Car seats one shared transfer

[Flymeaway4]

Just wondering what you all do on shared coach transfers with infants? I’m aware it’s not a legal requirement for them to wear a seat belt and they can sit on your lap, but that’s just because of logistics, it not exactly safe! We’ve been quoted £350 for private transfers and even then they can’t guarantee car seats. I’ve asked the holiday provider if we can bring child seats with us to use on the shared transfer coach; firstly they said baby won’t get a seat, she’ll have to sit on my lap, then they said she can have her own seat and use a car seat if there’s space. They have since said though that they use lots of different types of coaches and they can’t guarantee one with a 3 point seat belt. So basically, it might not work anyway and we’ll have carted 2 car seats to Spain for nothing (one for out 2yr old too)!

so, what do you do? Is there another way around this? A travel car seat type gadget I’ve not come across. We could potentially hire a car, that’s cheaper than the private transfer, but we’re still looking at £200 or more, once we hire car seats.

I'd hire a car. I don't think anything portable would be very safe.

We take car seats and either hire a car or get a private transfer.

Never hire car seats, they'll be shit. It's free to take yours on the flight. Just get a car seat bag off Amazon and pad them out with towels/clothes/nappies.

There’s no right/wrong answer, it’s really what you feel comfortable with.

I’d personally take the coach and sit kids on laps if it was a short journey, no motorways, safe roads etc., comparable to when you might take a public bus. If it was a longer journey on big fast roads then I would get a private transfer with car seats (never had a problem finding these but then again I’ve never gone through a package operator) or a failing that I would hire a car and the car seats.

I wouldn’t take my own car seats under any circumstances as it’s too much to lug through the airport and they get bashed about in the hold. But again that’s a personal decision as the ones provided are never going to be top of the line, safety award winning models.

I hire car and take own cars seats. The car seats will go for free usually, and so it’s just car hire.
You will want to go somewhere surely whilst away anyway where the car will be useful.

A coach is much bigger than a car so would come off better in a crash so I would have kids on laps. It's not that different to a bus really.

If you're going to hire a car take 2x Joie Tilt. It will be cheaper than hiring.

It's very different to a bus. Buses usually travel at slow speeds in built up areas. Coach transfers can be hours long, using fast/mountain roads, in countries with variable road safety laws. I wouldn't hold a child on a national express coach in this country. If a coach crashes when you're holding your baby, they will be thrown from your arms and end up who knows where!

We just used the coach when DS was little same as a public bus. Once he got bigger we had the private transfers in a taxi which again didn't require seats

OK yeah mountain/rural roads I might be a bit more concerned about. The chances of a crash on a motorway are very slim though. The public bus that I take regularly travels on a motorway for part of one of the journeys.

I think car hire might be our best bet. We’d need to buy new car seats though (ours are isofix and not really transportable), so any recommendations? Don’t really want to break the bank, but equally want something safe

Your best bet for safe on a tight budget is rear facing, and Joie seats are good for this as they have 18kg limit, so should suit both a baby and 2yo.

Yea we bought joie tilt for travel as home one large and isofix. Think it was €60. Has been used for travel several times, and also as spare if neighbour picks our Ds up from nursery or if grandparents visit. Used from around 12 months. And Ds still fits now at 3 years.

Fab, thank you!

Never rent a car seat or trust the seats provided by a ride service. You don’t know if they have been in an accident, stored properly, or are expired.

one option can be to buy seats upon arrival at your destination. It depends on where you are going, but sometimes it works out to have one parent take the rental car from the airport, go buy a seat, and them come back to the airport to pick up the rest of the family. We have also had one delivered to a hotel in advance if we didn’t need one before that point.

What do you do with them at the end of the holiday? Seems incredibly wasteful

Bring home and keep for spares, donate to local charity shop if not needed for last leg of trip to airport, give them to the rental company at airport. Bring home and see if anyone at nursery needs a car seat/donate to home charity.

I do think it makes more sense to buy locally if you're visiting family or it's something like that with a destination you'll return to.

If you're not able to leave the seats at the destination for next time because it's a one off trip, buy them in the UK (where car seats are much cheaper anyway) and bring them back.

You know you will also probably need to pay excess baggage for the car seats? You're usually allowed one baby item item for free, and I assume you'll be taking a pushchair.

I think most people just use the coach transfer buses. It's not the safest but it is the easiest and cheapest. You are looking at a lot of money for two car seats, hire car and excess baggage.

It’s usually 2 baby/child items so pushchair and car seat would be fine. Obviously always check with your airline first so you don’t get surprises but even Ryan Air allows you take both so an airline that doesn’t would be incredibly stingy!

Yes you do need to check the airline policy. I've always found that car seats are free though.