Any recommendations? Is it worth spending more? Original budget was £250ish but has since crept up to £400… Obviously would prefer to spend less but want something easy to lift, assemble and reliable.

Quinny. We looked at what felt like a bazillion options, and sought the opinions of lots of parents. It’s not perfect and it ain’t the cheapest but it works. And works well.

The things that will count in my experience are maneuverability, weight and how quick you can collapse it. Getting it through shop doorways, lifting it into and out of places and getting it in the boot of the car.

We went for a cheap, lightweight and with the seat that lifted in and out. I wound my wife up massively by demanding that I be able to collapse and build the thing in the shop with about twenty different types.

The shop people were always saying the most expensive were the best but that was rubbish. We went for the very bottom end Maclaren in the end. It was bob on and my wife thanked me many times that I’d been an arse about it.

Two clicks and it was in the boot, same to get it back up. It was incredibly light and the seat lifted out with a couple of clicks too, strapped straight into the car.

You won’t use it long but you’ll regret not checking out how well it works.

Wish we’d never bothered. Never felt the need to remove the car seat from the car, crib/pram part was never used. Not once. Once v2.1 was in the buggy stage, the travel system was just a very heavy, expensive and bulky buggy. Dreadful thing.

My advice (which is irrelevant as we all have different needs but since you ask) is decide what system you want, set aside the money but don’t buy it. Get a karri-me baby sling and use that whilst they are small. Much easier all round and you get a lovely warm cuddle for free.

By the time they are too big to carry, your looking at MUCH cheaper buggies.

If it doesn’t work out for you, just order the one you wanted in. Good chance I’ll be right and you’ll be £700 better off (enough to buy a croozer or a chariot)

I think it’s one of the unwritten rules of parenthood that you spend way too much money on the first buggy. It’s like an emotional blackmail purchase.

Get something simple and light, don’t bother with the integrated into a car seat nonsense or 57 difrerent ways of setting it up. Don’t spend a fortune. As soon as ther are old enough get them into the simple “umbrella” foldable MacLaren

What Travel System…

Whatever the mother demands 😀
It’s a very personal choice, but what worked for us was a decent, lie flat pram that we used as a cot when the bairn was little and in our room, plus a cheap rock-a-tot car seat. Pram converted to a nice cosy push chair for winter use but for summer a bargain basement buggy was much more convenient.

http://www.toysrus.com/buy/preemie-shop/preemie-car-seats/chicco-cortina-travel-system-stroller-discovery-0507902-3156651

It was brilliant. With the base in the car, we often lifted the wee man out of the car still asleep and popped it in the buggy.

We also bought a McClaren XLR but they both had their uses – esp. the Chicco when he was younger.

petrieboy Has got it!

Quinny + Maxicosi combination. It all just works, and isn’t like pushing a hgv round like some of the other setups.

We’ve got a Silver Cross Surf which is OK but lacks stowage space. TBH for the first few months we only really used it with a Maxi Cosy car seat with adaptors and rearly as a pushchair, as well as a BabyBorne. Now the little one is one it’s used as a pushchair more but as she’s at grandmas or nursery during the week now she’s mostly in a McClarian pushchair which the outlaws brought and we borrow when we’re going away.

The ideal for us would have been a chasies only with a car seat with a baby carrier / rucksack in the hills.

The two days I tow her to nursery behind the ss comuter build up fitness no end!

Cheers,
Jamie

petrieboy Has got it!

This!!!

We got a 3 wheeler buggy out of the local paper for £150 with all the bits and pieces (car seat e.t.c)
Never used half the stuff and the buggy has done 3 kids and been half way around the world.

Same for us – we bought everythign second hand for a fraction of new and most of it was brand new.
Some car seat capsule system with a clip frame for the buggy, means you can walk them straight from the car. Its a 3 wheel buggy thing – massive but easy to take apart and quick.

Quinny. We looked at what felt like a bazillion options, and sought the opinions of lots of parents. It’s not perfect and it ain’t the cheapest but it works. And works well.

This. Get yourself to a Jack & Jill Sale (no, I had no idea what these were either, despite them being held every weekend at a big hall somewhere near you, wherever you are…)
Ended up with a Quinny Speedi SX: pram, stroller, carry cot, clips for car seat. About £5-600 of stuff for £100, coincidentally from a chap on here.

We got a Jane Slalom R. Used all the bits and it’s been great for 2.5 years. The Pram and baby car seat bits are about to be put back into service when number 2 arrives in August. Would definetley recommend it but it wasn’t cheap

Get a sling or two. Far, far easier to use, transport and store than a buggy, and a lot cheaper too. Our offspring is now 3, and has never been in a pram or buggy.

And for the touchy-freely types, proper bodily contact is much better for the baby than being put cold and alone in a wheeled contraption.

Cheap pushchair, expensive buggy. In 8mo time you’ll be kicking yourself for spending so much on a system that is little more than a glorified car seat. If the grandparents are paying, ask for the money and buy nursery furniture. It’ll see a lot more use.

If you have multiple, then off road, a Phil and Ted suited both my sisters’ and their eight kids. Otherwise, a top of the range Maclaren.

EDIT:

By far the most used bit of kit we had was a BabyBjorn.

The Chicco set was great when he was very young. Bought 2nd hand and used it all the time.

The pushchair part did become a bit cumbersome when he was older (10 months or so) so got a McClaren umbrella type (XLR). again 2nd hand… why not!

Thanks for all your help. Agree that one of the biggest issues is assemble/disassemble time. Essentially my partner wants something you can clip the car seat into for short trips and a pushchair that folds flat into a pram rather than a separate carry cot (as we don’t have the storage space).

We find the isofix bases brilliant for infants, then bog all use after that. Maxi cosi cabriofix has served our 2 well. Once they’re done, bung em in a McLaren buggy – cheap is good. We do have a mothercare travel system to take advantage of the click in click out approach but not sure if we’d bother if we were paying for it. Thanks mil!

Congratulations!

‘travel systems’ – like a hybrid bike.

You’re better off getting dedicated bits of kit for each thing you’re doing. This means you get to have the right travel seat at the right age and choose the right style & pattern for your needs.

Do consider buying a used buggy. Depending on the brand they can still cost quite a bit, but think of the savings!

Same with pushchair and buggy. A small wheeled buggy can be handy for around town but for a walk of any length the little wheels will drive you mad as they stumble, catch and jam on stones and ridges.

Way back when, we picked a Phil & Ted’s 3 wheeler. Absolutely brilliant. Takes them from newborn until they reach the point where you have to tell them they mustn’t get into it as they’re too big. With the panniers and sleeping bags it’s a great thing to take shopping with the two young children in. The ‘fighter-pilot and navigator’ front to back position meant that the two children took up no more space than one. It’s as tough as old boots and still does service as a handy carrier at flower shows.

For the pushchair we got some fancy new-fangled thing with pneumatic wheels at the back and small wheels at the front. Absolutely useless and it looks like you can’t get them anymore. When #2 came along, the pushchair never saw service again. Get a simple, cheap ‘stick’ one if you want something quick and light when your baby can sit up.

Car seats were usually Graco ones, but these were chosen on the back of Which? reports, weight and patterns.

If you’ve got the buggy with you in the car boot, it is easier to pick up the baby and pop them into the buggy than lift the carry-seat.

You don’t need a carry cot. If you have a car seat/carry-seat then you can just keep them in that when you visit people or the baby is asleep and you’re going into the house. Back in the day, it was a breeze to whip the seatbelt off the carry-seat and ease it out of the car. I can only imagine that’s now even easier with ISOFIX mountings in modern cars.

If you get a Phil & Ted’s the optional baby carrier does good duty as an overnight cot when visiting.

More important than buggies or seats or cots, get some physiotherapy training now for those ‘core’ muscles. My back has never been the same since having children. 😐

Just posting exactly what I said on another similar thread:

“As for pram/travel system etc., you’ll get a spectrum of replies that go from Stokke Explory to what-would-you-need-a-pram-for-we-just-used-a-newspaper-as-a-sling-for-two-years. I’d go for what you fancy yourselves. Think about the kind of stuff you’ll be doing…will you be travelling lots to relatives? Camping? Flying? His big is your car boot? Do you have a dog that needs walking lots? Good places to see the whole range are Mamas & Papas, Mothercare and John Lewis. Personally, we got £1100 worth of bugaboo for less than £400 on the bay. Most of it is overkill but at that price I was happy to try it all out, even the matching parasol I suspect we won’t lose much in it when we sell it on. But if you can afford new or have rich grandparents, then why not buy new if that works for you?”

The one thing you’ll find (IMO of course) is that no one system will do everything, so prioritise the factors (lightness, portability, off-road capabilities, ease of folding) and go for the best fit. No one system “does it all”. A few come close and you often get what you pay for.

2nd hand is the way to go (unless you have generous grandparents).

we’vegot a Jane (pronounced hannay as its Spanish) Trider with the matrixlite travelcot/car seat, its been fantastic. Being able to have her flat on longer journeys is a godsend!

Uppa baby vista is working for us. Much better quality and function than bugaboo and the others. We used both the travel cot and buggy bit. It is a bit bulky but it works really well. The cot bit was great for the first 4 months as the baby slept really well in it and you could parker up in the pub and have lunch. Baby bjorns are grwat too, our baby liked the favric sling but would never sleep in it, would in the babybjorn.

As others have said it depends on what you are going to use it. We walk everywhere and get the bus/tube and found the pram more useful than slings etc although we do use those too

We got a bugabo chameleon off eBay. We used the pram a lot as microbits came out to pubs / restaurants from day 1 and that was somewhere to sleep. We also used the car seat clipping into the frame, why wake a sleeping baby? The pushchair bit was too large, lucky we have a big car so it’s still doable. We’ve kept it for number 2 (T-4weeks) but aiming to resell as soon as he grows out. Bet we don’t lose more than £50!

If its first baby can understand its hard not to buy new….we got a quinny and whilst it was good as it was, they aren’t actually very big so 18mth old was already a bit cramped. Just sold it and bought a secondhand Phil and teds explorer as its an inline double..we have number two due in Sept. You can get dome great buys secondhand, particularly if set on the must have models ie buga£££boo

We also got a Bugaboo Chameleon from Ebay. It’s good, has been used a lot and we’re very pleased with it. As above, the cot part is very useful when they’re very small as it can be used as a travel cot.

Quinny + maxi cosi, faultless. New or second hand. Way better than some of the more expensive systems and the wee man has loads more space

We got a quinny free off a friend, and it was okay, but we live on a cobbled street and in no time it got all creaky and finally completely broke. Second frame was cheap off ebay, but went a bit creaky. We also stopped using it quite early on, didn’t ever use the carry cot bit (some babies hate them, and also they don’t work very well in hilly places as the kid slides down. It is big and three wheeled, but I don’t see what you get for that, as it is less sturdy than a cheap maclaren in practice, not for going off road or anything.

I also think travel systems are a waste of money – ther’s a good reason they are so cheap second hand on ebay and in such good condition.

We mostly used a wrap sling when small and a slightly more structured sling from about a year.

Bike trailer now, that was a good spend of money (croozer). Ours has done probably 2000 miles now and is nearly as good as new. Just did 20 miles today to the exciting local park with trains and big paddling pool and stuff and she still loves it at 3. 2.5 years of multiple times a week use for 300 quid is pretty good value. Even been on holiday camping with her in it.

We went for the bulky & heavy maxi cosi mura. Insanely well made and could be broken down and int a mid size hatch boot in under a minute. It looks as good now as the day we bought it and its been on filthy dog walks, up and down chalky downs, been a travel cot and walked with extensively.

I havent seen any friend’s product that looks as good after the first child as ours does after our second.

It would not be for everyone but dont discount the teutonic options!

Got a Jane Slalom R looking for a new home here, if you happen to be near the South Lakes and want to make an offer 😉

It has done us well for our two, and given how much a car seat costs they are pretty good value really.