing.

Merrill makes a wide range of walking/hiking shoes - the Moab Ventilator is a great shoe.

For recent trip to Italy both DD and LW both bought a pair of Merrill's (I don't recall specific style, but all had similar cushion/sole to the Moab.

The pair I bought are great for hiking, walking on cobblestones &amp; ruins, and also nice enough to wear with pants out to a nice dinner.

She should definitely try a pair on - I found they run 1/2 size smaller than other shoe's I've had.

I bought mine at onlineshoes.com - free shipping.

Definitely try on a few boots. I love the fit of Merrells. My sister prefers Vasque.

I'm happy with my North Face Fury Gore-Tex low-cut hiking shoes, which I got at www.backcountry.com. They're comfortable, lightweight (for a hiking shoe), and waterproof. I've done mostly urban walking in them (in New York and Edinburgh), but I can't imagine why they wouldn't also be suitable for walking in the Southwest and Italy.

Those Moabs don't' look like hiking shoes to me, are they for actual hiking or just for touring around cities? If the latter they look fine, but if for hiking on trails, etc, I personally like to have ankle support when climbing up and over rocks and down narrow canyon paths. Find out what she is using them for. Also, I would not want to break in a pair of shoes on a trip, so make sure she has time to get in some walking time at home first; even my Timberlands which I love and which feel like butter on my feet now had to be broken in with a few walks. Blisters are not fun on vacation....

Go to a specialty store -- a local outdoor store, EMS, REI etc -- and try on a bunch, with the kind of socks you plan to wear with them on. They should have people there who can give expert advice.

I wear a different size hiking boot than street shoe. So unless she's willing to order several sizes of several different boots online, that's another reason to just go to a store.

It's ALL about fit. Everyone's feet are different! My favorite boots might be agony on someone else.

And that would ruin their vacation, not just with blisters but with many other kinds of foot pain.

Shoes that are soft and comfy when you first put them on generally don't provide enough support for walking along rocky trails. You need something comfortable, but with a little discipline too.

Bottom line: Go the experts. Get measured. Try them on.

Then, break them in here.

I think Stonefly makes some - at least, they used to!

Merrill is a good brand, if it fits well. The benefit of the lightweight shoes and boots is that they require very little breaking-in.

I see the Moab Ventilator comes in both a &quot;mid&quot; and a &quot;low&quot;. The &quot;mid&quot; (shown here: http://www.rei.com/product/747206 is classified by REI as a lightweight hiking boot; the &quot;low&quot; is classified as a cross-trainer or trail shoe.

Is she sure she wants a low-cut? On steep trails, they don't hold your foot back as well on the downhill, and bruised or sore toes are often the result. But some people (my husband included) do OK with them---he loves his Keens, which are very roomy in the toe area. Me, I'll take a real hiking boot (above the ankle) every time, becasue I have &quot;bad feet&quot; that need a lot of coddling.

What kind of walking or hiking will she be doing? For &quot;moderate&quot; hikes with not a lot of elevation gain and loss, the low-cut trail shoes might be just right, and won't take up too much room in her Italy luggage.

Is she going to be hiking in Italy? If not, the Moab Ventilator wouldn't look too well walking the streets of Rome, Venice, etc. Does she care about fashion?

Italian women wear feminine footwear. (I saw a pair of Lucchese police women in full uniform including pants but wearing heels!) They pick out us female travelers by our clunky footwear. Still I wear walking shoes and sandals in Italy. You don't want to spend all that money to get there, then turn an ankle on a cobblestone and be unable to walk. But there are nice-looking citified walking shoes.

I wore Ecco hiking boots to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back--16 miles of hard hiking and my feet never bothered me. I think that's a pretty good test of a boot.