Looks Good Enough to Wear to a Wedding, So I Did: Unbound Merino Travel Pants Review

My take: Destination weddings should be banned. Until we balance the broader social scales, however, I’m stuck ponying up the dough to fly out to Cabo, or Maui, or whatever. If I can tack the ceremony onto the return leg of some far-flung place I actually want to visit, though, it’s enough of a balm to get me in the airplane seat. Or at least a more palatable use of airline miles.

Pulling this off requires a tailored travel closet, and this January, I packed the multipurpose Unbound Merino Travel Pants as I legged it down to Costa Rica, hitting the Baja Peninsula in Mexico on the way home to celebrate the beautiful bride and groom. 

The 100% Italian merino wool travel trousers cut a savvy profile even in coach, stayed cool in the humidity of near-equator locales, and kept my luggage count low. When the time came to look half-decent, they overperformed. Here’s the down-low on these looks-forward travel slacks.  

In short: The Unbound Merino Travel Pants are luxuriously soft, stretch like mad, and yes, are pricey at $228. But for the pure utility of being both travel pants and something you could wear to a formal event? That’s just good sense. 

Looking for a new pair of travel pants for your next adventure (or mandatory familial gathering)? Check out how the Unbound Merino Travel Pants compare to our top picks in GearJunkie’s Best Men’s Travel Pants Buyer’s Guide.

Unbound Merino Travel Pants: Review

My luck with checked baggage so far hasn’t been bad. Yes, Iceland Air once voided the social contract by leaving our overstuffed duffel on the tarmac for a few days, but otherwise, I haven’t yet been burned in the way that keeps you from touching the stove again.

Short trips, however, are carry-on territory, and in this realm I can be downright ascetic. For 13 days off the receiver, I packed two pairs of pants, one pair of shorts (doubled as trunks for swimming), a small grip of T-shirts, and a healthy stack of books. 

The pair of dress shoes I needed to pack for the wedding, however, stuck out like a sore thumb, and I begrudgingly jammed them into my carry-on. The trade-off would be the travel pants I’d wear onto the plane, and then again to a few nicer dinners in Costa Rica, and finally to the wedding. 

This three-for-one deal reclaimed my precious carry-on space, and here’s how the pants performed on this trip and since then.

The Merino Wool Difference

Most of the travel pants we’ve given the nod to here on GearJunkie lean on a blend of nylon or polyester (often with a touch of spandex for stretch, or sometimes cotton for added breathability). This makes them resistant to the wear and tear of active travel, easy to launder, and well-suited to DWR finishes. 

The Unbound Merino pants I wore onto the plane from Seattle to Liberia, Costa Rica, instead, are almost entirely merino wool (with a 5% splash of elastane). The immediate difference I noticed is just how nice these pants are to sit in — they’re almost loungewear — and across an entire 10+ hour travel day, they stayed cozy.

There aren’t many merino travel pants out there (hint: it’s the price), but our testing of Huckberry’s Proof-brand 72-Hour Merino 5-Pocket Pants proved that they can be some of the most comfortable slacks for getting around the globe. Italy itself isn’t much of a producer of merino wool globally, but it is home to some of the finest fashion textile mills, and it’s put to good use in these pants.

Landing in Costa Rica’s humidity, the versatility of merino impressed once again. Merino breathes in ways synthetics wish they could, and even at 255 gsm (grams/meter), these pants stayed airy and didn’t get sticky.

An (Almost) Full Suite of Pockets

Travel pants live and die by their pockets. Go too light, and you’re scrambling around looking for places to put things. Too festooned, and you look like you parachuted into the bazaar. The Unbound Merino pants ride the line well, with a leg swung over the rail toward less-is-more, and give you the best version of the six pockets they tack on.

The two front-hand pockets are ample, and the integrated stretch makes them a joy to use. In the right pocket, a smaller coin sleeve is tucked away, and wrangled change with ease. On the rear of the pants, two stretchy pockets are patched on, and conceal a final secret zippered pocket, ideal for travelling.

The zipper runs right to left — an important ergonomic nod that ensures you don’t get crossed up when going for a single-handed maneuver. In practice, I could get my passport tucked in here along with my minimal travel wallet. Very nice.

Unfortunately, the pants do lack a dedicated device pocket — typically a thigh-bound sleeve of appropriate size to fit modern devices. All of the award winners in our Best Men’s Travel Pants Guide sport one, so the absence is noticeable here. In fairness, the presence of a thigh pocket on pants like these certainly wouldn’t fly, and I made do just fine stashing the phone in the front pockets.

A Travel-Savvy Cut & Fit

These pants are available in two cuts — a slim and a relaxed version — a helpful offering. Not quite a tailor-fit, but certainly nicer than most get-what-you-get slacks. I personally tested the relaxed cut, which hangs away from the leg, while the slim cut appears more trim without trending skin-tight.

The leg length, ankle opening, and drape were all on point, but the waist is what really impressed me: the integrated stretch gives these pants a good amount of room when sitting for a handful of hours. The single button clasp is good-looking and easy to use, to boot.

Otherwise, the Unbound Merino pants have the board covered when it comes to sizing, offering waist sizes between 28 and 40, and two inseam lengths: 30 and 32”.

The Big Day

The ultimate test for these pants would be this: could they fly under the radar at a wedding, check the semi-formal box, and not look like I hadn’t washed them in 7 days? Based on the non-reaction I received (and one avuncular compliment), I’d say so.

Weddings take a long time to power through, and require a surprising amount of versatility from your duds: nice enough for photos, comfortable enough to sit through vows and speeches, and flexible enough to get jiggy with it on the dance floor at the reception. The Unbound Merino pants nailed it on all accounts.

Granted, dark-colored pants like the black slacks I wore do well to conceal smudges, but I’ve found that the lanolin oils in merino wool naturally protect against tenacious stains. It also overperforms when it comes to smell containment, and even sitting in the hot afternoon sun while vows were exchanged, I’d argue I didn’t smell any worse than the rest of the crowd.

Room for Improvement

Fashion-forward travel pants like the Unbound Merino offering are always going to get dinged when it comes to pure versatility, and that’s no different here. While we at GearJunkie aren’t exactly parading around Paris or Zurich on the regular, we still appreciate looking decent when going abroad. Just don’t expect these pants to also double as running shorts or work pants.

In travel pants, a good thigh pocket is always appreciated. Unfortunately, there’s just no way that would fly on pants that look this good. The answer, I’d offer, is to just pack two different pairs: these pants for travel, nights out on the town, etc, and something like the Outdoor Research Ferrosi Pants — hiking pants so good we’ve also reviewed them in-depth.

The 100% merino wool fabric on these pants is luxe — and a little fussy to launder, requiring a cold wash and hang-to-dry treatment. If you’re like me (someone who has unashamedly scrubbed trail clothes clean in motel sinks), this can be a bit of house-training to overcome. For the rest of civil society, I’m sure you’ll manage.

Finally, $228 is bound to raise an eyebrow or two. Most solid travel pants these days will run you between $100 and $150, so it’s a good jump up to get into merino wool pants like these. Consider how much value you might be able to get from them before pulling out your wallet.

Unbound Merino Travel Pants: Conclusion

The Unbound Merino Travel Pants might be the nicest pair of pants I own. They certainly are the nicest pair of travel-specific slacks I’ve got kicking around, and because they cover a lot of bases, the number of trips I find myself bringing them along on is only going up.

I was pretty dang impressed by the performance I wrung out of these pants during both my travels in Costa Rica and the wedding in Mexico. While I don’t think these pants are quite the quiver-killer, do-everything option that’ll have you living out of a single pair on every trip you find yourself in the future, they do cover plenty of needs, and will downsize your travel closet, even if they aren’t a merino wool Swiss Army knife.

Looking to upgrade your travel closet — and have a spare $230 kicking around? It’s tough to argue that your faith would be ill-placed in the Unbound Merino Travel Pants — they’ve got a permanent spot in my travel kit now.