Quick verdict
The women's Salomon Wayfarer 2.0 is the lightest trouser in our women's walking trousers guide, listed at around 255g. An 85% polyamide, 15% elastane four-way stretch fabric carries a DWR treatment rated for light rain, in a regular fit with a thin built-in belt, two hand pockets plus a cargo pocket, and drawcord hem adjustment, in sizes XS to XL. Salomon pitches it as built for the wild and styled for the streets, and the spec matches: minimal, mobile and quick-drying, at £100. It is the pick for fast, light, warm-weather walking; the softshell rivals at the same price are the tougher, warmer buys.
Salomon Wayfarer 2.0 Women's Pants: 4.2/5
The lightest trouser in our women's guide at around 255g: 15% elastane four-way stretch, a thin built-in belt and drawcord hems. Fast, minimal and dressed for the cafe afterwards.
- This trouser: Salomon Wayfarer 2.0 (Women's) (~£100)
- Softshell all-rounder: Rab Incline Pants (Women's) (~£100)
- Best overall: Montane Terra Stretch (Women's) (~£95)
- Premium step up: Fjällräven Keb Agile (Women's) (~£185)
The full review is below.
Salomon's line for the women's Wayfarer 2.0 is built for the wild, styled for the streets, and for once the tagline describes a design decision rather than a mood board. This is a walking trouser engineered to be minimal: an 85% polyamide, 15% elastane four-way stretch fabric, a thin built-in belt instead of a bulky closure, streamlined pockets, drawcord hems, and a listed weight of around 255g, which makes it the lightest trouser in our best women's walking trousers guide, where it holds the best lightweight slot.
That lightness is the whole proposition, and this review treats it as both the selling point and the limitation. At £100 the Wayfarer 2.0 shares a price bracket with denser, tougher softshells like the Rab Incline, so the question is not whether it is a good trouser. It is whether the walking you do rewards 255g of stretch or punishes it.
Who the women's Wayfarer 2.0 is for
This trouser is for: fast, light walking from spring to autumn. Day walks on paths and coastal trails, warm-weather miles, travel where one pair has to cover the trail and the town, and any walker who finds conventional walking trousers heavy and claustrophobic. The 15% elastane content makes this one of the most mobile fabrics at the price, and at around 255g the trouser barely registers on the leg or in a pack. If your default is leggings because walking trousers feel like too much trouser, this is the pair most likely to change that.
This trouser is not for: rough ground, rough weather or winter. A light stretch weave is the wrong fabric for gorse, rock and off-path abrasion, where the reinforced Montane Terra Stretch earns its keep, and it has no answer to a cold windy ridgeline the way a double-weave softshell like the Rab Incline does. It is also not waterproof: the DWR handles light rain and splashes, and sustained wet means an overtrouser from the waterproof hiking trousers guide.
Specs
- Fabric
- 85% polyamide, 15% elastane, four-way stretch
- Pocket fabric
- 100% polyester
- Weight
- Around 255g (listed at 9oz; Salomon Australia lists 266g)
- Weather resistance
- DWR treatment, rated for light rain and splashes
- Fit
- Regular fit
- Waist
- Thin built-in belt
- Pockets
- 2 hand pockets plus 1 cargo pocket
- Hems
- Drawcord hem adjustment
- Sizes
- XS to XL
- Care
- Machine wash cold (30°C), tumble dry low
- Price
- £100 at Salomon
The fabric: light, stretchy, quick to dry
The 85/15 polyamide and elastane mix is the same formula as the men's Wayfarer and it defines everything about how this trouser behaves. Fifteen per cent elastane is a lot: the North Face Exploration runs 6%, most double-weave softshells around 8%. The fabric gives in every direction, so high steps, stiles and scrambly moves meet no resistance, and the trouser can be cut close without restricting anything.
Light nylon-elastane also dries fast, which does more for real-world comfort than the DWR figure. Push through wet bracken at nine in the morning and the legs dry as you walk. The DWR itself is rated by Salomon as light-rain ready: showers bead off, splashes and dew deflect, and proper rain wets it out like every trouser in this class. Care is standard and keeps the treatment alive: machine wash cold, tumble dry low.
The trade sits where it always does with stretch-first fabrics. Elastane is the first fibre to suffer from abrasion, heat and years of washing, and a 255g weave has no answer to rock and gorse beyond staying away from them. This is a trouser for paths and speed, and it makes no claim otherwise.
Fit, belt and hem drawcords
Salomon cuts the women's Wayfarer 2.0 as a regular fit: a classic shape with room to move rather than a compression-tight athletic cut, which is the right call on a trouser this light. The waist is managed by a thin built-in belt, which Salomon pitches as refining the silhouette while keeping the fit secure. In practice terms, that means no bulky buckle under a pack hipbelt and no separate belt to buy, thread or forget.
The drawcord hems are the feature that makes the crossover styling work. Cinched, they hold the cuff off wet ground and boot mud on a filthy descent; left loose, the leg falls straight and the trouser reads as everyday clothing. It is a faster, cleaner system than roll-up buttons, and on a trouser sold on its street styling it is doing double duty by design.
Pockets and sizing
Storage is two hand pockets and a cargo pocket, all built in polyester rather than the stretch face fabric so a phone does not drag the weave out of shape. Three pockets is minimal, which is consistent with everything else here, but two gaps deserve flagging. Salomon's spec does not state zips on any of the pockets, so treat them as unsecured for anything you cannot afford to lose on a summit lunch stop. And there are no leg-length options: sizes run XS to XL in one length, where the Rab Incline offers 28, 30 and 32 inch legs across sizes 6 to 20. If you sit outside the average inseam, that single detail may decide this comparison for you.
How it differs from the men's version
The men's Wayfarer 2.0 shares the 85/15 fabric, DWR, regular fit, cargo-plus-hand-pockets layout and drawcord hems. The differences are in the waist and the numbers: the men's uses a half-elasticated waistband with belt loops, a slim integrated belt and a zip fly, where the women's runs the thin built-in belt as the main fit system. The women's carries a published weight of around 255g; Salomon does not state a reliable figure for the men's. Sizing is XS to XL against the men's S to 2XL. Everything in the men's review about the fabric's character, the light-rain DWR and the three-season limits applies equally here.
Wayfarer 2.0 vs Rab Incline Women's
The Rab Incline is the £100 head-to-head, and it is the opposite answer to the same brief. A midweight Matrix double-weave softshell at 293g in size 10, three zipped pockets, a shaped waistband with belt loops, tethered hem drawcords, and sizes 6 to 20 with three leg lengths. It is more wind-resistant, tougher against rough ground, warmer into the shoulder seasons and more secure in its storage.
The Salomon answers with less: around 40g less weight, a stretchier fabric, and styling that crosses into everyday wear more cleanly than the Rab's hill-trouser cut. Same money, different season shapes. Buy the Incline if your walking leans to hills, wind and spring-to-autumn breadth. Buy the Wayfarer if your walking is fast, warm and path-based, and the lightness is the point.
Wayfarer 2.0 vs Montane Terra Stretch Women's
The Montane Terra Stretch at £95 is our best overall pick in the women's guide, and it is the better all-rounder: Raptor Flex four-way stretch with CORDURA rip-stop at the instep, zipped thigh vents for the climbs, three leg lengths and UK sizes 6 to 18. It covers more terrain, more weather and more of the year than the Salomon, for £5 less.
What the Wayfarer holds over it is the minimalism: meaningfully lighter, sleeker in everyday settings, and stretchier still. If you own one pair of walking trousers, the Terra Stretch is the sounder buy. If you are choosing a light pair for fast days alongside something warmer, or you simply will not wear a trouser that looks like hill kit, the Salomon is the one that gets worn.
Pros and cons
- Lightest trouser in our women's guide at a listed 255g or so
- 15% elastane four-way stretch is about as mobile as walking trousers get
- Thin built-in belt secures the fit with nothing bulky under a pack hipbelt
- Drawcord hems cinch clear of mud or drop straight for everyday wear
- Quick-drying fabric with a DWR that sheds light rain and splashes
- Crossover styling that works well beyond the trail
- Light stretch weave is the wrong tool for rough ground, wind and cold
- Three pockets with no stated zip security
- One leg length and an XS to XL run, where the Rab Incline offers three lengths across sizes 6 to 20
- At £100 it faces tougher, more featured softshells at the same money
Verdict
The women's Wayfarer 2.0 knows exactly what it is: the lightest, stretchiest, least trouser-like walking trouser at its price, with a belt and hem system that makes the minimalism practical rather than austere. For fast three-season walking on paths and coast, and for anyone who wants one pair that never looks like hill kit, it earns its best lightweight badge in our women's walking trousers guide.
It rates 4.2 because £100 is strong company: the Rab Incline out-specs it on storage, sizing and weather resistance, and the Montane Terra Stretch out-alls it for £5 less. The Salomon wins on the one axis it was built for. If lightness and looks top your list, buy it and enjoy it; if versatility tops the list, the guide's other picks spend the same money more broadly.
Buy at Salomon
