Best Hiking Shorts (for women, by an outdoor guide!)
April 11, 2026
Looking for the best shorts for hiking on the market? For great hiking shorts that are chafe-free, have pockets, quick drying, and more read on!
why this blog? Hi there! My name is Maddy and I’ve worked as an outdoor guide and writer since 2018, primarily guiding overnight sea kayaking trips and hosting women’s trips. One unique aspect of working sea kayaking trips is I end up guiding a lot of short day hikes in wet pants. As you might guess, this is a recipe for challenging conditions! Based on my experience in the field and test trips throughout 2026, here are the best shorts for hiking!
oh hey there! This blog uses affiliate links. That means if you choose to make a purchase based on my recommendation, I make a small kickback at no additional cost to you.
Best Women’s Hiking Shorts
From pockets to built-in belts, here are the best women’s hiking shorts, at a glace:
- REI Trailmade Shorts
- Vuori AllTheForm 6″ Pocket Shorts
- Patagonia Outdoor Everyday Shorts (built-in belt)
- REI Swiftland High-Rise Running Short
- Stio CFS Drifter
- Stio Goodwin Short
- ASRV Tetra Lite
1) REI Trailmade Shorts: best-budget friendly hiking shorts
If you’re looking for a simple and stylish pair of hiking shorts at around $50, you really can’t beat the REI Trailmade Shorts. These shorts are pocket-heavy (keys, phone) and dry quickly. I recently used them on a five-day sea kayaking trip in Baja and found them to dry quickly and be super comfortable. They have enough structure to hold up the weight of loaded pockets, which is important to me.
I’m 5’4″ and 150-160 pounds, would consider myself somewhat curvy and got them in a large, which was definietly a little too big for me and caused them to bunch up when walking. I think if you’re between sizes you’re okay to size down.
2) Vuori AllTheForm 6″ Pocket Shorts: Best legging-style shorts
The benefit of legging-style hiking shorts is that they are guaranteed to be bunch and chafe free on your hike! The con is that they are very form fitting, and sometimes don’t dry quickly. In the genre of legging-style hiking shorts, I recommend the Vuori AllTheForm Pocket Shorts.
The six-inch inseam protects you from thigh chafe, the pockets allow you to stash your phone, and the high rise cut is extra flattering.
READ: Best Hiking Pants for Women
3) Patagonia Outdoor Everyday Shorts: best belted hiking shorts
If you’re looking for the best pair of belted hiking shorts, check out the Outdoor Everyday shorts by Patagonia. These were my go-to shorts when I was working as a sea kayaking guide in the San Juan Islands and felt like I was constantly in and out of the water and up and down the trail. These pants are super flattering and held up really well to a summer of continuous use and had thoughtful pocket placement.
The Outdoor Everyday shorts come in at the more expensive end of hiking shorts at nearly $90. I would say if slippage is an issue, it may be worth the money. Once I stopped guiding I did have the issue that as I gained a little weight, I didn’t feel like the pants had enough give in the belt to get over my hips. They fit once on, but were kind of a pain to put on in a tent, which certainly isn’t idea. Also consider the more simple, non-belted Patagonia Baggies.
READ: Best Women’s Hiking Boots
4) REI Swiftland High-Rise Running Short: best short for high-intensity activity
My flaming hot take is that I actually like the new high waisted REI Swiftland Running Shorts for hiking. These shorts are nice and breezy and flowy, and I would say true to size. Again contrary to reviewers, I would recommend sizing just slightly up to remedy the tighter and higher placement of the high waistband. They’re meant to be flowy, so in my opinion it’s most important they fit in the waist so they stay up.
I really love the silky feeling fabric of these shorts, the little pocket in the back to stash your keys, built-in underwear, and they dry super quickly making them a really good choice for day hikes where you might hop in the water. I wouldn’t choose them for backpacking, but for general day hikes I think they’re a really solid choice.
The only caveat I would add is that these shorts fit me a lot better at the end of the season when I’m thinner and more fit and looking for something comfortable to hike in, and aren’t super flattering in the early season when I’m curvier, and I would even go so far as to say that if you consider yourself curvy, choose a different pair of shorts entirely. For reference, early season I typically wear a M/L (5’4′, 160 ish) and by late season I’m a true M, closer to 145 generally (guiding and living in a winter place really does a number on your body, I promise this is what’s normal for me!)
READ: 15 Cute Hiking Outfit Ideas
5) Stio CFS Drifter: Best short for swimming, paddling and hiking combination trips
These are my favorite hiking shorts, I find myself reaching for them all the time. I have the 3 inch inseam in Mountain Shadow and here’s why I keep grabbing them over any other short:
Okay first off, they’re flattering. I have a size M that fits me well and look great consistently from season to season despite my fluctuations in weight. The thicker elastic waistband doesn’t fold and has a sort of smoothing effect on my stomach. It’s got a little zip pocket for keys, and bigger pockets for a phone (though I don’t generally keep mine there). Probably the biggest pro of the CFS drifters though is that they are just a simple short made of a hardy, UPF material. They’re comfortable and they dry so quickly.
These have been my sleep and swim shorts (yeah, they often dry in time to sleep in) for most of my recent backpacking trips (Trans Catalina, Havasupai, Porkies, you name it!). I would say the only con is I have the three inch inseams and sometimes they’re a little short and after I’ve been swimming my thighs will chafe. The obvious solution here is to get the 5 inch inseams, but the shorter ones are just so cute!
READ: Best Hiking Sandals
6) Stio Goodwin Short: Best classic hiking short
For a similar short to the Patagonia Outdoor Everyday but a little cheaper (to the tune of like… $10 cheaper) check out the Stio Goodwin Shorts. These are baggier, with less pockets, and a plastic clasp to fasten and velcro, making them a lot easier to get on than the Outdoor Everyday shorts. For this reason, I would recommend these for folks with a somewhat curvy or athletic build.
These dry more quickly than the Outdoor Everyday shorts, but the Goodwins I would argue are less flattering and the pockets on the Outdoor Everyday are a lot more useful. Overall, it really just depends what you’re looking for if you’re looking for a belted hiking short. I would say if you’re curvier and/or using for watersports and getting wet, go with the Goodwins. If getting the shorts over your hips isn’t an issue and you plan on mostly staying dry, the Outdoor Everydays.
READ: Best Hiking Backpacks
7) ASRV Tetra Lite: Best simple active short
For the longest time my favorite pair of hiking shorts was the simple soccer shorts I still had from high school. I’m 30 now, and those shorts finally bit the dust last year after an absolutely Herculean run, and I set out on the search to find something that channeled the energy of those high school soccer shorts.
They needed to be sort of a silk meets quick dry material, with elastic at the waist that didn’t bunch, and they needed to handle a hike without getting bunched up around my thighs. Oh, and they needed to be comfortable enough to sleep in.
The Tetra Lite from ASRV is the hiking short I settled on that fit the bill with a few extra bells and whistles. The fabric is comfortable and dries fast (though not as quickly as some of the aforementioned options above), there are cleverly-designed phone and wallet-sized pockets, have a lot of stretch and a flattering — for sure more so than my ratty soccer shorts.
These are on the pricy side for sure ($118 USD) but I do think that you can tell in the feel of the fabric and design that the price reflects the quality. I also used these shorts on my five day sea kayaking trip in Baja and they were the pair of shorts I felt most confident in, and wore them on the water, to sleep in and then around town (unwashed lmao) at the end of the trip. I paired it with a matching baselayer (felt more like a rash guard but they market it as a baselayer so) which made me feel very stylish and put together, a thing I rarely am!
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