The best travel pants for men don’t have it easy. For one, they’re probably competing with your sweats, stiff competition in any context, let alone in the TSA line. So if your first instinct before hightailing it to the airport is to swaddle yourself in your trustiest lazy-Sunday gear, we get it. You want to be comfortable when you travel—but, and this should really go without saying, you also want to look like an adult. And that’s where pants specifically engineered for a long, arduous journey (or a short jaunt upstate) have the advantage.
Lately, when it comes to this category of slacks, the fashion tide has been turning away from slim joggers and commuter-friendly hybrids toward more considered silhouettes designed for ease, built with intention, and ready to be taken seriously. The good news is there are plenty of excellent, thoughtfully-designed options that check those boxes and more. To help you narrow it down, we criss-crossed the menswear landscape to find the best travel pants for men on the market right now. Bon voyage.
The Best Men’s Travel Pants, According to GQ
Looking for Something Specific?
Best Overall: Banana Republic Linen-Cotton Traveler Pull-On Pants
There aren’t many things that feel or look better in summer than linen. The problem with pure linen, though, is that it can rip easily. Banana Republic solved for that by blending its Italian-milled linen with cotton, which gives these pants just enough stretch to last through your travels and beyond, while still keeping things breezy and cool. There’s also some hidden elastic in the waist for heavy eating days, and an interior drawstring to help you get the fit just right every morning of your trip. Simply put, these Banana Republic pants tick all the travel pant boxes: comfort, style, functionality.
Best Budget: Uniqlo Wide Cargo Pants
Uniqlo’s cargo pants—like most of their styles—prove that great design doesn’t have to come with a big price tag. Made from 100% cotton, they offer a wide, relaxed silhouette that feels relaxed and put-together all at once. (Thoughtful details like gusseted cargo pockets for extra storage and darted knees for enhanced mobility make them plenty functional, too.) Whether you’re running around town, heading to the airport, or just kicking back, they deliver comfort in four versatile color options just waiting to be matched with whatever’s already in your closet, or carry-on suitcase. Not bad for $50.
Best for the Outdoors: Nike ACG Smith Summit Convertible Cargo Trousers
These aren’t your dad’s zip-off cargos. Nike’s ACG (it stands for ‘All Conditions Gear’) line pairs contemporary style with serious technical chops—in this case, a water-repellent finish, adjustable internal belt, and large zippable cargo pockets for snacks (or phone chargers). Field-tested at Smith Rock near Nike’s Oregon HQ, they’re made from a blend of nylon and water-resistant Cordura, a synthetic fabric often used in backpacks and military gear. These are some heavy-duty travel pants for the adventure set.
Best for the Office: Buck Mason Parachute Poplin Carry-On Pants
Designed to match the brand’s carry-on jacket, Buck Mason’s Parachute Poplin Carry-On pants are essentially a classic chino, but offered in a lighter, sweaty-travel-day-friendly fabric. Crafted from crisp 5.5 oz. cotton poplin, they boast a mid-rise, a look that skews more vintage military chino than gym-ready jogger, and plenty of useful pockets, while the natural enzyme rinse gives them a throwback vibe right off the rack. But critically, they also look like a dress pant, making them a sensible pick for your company retreat.
Best for the Daily Commute: Rhone Commuter Straight Fit Pants
To the untrained eye, these might look like suit trousers, but the four-way stretch of their Flex-Knit fabric is built for movement, meaning they’ll hold up and keep you comfortable whether you’re sprinting to a meeting or a flight. With a flat front, mid-rise, and slight taper, the Commuter Pants also come in six colors for variety and have stealthy, secure pockets for your phone and wallet while you’re on the go.
Best for the Apocalypse: Outlier Futureyeses Pants
Brooklyn-based Outlier takes pride in the cutting-edge qualities of its designs, but despite their futuristic branding, its products are built for the here and now. These “Futureyeses” (pronounced Future-yes-es) are made from a lightweight but durable nylon blend, and woven in Sweden with a two-way stretch design that makes them more than prepped for squats and lunges, should you be planning on incorporating workouts into your week away. Add in an elastic waist, five pockets, eight color options, a handy key loop, and a water-repellent coating, and you’ve got a pair of pants ready for just about anything—jet lag included.
More Travel Pants We Love
J.Crew 770 Broken-in Straight Chino Pant
Chinos are a certified classic, but buying them new can sometimes feel a little meh, because they only really develop their character once they’re a little softer and worn-in. Luckily, J.Crew figured out how to skip to the good part. Just add fanny pack.
Stone Island Regenerated Nylon Cargo Pants
These from Stone Island are lightweight, sturdy and packed with stealthy functionality—perfect for navigating airport security or just looking hard as nails. Made from regenerated nylon with the brand’s signature metallic sheen, they’re water-resistant, loaded with pockets, and engineered for movement. Basically, they’re the most tactical way to stay comfy at 35,000 feet.
Lemaire Big Work Trousers
If Lemaire is known for anything, it’s its mastery of spacious trousers. This style, crafted from heavyweight cotton, offers structure without stiffness, while the boxy fit ensures plenty of space—even when your seat doesn’t.
Gramicci makes some of the best durable and roomy climbing pants—qualities that also make them perfect for travel. The G-Pants (a longtime favorite of climbers and laptop workers alike) check all the right boxes, but the addition of hemp here takes them up a notch. Naturally breathable, moisture-wicking, and anti-microbial, it’s the kind of upgrade that makes a difference, especially when that summer flight cabin is feeling stuffy.
Todd Snyder Modern Chinos
These Todd Snyder joints are made from a soft selvedge cotton sourced from Japan’s renowned Kuroki Mill. Which is another way of saying they’ll age beautifully, and last far longer than your remaining air miles.
There’s a reason so many men exclusively travel in Issey Miyake’s iconic pleated trousers. The ultra-lightweight, 100% polyester construction offers a flexible, comfortable fit that moves with you but always keeps its pleated style, no matter how you pack it down—seriously, you can even ball them up.
Veilance Spere LT Trousers
Veilance, the urban performance line from Arc’teryx, brings the brand’s technical prowess to city-ready gear. The Spere LT Trousers are lightweight, wind- and water-resistant, and made from Arc’teryx’s proprietary TerraTex™ fabric—offering just the right amount of stretch for all-day ease.
COS Relaxed Pleated Cotton Pants
COS has a knack for nailing timeless cuts at prices that don’t sting. These pleated trousers are built for comfort on the move, with a relaxed leg that tapers just enough to keep things sharp. Ideal for travel, or just looking effortlessly put-together wherever you land.
COMMAS Black Travel Trousers
The name says it all—these flowy, wide-legged cotton-blend trousers from Australia’s COMMAS are designed for movement. Known for its resort and swimwear lines, the brand brings that same effortless ease to these travel pants, which are all about the journey, not the destination.
You know the drill by now—niche Japanese brand takes a classic and makes it better. And honestly? We never get tired of it! Here, Aton reworks a vintage cargo silhouette (because why mess with perfection?) in a rugged yet featherlight nylon twill. Woven with precision, it delivers a soft hand feel, a structured drape, and the kind of practicality that matters—wrinkle-resistant, quick-drying, and lightly water-repellent.
Your Travel Pant FAQ, Answered
What makes a good travel pant?
The pants we’re talking about here will never approximate the decadent bliss of cashmere joggers, but what they lack in coziness they make up for in functionality, good looks, and headache-saving, luggage-maximizing versatility. You don’t want to waste carry-on space hauling sweatpants that you’ll only wear on the plane; you want pants for the flight and the adventure the next day.
What distinguishes travel pants from khakis, jeans, or chinos?
The best travel pants are designed to marry comfort and practicality, especially given that travel days can so often be uncomfortable and impractical. Some travel pants might feel like a sweatpant but look like a chino, while others are more geared to outdoor activities, but still have enough stretch to be comfortable in transit. The important thing is that they’re universally lightweight and highly versatile.
What type of travel pants should I look for?
The right travel pants for you depends on the kind of traveler you are. Planning a trip somewhere rocky and wet? Pick a pair that can handle it. Staring down an itinerary of boozy dinners and glitzy shows? Pick a pair that can handle those.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.
Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there’s bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ’s testing process here.)
