casual hiking boot for Best of Scandinavia tour?

Veteran of 13 tours, and I don't think anybody will care how they look.
Waterproof shoes make my feet sweat, so I'd really hate to only have the one pair. Your feet may vary.

I really like my Oboz Ousel. No one cares what you wear to group meals! But I like to get out of the shoes I’ve had on all day and put a pair of lightweight flats to wear for dinner in the bottom of the smaller backpack that I use as my personal item.

Salomon are kinda hip this year in urban settings in London, as well being good walking shoes / sneakers.

edit: Salomon XT-6 is what I saw someone wearing in real life the other day after seeing on blogs.

https://www.office.co.uk/brand/salomon?page=1

Check the Keen brand. Pricey, durable, surprisingly light weight.

For hiking in Griffith Park and I wear the low cut Targhee. The pair has been to NYC, London, Grand Canyon, Havana, Yosemite, Sierra Nevadas, Death Valley.

For theatre and meandering about city streets I wear Keen slip ons. I’ll also wear them on my flights.

As I’ve stated before this brand of shoe eliminated the plantar facitus I suffered from.

I now own numerous pairs: sandals, loafers, lace ups. Love Keens.

I think just taking a look around and keeping in mind what colour of pants you'd wear to be smart and picking a colourway in a walking shoe or sneaker that you think might go with that.

The Salomon ones come in many quite understated colours that would go with dark or khaki pants, if you do a search on those XT-6.

Nike ACG and Adidas Terrex also do goretex shoes in all sorts of colours too and might be worth looking at for something that's good around town as well as the trail. I'm getting UK links, so you can Google those brands and take a look maybe.

I just Googled for the Keen shoes Claudia mentioned. I wasn't aware of them but they do have a UK website.

The guy I saw here in Hackney in Salomon shoes was full-on gorpcore, with a high end technical puffa jacket too.

The fashion blogs and vlogs really picked up on Salomon this year. You'd probably still look quite hip in the Scandinavian capitals for those who follow such things.

So I learned a new word, gorpcore.

Cherie this guy was wearing a proper Arctic-spec puffa in orange. Definitely wearing technical gear as fashion.

A different proposition might be Timberland boots. Those are sturdy enough for anything but look good with jeans or chinos in town. I remember when they were a fashion item over here in the late 80's and early 90's but they've made a resurgence. I've read that everyone in New York is wearing them. If you live within the Five Boroughs you're obliged to call them Tims. The classic six inch "yellow" boot is what you want.

Another American classic boot is Redwings. They look good and are tough boots. Too pricey for me though. Both brands of boots would take a bit of wearing in before a trip. Totally different proposition to something modern from Merrell.

Personally, if I were taking a Rick Steves tour in summer I'd be looking at low tops rather than a full boot with a high top. Something maybe a bit less aggressive than the Merrells linked in the OP, and a bit more sneaker-y would be enough in a mix that one of Rick's tours would do. I'm not sure if people that have taken this tour think so? I think Merrell is a good brand though.

My husband has the same boot which he wears to Europe but in the low version. That is what I would wear.

We did this tour last summer and were fine with regular tennis shoes (two pairs, in case one got wet.) If you want to take a waterproof pair, I suggest looking at Keen and On Cloud brands-both make regular looking tennis shoes that are waterproof. A boot is probably overkill. While you'll have the opportunity to be in nature, most everything has paved paths. If it's raining a lot, then any dirt paths will be super muddy and I doubt you'll want to be walking those.

Without prior knowledge of gorpcore, I meet the standard, which includes my low-cut and great Oboz boots. Having enjoyed Scandinavia independently, low cut boots are not necessary if you can walk for miles in sneakers.

I wouldn’t want hiking boots as my only shoe in the summer; they’d be too warm for me. I lived in Sweden for two years and never wore hiking boots in the summer unless I was actually hiking. Most of the time I wore runners or sandals.

Looking at the itinerary, I would not want hiking boots. Did you want to rent a bike on Aero? Pedaling in hiking boots wouldn’t be fun. A pair of trailrunners might be a compromise if you want some traction. What shoes have you worn on other Rick Steves tours?

Thanks all for the advice! I wasn't aware the Moab 3 came in low tops but I'll take a look at them too. May be the better choice.