I wanted to share a recommendation for a great pair of hiking boots: Oboz Ousel Mid Waterproof (Women's).
I bought these boots for a walking tour in Scotland. The tour company specified that I would need "Good quality walking boots – note that these should be boots with ankle support, not walking shoes." I checked Oboz, as recommended from this travel forum, and found a possible candidate in the Ousel model. Based on the photos, though, I was unsure if these boots provided ankle support; a photo of a person wearing the boot would have been helpful, so that I could see how far up the leg the boot extended. I called Oboz for guidance and was pleased that a real person answered the phone, and they answered my question confidently. Based on this new information--and because the boot comes in a gorgeous teal color, which is, like, my favorite color ever and I would purchase almost anything in this shade--I ordered the boots. The price, including shipping, was about $185, which felt like a good value to me.
I started wearing the boots in February in anticipation of the tour, which started in early June. On first wear the foot portion of the boot fit me perfectly; I was impressed that my feet were immediately comfortable. Unfortunately, however, the ankle support/guard was quite tight and chafed my skin, hard enough to mark my ankle (although not enough to break the skin, thank goodness). I confess that I was disappointed and anxious about this pain, plus I started internalizing about how the problem was actually me because my ankles were too large for a "normal" sized boot. But I tried giving myself some grace, and sure enough, after a month the ankle support broke in well enough to become as comfortable as the rest of the boot.
I wore the boots throughout my tour in the Outer Hebrides, as well as on and off in Edinburgh and Glasgow. They stayed comfortable and were also completely waterproof; Scotland provides lots of opportunities to test that claim! The boots are not ugly (of course not, they are teal), but they are not beautiful/stylish, either. I think that style in Scotland, especially among travelers like myself, is casual/sporty enough that I felt at ease wearing these boots most places, but that might not be the case somewhere like...Paris maybe?
Appearances aside, the best aspect of these boots is that I felt confident about walking on uneven terrain because the ankle support kept me feeling stable. Last year I had walked on the cliffs of the Gower peninsula in Allbirds Trail Runners, which are shoes (not boots) without any ankle support, and I felt shaky in them. I realize now that the problem was the wrong shoes, not me!
Caveat: I have no diagnosed podiatric medical conditions. I wore these boots with the Oboz provided insoles.
I will continue to wear these Oboz boots, and I would definitely buy other footwear that they make.