How do people manage car seats and international travel?

[Fredflinstoneswife1]

So we are finally going abroad next year after many years of lovely staycations in the UK. Accommodation in the Dordogne is booked and we will be hiring a car for two weeks from Bordeaux airport to travel to our accommodation and around the area.

We have three children aged 1, 5 and 7. Hiring three car seats will cost us the guts of £300 which we would barely have. I've seen people suggesting taking our own. But my question is: how with three kids in tow, one with little legs and one in a buggy, would we manage to cart our bags, the buggy and the car seats through the airport to the check in desk and then to the car hire at the other side? Is there such a thing as a lightweight, cheap back supported booster that the 7 year old could at least carry on his back?
Or any other suggestions? I was thinking if such a thing did exist I could try fb marketplace.

I would check that the car you hire can indeed fit in 3 child seats, and then I would just suck up the costs as part of the holiday. It’s a price worth paying for not having to manage 3 children, 3 car seats, suitcases and carry in bags twice!!!

Those big trolleys surely. You might need two

Our kids had trunkii booster rucksacks from age 3 (the rules were different then). Neither of them were the escaping/wriggling type.

But surely you put them on a luggage trolley from car park to check in, check them in, then collect on a luggage trolley at the other end?

Or drive to the Dordogne. We used to drive to the south of France when DC were little and stopped overnight in an F1 hotel.

There's no easy answer to this.. I researched it quite extensively one year.

I think it's possible to work out though. Will your 1 year still fit in a baby carrier seat do you think? That could be key.

One option for the older two is that trunki do a backpack that converts into a booster seat - it's not obviously as robust as a proper HBB but it would be a very light weight option which would mean you could at least position the seatbelt correctly. There are options for folding HBB - a friend has these but so sorry I can't remember the brand!

How much are you able to spend on car seats? And how robust do you want them to be?

It's many years since we hired a car with small children, but when we last did we took along a couple of booster seats in a big bag. Obviously, the laws were a bit different then but they were perfectly adequate for the holiday. When my son was tiny, we actually bought a baby seat abroad - it was cheaper than hiring one.

Is it possible for the adults to manage pushing two big trolleys and push a buggy? Maybe the 7 year old could push the buggy to the check in desk?!

This is helpful, thank you. I don't think my 1 year old even currently fits into the baby carrier seats. He is using a joie 180, but I don't think that's classed as a carrier?

I didn't realise how expensive car seat hire was. I've saved for the flights and car hire, and have the accommodation sorted as we do home exchange, but if I try to pay for car seat hire I will most likely have nothing left for eating out. I am self employed and the cost of living has really hurt my business. I usually have work booked in for the following year at this point and I have nothing now. Still need to get passports for us all and travel insurance.. yikes.. UK travel is so much cheaper!

I will check out the trunki options!

If anyone knows of any other cheap, lightweight options please, please let me know!!

where there’s a will there’s a way!

Do you need a back supported seat for the 7 year old? By 7 my son was just on a booster seat.

I second these. After a bad experience with car hire seats we go these for the children and never looked back. And the plus was the kids carried them around.

And their clothes or toys fit inside too.

And they fit under the seat in front.

Op, I sold my trunki boosters on after we finished with them. Am sure you can find them on vinted.

We use this for our four year old: https://amzn.eu/d/000pukHf

We have a 7 year old and have one of the trunki booster seats. I much prefer it to renting a car seat of unknown origin/history from a car hire place. I’ve also seen them for sale second hand, I’m not an expert but would assume that there’s less concern with buying them second hand vs normal car seats.

Book your travel insurance asap! It doesn’t just cover you while you are on holiday, but will allow you to recoup the costs if, heaven forbid, something happens between now and departure that means you can’t go.

We bought used joie stages and put them in a massive backpack, it was "fine" but a bit of a hassle.

I think your 7 yo can use a mifold or bubble bum? There's lots of options for these types of things.

We also had a chicco fold n go, crucially this fits inside a suitcase and you can also fit enough clothes for 1 child in that case also (so depends how many cases you have allocated)

Actually I would get a maxi cosi nomad for the 5yo, depending how big the 1yo is either a nomad as well or in an infant carrier - these would be SIGNIFICANTLY better than lugging a massive seat around

But tbh I would just drive to France- much easier and cheaper

It will depend how tall your 7 year old is, under 125cm and a booster with back is needed.

Is the 7yo mature enough to guard one trolley at check-in for 5 minutes? 1 parent+7yo take first trolley, parent2 guards little ones, trolley2 and pram. P1 returns for second trolley, everyone joins 7yo.

I wouldn’t leave a 7 year old by themself in a busy airport.

We managed....three DCs, each 2 years apart.

Took sturdy plastic bags to the airport and bagged up car seats on arrival. DH would drop me plus luggage plus 1 DC at the terminal, then go off to park the car. Well-stacked baggage trolley. Enlisted oldest DC as much as possible to push buggy etc.... It was all a bit of a blur, to be honest, not going to pretend it was easy!

The Trunki boosters sound excellent - didn't exist when mine were young.

On one occasion we didn't take car-seats (I think we only had one DC then) and hired from the car hire company - the seat was terrible quality, and didn't really attach properly, so we decided it was best to bring our own.

Youngest in sling. One car seat on buggy, two on trolley - in fact, you can probably fit three on the trolley if you stack them.

amazon sells car seat backpacks - you put it in there and put it on your back. Makes it so much easier to carry while pushing a trolley/suitcase. If you and your husband take one each you only have to take one on a trolley.

We avoided it by only going to places that didn't need a hired car when the dcs were younger, then brought Mifold or Trunki boosters when they were old enough. It's a bit more limiting but there are plenty of destinations with public transport transfers and within walking distance of a town. We also had all our luggage in rucksacks so we could keep hands free, so we've never needed those big trolleys. We usually took a buggy on holiday even for the older ones so we could hang booster seats off the back and put the rucksack on the seat (and could go on quite long journeys without a car).