Best Hiking Hats 2024 Sun Hats, Beanies, Balaclavas – GWC Mag

Best Hiking Hats 2023 | Sun Hats & Beanies

There are perfect hiking hats for any occasion. But all you really need is one warm hat, and one sun hat. Combined, those two offer the widest possible array of protection from the elements in 99% of backcountry scenarios. This buyer’s guide is dedicated to those two categories. We do not cover, and recommend against, rain hats. That base is covered by your rain jacket’s hood.

We ground this buyer’s guide in decades of experience gear reviewing, working in the outdoor industry, and wearing hiking hats. The recommendations reflect our team’s ultralight backpacking style preferences. However, unlike with tents and backpacks, there is minimal performance differentiation between the best hats, and good or even just average hats. Therefore, our recommendations are based more personal experience than deep market research and testing. We of course haven’t worn all of the hiking hats out there – nobody has – but we’re happy to suggest the ones that we have had the most success with.

Jump ahead to read about our preferred layering system of hats and hoods. And while you’re here, don’t miss our adjacent buyer’s guides to hiking shirts and hiking gloves. You make Adventure Alan & Co possible. When purchasing through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Here’s why you can trust us.