Hiring a car seat in Italy or Trunki Booster?

[SpawningSalmon]

We are off to Italy in Sept with 3 month old and an almost 3 year old. I am going to take the maxi cosi for the 3 month old but am considering renting a car seat from the car hire company in Milan.

Can anyone share their experiences of hiring car seats abroad? Would you do it again or should I just take ours with us. We are flying BA so can take them on board, but oh the hassle!

Alternatively would anyone use a Trunki Booster for a 3 year old? She is nearly 13 kg now and the recommended weight is 15kg.

A Trunki is not suitable for a 3 year old. We have one and used it for our DD when she was a very tall 5 year old and it was quite uncomfortable for her.

I hired car seats before, once via a well-known agency in a country I come from. Despite written confirmation from them and a phone call to the actual hire station the day before the car seat was not only broken but in no condition deemed safe anyway. It took over an hour discussing with them before they were able to get us a replacement.

The second time my in-laws hired one only to find out that DD was too tall for this model.

Never again. Since then we always took the seat, even the chunky and heavy Maxi Cosi Tobi with us,

I wouldn't use a Trunki for a child below the weight limit, even if they fit on it (which actually my 3 year old does - we use it for the 6 year old) they can be thrown out of the seatbelt - they really should have a 5 point harness.

You can buy cheap stage 123 seats with 5 point harness in places like Argos or Kiddicare - they can cost the same as a Trunki, and they tend to be a lot less bulky than a stage 1 seat, and a lot lighter to carry. I would (in fact, I did once when we were going abroad) just buy one of those and stick it in the hold. They probably aren't the greatest seats, but at least you'll know it is clean and undamaged and suitable for your child.

We took our carseat for toddler DD with us when we went to America last year and it only occurred to me recently that it could have been thrown around in the hold on the plane, which might mean it's not as safe as it was-who knows how well it was strapped down or even if it was at all. This is now really worrying me and we're going to buy a new seat. So I don't know what the ideal is. Probably buy a new sear once you're at your holiday destination but that's an incredibly expensive option!