Car seat for holiday

[lmcc13]

We’re travelling to Italy with our 10-month old son in a few weeks and have realised that - whilst we hadn’t planned to hire a car - the car hire price will be much cheaper than two airport transfers. Car seat dilemma! Our car seat is heavy, expensive and isofix only and I don’t want to risk it being damaged in transit. I’ve heard horror stories about rental
company car seats being old, damaged or dirty, plus they’re expensive to hire. We’re thinking of buying a ‘holiday car seat’ for this and future travel. I’m thinking ideally something with a good safety score, suitable for seatbelt fitting, ideally not too heavy or a small fortune! Does anyone have any recommendations?

Joie stages

How much cheaper? Sounds a hassle to me if you don't need a car while you are there

You’d still need to take a car seat for the transfer though surely? Other option at 10 months is to get a cheap infant carrier such as the joie juva (£40) and use that.

We just held them on the coach. Never seen anyone try to strap a car seat into a coach. They only have lap belts for a start.

Britax. We don't have a car and have always had their non-isofix versions.

I just bought a £35 argos seat for the same reason - ours is heavy (and was expensive) and hire was going to be £10/day for 12 days.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. For anyone else interested, I think we’re looking at the Britax Eclipse - good safety rating and a narrow base, so easy to fit in lots of rental car models. It’s also certified for use on aircraft, which could be handy. The only downsides are that it’s quite heavy (8.25kg) and only forward facing. An other option might be the Joie Elevate - I need to check out some more Which? safety ratings...!