REVIEWED: ExOfficio BugsAway Ziwa convertibles
Travel light and keep your passport safe with these versatile, comfortable and well-designed travel trousers/pants ideal for backpacking
Travelling with multiple changes of clothes is a pointless drag however long you’re travelling for, though finding the ideal ‘travel pant’ is harder than it should be. Comfy, quick drying and with plenty of other features, ExOfficio’s Ziwa get pretty close to perfection.
Coins & keys?
All the Ziwa lacks is a zipped pocket on the right-hand hip for coins and keys. Everything else is here; the zip-off legs, the zipped security pocket on the rear for a passport, and all-round comfiness.
Phone pocket
We do have a slight issues with the thigh pockets, one of which is zipped, and other a phone pocket sealed only by Velcro. The latter proved too shallow for an iPhone 5S, which renders it useless for most phones. Shame.
Bite-size
The built-in Insect Shield, a dosing of Permethrin in the fabric’s fibres that stays ‘live’ for about 70 washes is handy, but more important to us was that they dry quickly; if we’re travelling with one pair of trousers, they need to dry overnight. Used in sweaty Bali, that was no problem, though some direct sunlight helps. The UPF 30+ is reassuring, too.