Second/travel car seat for small nearly 4 year old

[Newtoallthis20]

My daughter is 98cm and nearly 4. She is currently in an ERF seat (Axkid Minikid 2) at home, but I am looking to buy a second car seat that would be easier/lighter to take on holiday to Spain and also could be used occasionally in grandparents car.

She's technically not quite big enough for a high back booster, although could be okay. I was looking at seats such as the Joie Everystage R129 so she can still rear face with a harness for this holiday, and then it can convert into a HBB in the future. Though I know that the seats that do multiple things aren't always the best.

Any advice on the best seat to choose for both purposes?

Thanks in advance!

We have a Gracco Milestone and we love it (so much that we now have 3, one in each parents car and one in grandma's car). At first when we only had one milestone we tried a joie stages for dad's car and hated it so much we took it back after 3 days and got the 2nd milestone. Our DS is 8yrs now and still fits it comfortably although he is very tall for his age and definitely will not still fit it at 12.

I'd say you're best off asking in an ERF facebook group as I've seen people recommending forward facing team tex seats for toddlers on here before now

The Every Stage R129 is not bad actually, it got a reasonable score on the ADAC test and the weight limit for RF is very good. It sounds like you'll have a while before she hits a 105cm limit.

Graco Slimfit R129 is essentially the same seat and is usually cheaper. I don't think they sell the Milestone any more.

Or if you wanted to give it a look, Halfords have a very cheap R129 belt fitted RF only seat up to 105cm for about £60 - I would check her in it before you buy because it might be physically small and not realistically last up to 105cm. If you can compare it to the Joie or Graco, that would probably be useful. But that and then a Joie i-Trillo seat which is £50 (and well rated for safety) is probably cheaper than the Every Stage R129.

Thank you and apologies for the delayed acknowledgement, that's all really helpful and gives me some food for thought.

@BertieBotts - are there any forward facing only options that would do a better job? Whilst I would rather her rear face like at home, this seat is for more occasional use and I'd prefer it to be better for what it ends up getting used for more in the future (if that makes any sense!)

Yes I see what you mean. The problem is that the FF ones which are good, tend to be isofix so they are heavier to travel with. Since Joie high back boosters tend to be good, the Joie Elevate might be worth a look - I don't know that it's great as a FF harness seat but would of course still meet regulations.

The ADAC safety rating on the Every Stage/Slimfit (both R129 versions) is 2.4 which is good - the mark is out of 5 and lower numbers are better. The best-rated high back booster seats are normally around 1.7 - 2.0.