Travel journalist and author Sian Lewis has rounded up the hiking gear she has actually used and would recommend to fellow hikers, covering weekend walks close to home and longer mountain adventures. Her top picks include walking sandals, a down jacket, walking poles and sunscreen.
Gear tested over a decade
Lewis has been testing outdoor equipment for over a decade and has hiked for more than 20 years, exploring trails and mountains across the UK and around the world. She has written extensively about hiking, camping and outdoor adventures for major publications and has tested everything from hiking boots and waterproof jackets to tents and walking poles. She is also the author of several outdoor guidebooks, including Under the Stars, her new guide to the UK’s best campsites (£16.99, Waterstones.com).
Across her top picks, Lewis looked for comfort, durability, weather protection, practicality and value for money. She made sure all the top hiking kit picks had been put through their paces on multiple hiking trips in different weather conditions to check they worked and lasted.
The 10 recommended picks
Lewis’s top jacket is the Peak Performance Helium Utility Down (£275, Peakperformance.com), a light, packable down-filled jacket that is soft and light, with a hood, handy extra pockets, and a water-repellent outer. For walking poles, she recommends Black Diamond Pursuit Carbon Z poles (£170, Blackdiamondequipment.com), which combine comfy, sweat-wicking cork grips with a lightweight carbon body and fold into three sections. They are not adjustable, however, so you’ll need to choose the right length.
For sun protection, Lewis picks P20 Sunscreen (£14.50, Boots.com), which stays put on your skin for hours even if you sweat or swim. Her hiking sandal choice is the Vivo Barefoot Tracker Ora Sandal (£120, Vivobarefoot.com), combining a barefoot-style, flexible sole with good grip and three adjustable Velcro straps. The Near Zero Dean TR 50 backpack (£150, Nearzero.co) is her pick for carrying camping kit or trekking for several days, with front-loading access, smart interior organisation and an ultralight aluminium frame.
Other trail favourites
Other picks include the Yeti Rambler water bottle (£37, Blacks.co.uk), the BAM Sudbrook base layer (£39, Bambooclothing.co.uk), Darn Tough hiking socks (£32, Darntough.uk), the Buff Niels Evo beanie hat (£19.95, Amazon.co.uk) and the Helinox Chair Zero LT (£139, Helinox.co.uk), a lightweight chair weighing just 534g that packs down small enough to fit inside a rucksack water bottle pocket.
Lewis notes that while some items are indulgences rather than essentials, they make even back-to-basics backpacking trips much more comfortable. She advises that not all sunscreen is created equal and that P20 can stain white clothing, so care is needed when applying it before pulling on a pale hiking T-shirt.
