Travel System, Pram, Pushchair.... confused about what would be best for city living....

[May1205]

Hi Everyone

I've reached the inevitable pram dilemma! My bf and I have looked at prams (online reviews and John Lewis). I thought that a travel system would work best for us (multi-functionality). But it seems some people end up buying them and then discarding them after a few months and moving to a pushchair when the baby is old enough.

We live in Brixton (first floor walk up and have to keep the pram on the first floor landing), we will be doing quite a bit of walking (around the local area, park and out for coffee/lunch) and occasional bus/tube travel, we have a car which we tend to use to get about on the weekends (just changing coy car style now to a larger one so boot space is not a problem but flat storage space is).

I'm interested in people's experience of travel systems and whether they would recommend a separate pram/sling at birth and buggy later instead of a travel system?

In terms of travel systems the ones that seemed easiest to fold up and had a good carry cot (so I can get the baby up the stairs and leave sleeping still - if that ever happens!) were the silvercross wayfarer and uppababy cruz.

All suggestions gratefully received!

Thanks

The one thing I'd say is if you can afford £800, say, for a proper travel system, then it would be better to only spend £500 so you can change pushchair if you need to without worrying about it. Plenty have resale value too so if you buy an expensive pram and then want to change it later, you can sell it on and buy a replacement pushchair later. Pushchairs are a lot less expensive anyway.

We've changed our pram/pushchair 5 times in four years, which is not remotely what we expected to do. I thought we'd buy one expensive travel system and it would do forever. But no. The travel system only lasted several months before we went for a lie-flat pushchair, then we've had to keep changing to smaller, lighter pushchairs. Loads have been cheap or secondhand, but there's still been a lot of changing, mostly to do with the different travel needs for childcare. A PP is right, in London you reall do need a narrow pushchair that's light and easy.

I don't think you can ever really know at birth what you'll need for the next few years, so my advice would be to not spend a huge amount of money and if you like a more expensive system, keep an eye out for second hand deals.

Another vote for city mini. Not the best looking as a travel system but 2.5 years of convenience trumps this for us! Make sure you collapse and lift your options as we found many that were advertised as lightweight or easy to fold were anything but (and I don't think anything comes close to the city mini weight wise, apart from a stroller)

Thanks everyone for all the advice..... I've narrowed it down to the bee, or the mutsy evo. Not sure whether anyone has experience of that ? We were close to the cruz but a friend said that it had some faulty wheel issues. I've chatted to a few friends who swear by the bee and the yoyo zen. They've also got stairs and said that they can carry the whole frame and baby up. So we're closer now - all the feedback has been great!

Another vote for City Mini GT. The only drawback is not rear-facing, but we used the carry cot when she was little. The bee is a bit crap once they are past about 18m in my opinion, as it is too small to nap in comfortably. The hood on the Bee is also rubbish - almost no shade. The city mini hood covers the whole thing, and my 2yr old happily naps stretched out in her GT, often choosing buggy over cot. It's also so easy to steer and really robust.

Im going for the silver cross reflex with newborn pack look into them they are very handy. I know loads of friends who have brought a travel system and used it for 6-10 months then brought a stroller. I was the same with my first

Had the same dilemma! Second floor flat, limited space. In the end me and my boyfriend decided on the mamas and papas armadillo flip xt. Can't give you a testimonial yet but testing in the shop it folded extremely easily and very small once folded, light weight and comes in a travel system!
www.mamasandpapas.com/cat/armadillo-flip/

City mini here too. We lived in brixton with ours and it was super useful on the bus, light and easy to fold out of the way in a flat. Travel systems don't make much sense if you're looking for something lightweight and convenient throughout babyhood though I can see they're lovely for the first couple of months.

Oyster range looks good to me. Nice and light. Easy transfer of car seat to normal seat. We need a more robust wheel for dog walking on tracks. We're going for the Oyster Max as it has an underneath slot for another baby, if that were to happen. Good luck

We're also in London and have the Bugaboo Bee. Really nippy and good for getting on buses/the tube and walking for miles.

I do actually find it quite tricky to collapse (everyone else I know who has tried finds it simple, so it's probably just me. I know how it's done and it is just a button press but I've never got the hang of it), but it's so light it just pick it up with DD in it. She's 15 months now and not the smallest child, and I'm not the strongest person.

We do have a cheap umbrella-fold pushchair as well for when I need to take her into Central London in rush hour, but we mostly still use the Bee.

They have really good resale value as well if cost is a factor

We had a bee for DD1, so the original model which has a slightly shorter back. Our DD was 9.5 lbs, all length rather than chubby. By 15 months she was too tall for it, her head created a bump in the hood! If either of you are tall I would reconsider it.
As a comparison, she is still v v tall, aged 6 and in 9-10 clothes. She clambers into her sisters baby jogger city mini and fits comfortably in it... The latter is much more flexible for different shaped children, and also a lot sturdier. The bee became quite wobbly after a year.