Car seat on holiday??

[RosieLee2019]

We are going to Portugal next month, first time abroad with 18 m/o… we have a private transfer to the hotel but it says none of the cars have car seats. We might get a few short taxi journeys while we’re there and I understand taxis won’t have car seats. So… what to do? Take our own, hire one??

We’ve always taken our own. I’ve never liked that you’ve got no idea whether a hired seat has been in an accident, stored correctly and suitable for your child.

At that age, take own.

We always took our own. We once hired one, our home country with no language isses, and it took over 2 hours to sort things out as they messed up the reservation despite emails and calls. DH was nearly ready to take a car alone to the city and just buy one.

def take your own. Most airlines let you for free.

Take your own. Make sure it can be belt fitted though, not relying on Isofix. (Although I'm sure the Isofix situation in hire cars has improved a lot since my 9yo was a toddler!)

For a few short journeys, that are most likely to be round town, I'd use a trunki booster seat that doubles as a bag.

I wouldn't want to risk my car seat getting damaged in the hold of a plane. Also if you get a taxi say to a water park, where are you storing the carseat all day? Toddler seats are big bulky heavy bits of kit to carry around.

Even in the UK you don't need a car seat in a taxi. So a booster seat would be my compromise.

We hire cars and take our own car seat, the ones you can hire are shocking, I don't know how it would work with short tqxis though? You'd have to carry the seat around at your destination.

Trunki boosterpak is absolutely not appropriate for this situation, the child is 18 months old!!

OP, we have a Joie Stages and travel bag for exactly this situation. It’s fairly universally fitting and quick to get in and out (belt fitted). If hiring a car is an option, this obviously makes things a lot easier re. what to do with seat when you’re out and about.

How do you know how well your own has been looked after by the baggage handlers?

For the limited risk of a couple of short taxi rides I'd avoid risking my carseat in a planes hold.
I've seen a couple stand in the baggage hall with a destroyed pram, going Oh no with a part of it snapped in too.

You wouldn't necessarily see the damage to a car seat.

We’ve either packed it into its original box or a special travel bag designed for a car seat, and used a lot of bubble wrap / clothes to pad it out to protect. We also cover the box / bag with fragile tape. The only time we didn’t take our car seat was when we moved to another country where our car seat capsule wasn’t legal to use there. The car hire company offered us a forward facing high back booster for our 7 month old!

As per a previous poster, a booster seat is highly inappropriate and dangerous for an 18 month old. Toddler seats are big and bulky in order to protect the child, which I guess will be awkward if you’re not hiring a car. It may well be legal for a child to travel in a taxi without a car seat suitable for their age, height and weight, but that doesn’t make it safe. It only takes one accident for a child to be injured, and that could happen in a short taxi ride round the corner or a lengthy car journey.

We have our first holiday next month. We did the same and booked a private transfer. I have a light weight car seat for DD age spare which can belt in. I bought a carry case bag for it from Amazon which wears like a back pack. This can be checked in/out in oversized hand luggage on plane according to Tui. Will pad it up with some nappies/swim nappies as well. Will be a pain but only until we check in. We won’t use it much apart from the transfer so should be minimal annoyance

we always used cheap 2nd hand seats for airplane trips. So that at least we knew that our “main” car seats at home had not been bashed about.

If I’m getting a taxi transfer I always book through the hotel and insist on a taxi that has car seats. Never had a problem with this approach so far.

We always paid for a seat for the infant and used the car seat on the plane for the infant to sit in. Then we used it in cars at the holiday destination. It’s the safest way for an infant to travel.

“Child seats
If you’ve booked a seat for your baby, you can bring your own car seat that meets airline safety regulations. Please note that two-part car seats (a seat and separate base) are not suitable for aircraft seats.”
www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/family-travel/seating

You can't use a Trunki booster seat for a one year old!

Take a Joie Tilt. It's probably cheaper than hiring one anyway.

Think our spare is a Graco. We got given it by family who only used it for airplane and car transfers