Thule Urban Glide 2 Double review

Tested by: Liz, mum of two

Pros

• Very user-friendly with adjustable parts highlighted in blue
• Three big wheels that are great for jogging and for handling any terrain
• Solid frame with seats that can hold up to 22kg each
• Handbrake, in addition to a footbrake, gives extra peace of mind

Cons

• Rain cover not included as standard
• Only suitable from newborn with a carrycot
• Only suitable for twins from six months
• Bulky when folded

Key specs

• Age range: Newborn (with carrycot) to four years
• Maximum load: 45kg across two seats
• Product weight: 15.5kg
• Dimensions: 87 × 76.5 × 41cm (folded); 104.5 × 80 × 102 (unfolded)
• Seat: 53cm x 31.5cm
• Travel system-compatible: Yes
• Orientation: Side by side
• Warranty: Two years
• Accessories: Rain cover (£65), bassinet (£200), bassinet rain cover (£40), bumper bar (£30), universal car seat adapter (£70), snack tray (£40) and footmuff (£140)
• RRP: £750

What’s the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double like to purchase and assemble?

Established in Switzerland in 1942, Thule spent many years creating stylish products for people who enjoy an active lifestyle, including ski racks, bike racks and luggage. In 2014, the brand launched their very own jogging strollers designed for those looking for a buggy that would manoeuvre at speed over a variety of terrain.

A double version of the Urban Glide 2, the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double is a side-by-side buggy that can take up to two children. You can purchase the buggy from the Thule website or from the likes of Uber Kids and Winstanleys Pramworld, in addition to other smaller outlets. The Thule website provides replacement parts and any accessories you may need, such as car seat adapters, a footmuff, bumper bar and snack tray.

When it comes to assembly, the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double is almost ready to go straight from the box, with seats already attached to the frame. You will, however, need to use a bicycle pump to inflate the three tyres before popping them onto the frame.

Our tester, mum of two Liz, who has a four-year-old and three-month-old, needed a bassinet for testing, which Thule were able to provide. The carrycot was easy to build, which meant that assembly took less than 10 minutes in total.

What’s in the box?

The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double comes with a chassis, two seats, two individual sunshades and a storage basket. Unfortunately you won’t find a rain cover included and, if you want to use the pushchair from newborn, you’ll need to buy a carrycot and a separate rain cover for that too.

The buggy can be used from six months for twins, but not from birth as you can only attach one car seat or carrycot. The bassinet comes with adapters to connect it to the frame, a mesh cover, a hood and an apron.

What about the instructions?

The Thule manual includes clear step-by-step diagrams showing you how to assemble and use the Urban Glide 2 Double. The instructions are easy to follow and parts of the buggy are highlighted in blue, such as the handlebar buttons and seat buckle, to help you find the various adjustment points.

The buggy is so intuitive that you shouldn’t need to refer back to your instructions at a later date, but if you do and you’ve misplaced them, the Thule website has a digital copy as well as videos showing you how to use the Urban Glide 2 Double’s main features, including the brakes and folding mechanism. There are separate instructions for the rain cover and bassinet.

The booklet comes with safety instructions and maintenance information, and it directs you to the Thule website for warranty details. The pram is covered for two years after purchase, but this can be extended to cover the frame for up to 10 years.

How safe is the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double?

Safety was one of the areas the buggy scored particularly well in during testing. Thule has built the Urban Glide 2 Double with adventure in mind and, with heavy-duty materials, large sturdy wheels and a solid metal frame, you can certainly tell.

The padded seats are suitable from six months and are supportive enough for a child weighing up to 22kg. Spacious and with room to grow, with no gaps for little fingers to get caught, you can also buy a bumper bar if you want to make the seats even comfier.

The bassinet can be used from newborn up to six months and is fixed to the double buggy using adapters. Liz occasionally found these fiddly to align with the bassinet but, once in place, felt very secure. The carrycot lies flat and is both deep and roomy, which makes it a cosy and protective place for babies.

What about the harness?

The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double has a five-point harness that is secured by connecting the two shoulder straps to the seat's main buckle. The harness is also well padded and can be tightened by pulling down on the shoulder straps.

How stable is the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double?

Well-engineered and robust, the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double has been built to cope with any terrain. The three-wheel, triangular design feels solid and allows for good weight distribution whether there’s a baby, toddler or both inside the pram.

The frame is made from metal with strong plastic parts that don’t flex, and it has a built-in suspension so that the Thule can cope with all manner of bumps.

Thule advises against hanging a changing bag off the frame, as the buggy has more than enough storage space in its accompanying basket, but Liz hung hers to one side of the handlebar to perform a topple test. The buggy remained stable with and without children in the seats.

What about the brakes?

The Urban Glide 2 Double comes with both a footbrake and a handbrake to give parents extra confidence on all terrain.

The footbrake clicks on with a red lever located in the middle of the back wheels – you use the bottom of your foot to engage the brake and the top to release. It’s a quick movement that can be done in any footwear and securely holds the pram in place, even with two children and a changing bag inside.

As this buggy is designed for an active lifestyle, the integrated twist handbrake helps to control the speed when out jogging or walking down steep hills. Our tester found this really useful and reassuring.

What’s the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double like in day-to-day use?

There’s no doubt about it – the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double is a large, specialist pram, yet it still performed well in many aspects of daily life, making it suitable for urban, as well as country, surroundings.

Measuring 80cm wide, it’s not as compact as the Mountain Buggy Duet V3.2 (65cm) or the Out n About Nipper Double V4 (72cm), but that’s to be expected of an all-terrain buggy that offers as much versatility as this one does.

Liz has a narrow front door so she couldn’t wheel the buggy into her house, which also made it difficult for her to store. But it’s worth bearing in mind that most external doors measure between 76 and 96cm, and doors for shops and cafés must be around 84cm wide for wheelchair access.

The buggy performs well in wide supermarket aisles, but may find particularly tiny shops harder to tackle. Liz used the pram to take her daughter to nursery, to the park and on dog walks and found there was very little room if she encountered another double buggy on a pavement.

However, the three-wheel design allowed her to get on and off trains with ease and, although she didn't get on a bus during testing, the Urban Glide 2 Double will fit into a free wheelchair space as long as there are no other pushchairs alongside it.

What about the seats?

The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double comes with two forward-facing seats, which can be used from the age of six months and independently reclined using one hand. Thanks to an infinite recline, you can choose any setting between upright and lying flat.

As each seat can hold up to 22kg and a child measuring up to 111cm, they are pleasingly spacious – 31.5cm wide and 53cm high – with more head room for Liz’s eldest (four) than any other pram she tested. They each have a padded leg rest and also come with a handy mesh pocket in each seat which can fit a small water bottle, snacks or toys.

Unlike convertible prams, the seats aren’t removable, but you can attach one bassinet or car seat over the main seat by fitting the brackets to the frame. The bassinet is parent-facing and is made of thick, high-quality material. But as the cover is secured by two toggles and Velcro, it doesn’t feel quite as secure as similarly designed carrycots with a zip. It also has a large lip in front of the opening which is ideal for stopping wind, but partially masks a baby’s face from view, which some parents may not like.

Each seat and the carrycot comes with its own UPF 50+ sunshade with a peek-a-boo window for checking in on your children. The hoods slide open smoothly and give good coverage, with only a small amount of winter sun seeping through when Liz’s preschooler was fully reclined. The hood can be unzipped to extend further with side mesh windows for extra ventilation.

Is there a rain cover?

The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double doesn’t come with a rain cover, so you’ll need to purchase one separately for £65 – worth the extra cost if you’re using the buggy with its two main seats.

It Velcros to the frame, fitting over the seats effectively and keeping both children nice and dry. Part of the cover is a thin, waterproof fabric rather than all plastic makes it more compact for storing in the basket.

In testing, we found that the rain cover didn’t fit over the whole buggy when the carrycot was attached as it became too bulky. As such, you’ll need to buy a separate rain cover for the bassinet itself, costing a further £40. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive one for testing.

How easy is the Urban Glide 2 Double to push?

Being a sporty pram, this is an area you would expect the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double to perform well in – and it really did.

This is largely thanks to three big air-filled tyres, measuring seven inches (20cm) at the front and 15 inches ( 38.5cm) at the back – larger than the Mountain Buggy Duet V3.2’s 10-inch (25cm) back tyres. They even come with a reflective edge on the rims and on the canopy for improved visibility.

The tyres glide over all terrain including flat pavements in busy town centres, hard, bumpy ground, muddy marshlands, gravel and sports fields. Liz covered around 10 miles and they coped just as easily with harsh terrain as they did with flat, smooth ground. Thule does, however, warn that this pram should not be used at excessive speeds.

The buggy's built-in suspension makes it a smooth ride for kids and a dream for parents to push, and the three-wheel design means you can apply very little pressure when raising the front wheel up kerbs.

Its ergonomic handlebar allows you to get a good grip and moves up and down for different heights. Liz and her partner (6 ft 3) comfortably pushed the buggy with their usual step and could easily steer it one-handed.

The front wheel swivels for a tight turning circle, which helps if you need to manoeuvre the pram around smaller spaces. When you’re out jogging or need a more stable ride, the wheel can then be locked.

How easy is the Urban Glide 2 Double to fold and how heavy is it?

Thanks in part to the buggy’s blue indicators, the folding mechanism is easy to operate. It’s a simple manoeuvre that involves lifting the footrest up, turning the lever on the bar underneath and then collapsing the pram in one swift movement. The bassinet can also be removed and collapsed for storage.

The Urban Glide 2 Double comes with an automatic lock which holds the pram in place when freestanding. To unfold, simply undo the catch.

Despite not having a carry strap, there are plenty of places on the frame where the Urban Glide 2 Double can be lifted. But it's still heavy, weighing 5kg more than double buggies like the Baby Jogger City Tour 2 Double (10.5kg). When the pram was unfolded during testing, our tester could just about get it up and down stairs on her own, but found it more of a struggle with the carrycot attached.

Where the pram falls short is how big it is to store. The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double fits in a medium hatchback, but there’s no additional space for a bassinet (which had to be stored in a roof box during testing) or shopping bags. The wheels can be removed to make it more compact but this won’t always be convenient. If you have a garage or a larger car, the buggy will be much easier to store.

How big is the storage basket?

The Thule Urban Glide 2 Double is designed for families on the move and, for that, you need a storage basket that can fit more than enough for a day out.

The pram’s basket is located underneath the seats and has a zip-top cover to keep items securely in place. The pram can hold up to 14.5kg and the basket is big enough for a shopping bag, rain cover, coats, water bottles and a changing bag. You can get things in and out with ease, even with the seats fully reclined and the carrycot attached, and the basket has a handy zip compartment at the front for your phone, purse or keys. There are also small pockets in the seats for children, in addition to the aforementioned mesh pockets, which our tester found particularly handy.

The handlebar is generously sized and, when we hung the changing bag off it, it didn’t feel unbalanced or get in the way when walking.

Is the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double easy to clean?

If you’re an active person who relishes time in the great outdoors, you’re likely to be removing your fair share of mud from whichever double buggy you use. Thankfully, after a week of testing and covering a good amount of miles over various terrain, the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double cleaned up exceptionally well.

The black fabric holds water well so, when some juice was spilled, it was wiped away with just a sponge, mild soap and warm water, leaving no stains behind. It’s worth noting though that, while the bassinet liner and cover can be removed for cleaning, the fabric is handwash only.

What is the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double like to look at?

While not as eye-catching as the likes of the iCandy Peach 6, the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double has been made for function rather than fashion.

Its triangular shape is typical of jogging strollers and, although only available to buy in one colour – jet black with a silver frame – it’s a practical option suited to everyday life.

High in quality, the Thule is a buggy designed to grow with your family. At the end of the week-long testing period, there were some scratches to the frame from folding (we found this with all the prams we tested), but the air-filled tyres were still fully inflated and showed little sign of wear.

Is it good value for money?

Costing £750, the Urban Glide 2 Double is a mid-range double buggy. While not as expensive as the likes of the iCandy Peach 6 (£1,245) or the UPPAbaby Vista V2 (£1,249), it will still make a hefty dent in your bank balance, especially as you'll need to pay extra (£65) for a rain cover.

The pram can be used from six months, but if you want to use it from birth, the additional cost of the bassinet and rain cover will bring your total nearer to the £1,000 mark.

The Urban Glide 2 Double will appeal to joggers and walkers who want a well-made buggy and tyres that can tackle all terrain, but it also has a generous amount of storage space and is easy to fold, making it great for daily life too. It’s a big pram, even for a double, but is excellent to manoeuvre and built to last.

There are similarly designed, but cheaper, double buggies around, such as the Out n About Nipper Double V4 (currently £429), but we think the Thule is the more serviceable option for parents of children over six months. Our tester loved it so much that she has already recommended it to friends and family.

Final verdict

With the Urban Glide 2 Double, Thule has thought of everything a family with an active lifestyle could need. While not the easiest to store, if you love jogging and walking (and have the space), the Urban Glide 2 Double may be a compromise you’re willing to make.

Well-engineered and user-friendly, we think the Thule Urban Glide 2 Double is the best all-terrain double buggy on the market right now.

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All prices correct at time of publication