Travel car seat for 1-3 year old

[Caspianberg]

We will need a travel car seat this summer ( hopefully). Ds is 1 year in May.

We have the Maxi cosi Mica at home. This is too heavy to travel with. And seat will need to be be carried between cars easily and possibly used in Taxis so needs to be quick to install.

He is already over 75cm long, so too long for baby style maxi cosi by then ( they say up to 75cm long)

I did see joie tilt mentioned often on here, but I can’t source it anywhere where I live. So it needs to be easy to order online to us.

Has anyone any idea how safe the following seats might be?

• Graco extend - currently €65 on Amazon. Light ish at 6.5kg. Can rear face up to 18kg.
  

• safety 1st sweet safe - 7.2kg. €70. Rear faces up to 18kg
  

• osann flux plus - 5.1kg. €100. Only forward faces.
  

Are there any other recommendations? I would prefer a well known brand, but maxi cosi/ cybex etc don’t seem to sell anything now for under 18kg without huge isofix which is not possible travelling.

Would prefer rear facing. Happy to spend up to €200-250. No top tether. No isofix separate base. Under 7.5kg.

[BertieBotts]

Graco Extend is a rebranded Joie Tilt :) Graco and Joie are owned by the same parent company now. So that's exactly what you probably want to go for.

Another option may be Graco Enhance, which is a rebranded Joie Stages.

Safety 1st is Dorel which is Maxi Cosi, so that might also be a good option although I'm not familiar with the seat model. Oh no never mind - just googled that one, and it's only rear facing to 10kg, then forward facing to 18kg.

[Caspianberg]

@BertieBotts - ah excellent, so the Graco extend should be decent enough safety wise?

For €65 I don’t mind also if it only gets used once or twice per year. Although would be a handy spare for at home also if people visit

[FoxtrotSkarloey]

We had a Joie Gemm for travel. Is this what you mean by baby style and don't want? It's good until 13kg, not sure on length but we had DS on holiday in it when he was 14 months old. It was bigger than the MaxiCosi Pearl we had on a base at home and which he'd already grown out of. It was good value so we didn't mind if it got destroyed in aeroplane holds, light weight and didn't need Isofix.

[Caspianberg]

He was 7.4kg and 74cm in December when last measured. So I guest nearer 8kg now

[Caspianberg]

@FoxtrotSkarloey - yes sorry. I was going to originally get a baby one like that, but with lockdown we haven’t flown back to uk at all with him yet. I doubt we will until summer earliest when he will be 12-15 months already so seems a bit late to get one like that now. In normal times we will be travelling often .

I can wait until we need it, just saw the grace extend was only €65 at the moment which seems a bargain, and if we can use that over the next 2+ years travelling that would be perfect.

@BertieBotts - I didn’t realise the safety 1st was only up to 10kg rear facing. That’s pretty sneaky of them

[BertieBotts]

Yep, Graco Extend will be absolutely fine :) It's also small enough to fit on a plane seat, so if you pick airlines carefully they may let you use it on board - only forward facing, and you have to fit with lap belt but at least it's something. It doesn't have plane approval but some airlines don't require that.

If you are going to put it in the hold, keep the box, store it flat and use it to protect the seat when you fly. (Bring parcel tape in your luggage!)

The Joie Gemm does last a bit longer for height than the Maxi Cosi infant seats but Graco Extend should last you until about 3 years old, probably longer if he's only 8kg at 1 year. I wouldn't personally get an infant carrier seat at this age if I wanted to keep using it for future trips.

[BertieBotts]

10kg or 13kg rear facing on combo RF/FF seats to 18kg is pretty standard. It is really only Joie that offer them RF up to 18kg. And the spin seats of course but these are much newer to market.

[Caspianberg]

He’s around 8kg now, he’s currently 9 months. He will be at least 1 year before the seat is needed though realistically at this rate

Il look into airline policy when we actually go, but that’s handy to know. Thanks

[Rhubarblin]

There's a "travel car seat" for this age called the Nachfolger but it's expensive.