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Three zipoff pants still provide more options: three days in long pants, three days in shorts, or a 3-day combination of shorts/long pants as the weather requires.
Hmm I guess you prefer a lot more control over shorts versus pants when traveling then I do. I think I've worn shorts at least 95% of the time when traveling, which granted has mostly been in warmer places.
Ironically some of the places where I've feel most out of place wearing shorts are some of the warmest, they just happen to have cultures where adult males don't wear shorts much.
I don't get them either, but I rarely see them anyway.
What's a lifesaver for me are those ribbed t-shirt dresses. I have a couple from Target, and they are great! $20 if not on sale; today I bought one for $12.99 on sale. I wear them when I'm not travelling too. So soft and comfortable, and they're not ugly either. They're a thickness that works well in cooler and warmer temps.
My husband and a bunch of hot air balloon pilots like the zip-off pants because about 3/4 of their flyig is done in the early morning during warm weather. They can wear the full length pants for ballooning. You want to wear long pants because they protect your lefgs if you wand in tall grass or places where you might walk through brush. Later, after you've landed and the day begins to heat up, you can zip off the legs and stay cooler.
In reality, he rarely zipss off the legs. He does love the pants and wears them all the time. Then again, he'd rather be comfortable than fashionable.
I haven't worn them in a long time, but when I was younger (10-15 years ago) I would wear them all the time. I travelled a lot back then. I've always called them zip off pants, and I've never heard them called travel pants before.
I can give a few examples of when they are useful. Traveling by plane to a colder climate, shorts in the plane, zip on the pants for the colder weather. Don't have to get pants out of a bag and put shorts back in. Traveling by car and arriving somewhere with lots of bugs, happened a lot when I camped out a lot. Say you're hiking and it's hot out, it starts getting darker and bugs come out, just zip up the pants.
I won't comment on how they look, they probably aren't very fashionable, but they can be quite convenient. I used to really like them and wear them a lot, but I haven't bought any in a long time. I never found them uncomfortable either, they typically have an inner lining around the zipper, so one can't feel the zipper. Normally they are very lightweight, breath well, and dry very quickly.
For those not familiar with the travel pants, Google Maps happened to catch a guy doing a field conversion from pants to shorts at the Grand Canyon. Is here:
Beautiful view! The background with that canyon isn't bad either.
But this is hiking/backpacking, not traveling. He's using the pants for its intended purpose. I own a couple, myself, and use them for the same purpose. I've never even heard of "travel pants" until this thread but do know of a few backpackers who wear this sort of pants while backpacking across SE Asia, Europe, or what-ever. Jeans are heavy, even "lightweight" ones, and take forever and a day to dry if gotten wet. And yes, weight does matter when you are walking long miles per day and/or living out of a backpack for weeks or months on end and want to keep your base pack weight as low as possible; to the point where having "one" pair of pants that can become also a pair of shorts instead of packing both separately. It's a hiker thing I suppose.
Hmm I guess you prefer a lot more control over shorts versus pants when traveling then I do. I think I've worn shorts at least 95% of the time when traveling, which granted has mostly been in warmer places.
I do a lot of my traveling in the spring and fall, when the weather is often unsettled, and mostly in temperate places rather than the tropics. I think that explains the difference.
I had a pair of these once and stopped wearing them because when I un-zipperd the legs they would bunch up around my ankles and make it difficult to walk in.
For me the big advantage is that I can wander around in shorts all day long (in a hot city), zip the legs on to go into a mosque or church that requires long pants, then zip them back off when I leave. They worked well in the Amazon rain forest as well. Occasionally restaurants and public buildings require long pants too.
I wear cutoff athletic pants year 'round. I wouldn't want to go to a place that required long pants. I can't imagine any public building around here requiring them. The culture here, is that there is no culture, except for what each person wants for themself.
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