Hiking footwear?

[counterfugue]

I'm going on the Volcano trail tour (Costa Rica -- Panama) and am curious if I should invest in hiking boots. I thought that, or hiking "sandals" might be better. Or are sneakers, etc. fine?

[ballu]

My general footwear for trips...a pair of sports sandals (wrap around and won't fall off if riding a donkey, camel etc.) and a pair of sneakers for when I need closed footwear.

I've only brought hiking boots to Peru for the multi-day Inca Trail trek.

[counterfugue]

Thanks.

Sneakers should be fine hiking the trails? I'm guessing the volcano trails are pretty established?

[ballu]

I would think sneakers would be fine. I've only been to Guatemala in Central America, and that's what I had.

If you're going in rainy season you may run into muddy conditions at times. We took a muddy hike to a cave but the place we stayed provided rubber boots.

I also climbed the Pacaya volcano in Guatemala, I wouldn't want to do that in sandals. The volcanic rock is very sharp and loose.

[nikimarcotte]

haha, i climbed a volcano in Guatemala in sport sandals....true, not recommended, but totally saved hauling an extra pair of shoes. the cone(30m or so) of the volcano is loose sharp bits of rock...we were sinking in up to our knees, especially coming down..i had bits of small sharp rocks stuck in behind every single strap of my sandals after that bit...however, the ones in sneakers also had sharp bits of rock wedged inside their shoes...so mine just cleared out easier, socks might have made the difference in damages(light surface scratches only which went all the way up to my knees) the rest of the hike was very sandal friendly. i have gotten very bad at ONLY taking sport sandals and one pair of dressier shoes on every trip...australia, NZ, fiji, central america, europe, egyt, turkey, china, SE asia and the only place i had issues was EUROPE because we had to have closed toed shoes to participate in kitchen duties...needless to say, no regrets so far!

[counterfugue]

Haha that's funny. Well, I remember some college team meeting the president in flip flops. So, volcanoes should be nothing!

Thanks again.

[counterfugue]

Epilogue:

Just returned, and depending on weather, terrain, and destination (waterfall, crater, river, lagoon), I used Teva sandals AND lightweight hiking shoes. (And walked around towns in flip flops.)

I could've used sneakers/trainers instead of the boots, but the boots were a little better (but there was NO reason to bring big, heavyweight boots.)

I probably could've left the sandals home. But hiking in the rain, IN rivers -- the drainage they offer was nice. One guy did those trails in waterproof hiking boots -- fine until the water seeped in from the top.