Pram/pushchair for town living-lots of steps!

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Hi,
I'm 20 weeks pregnant with my 1st. We've had our scan and we're only just starting to allow ourselves to look at things for the baby (had a MMC last December, so am a bit anxious)

Thinking about prams/pushchairs, we went to mothercare today and it's a total minefield. We liked the Graco evo xt & the icandy peach (also the apple 2 pear, but prefer the peach) and also like the look of the uppababy vista (but it & the icandy are so expensive!!) They seem stable, and not too heavy

I live near a town centre & pretty much walk everywhere, so I want a pushchair that is easy to manoeuvre. I rarely get public transport, but do have a car, so will need a car seat, but am considering one that I just leave in the car rather than a travel system one. Our house is up a series of steps from the road, and they are pretty steep-when I tried a 3 wheeler one and lifted back wheels up as I would need to get up the steps they were quite unstable, but also why I need a light pushchair (alternative is a lift out carrycot and keep base in car boot which is at street level!)

Basically-I'm looking for a light but sturdy pushchair suitable from birth (pref with a carrycot I can use for downstairs naps, the odd overnight stay), can be parent or street facing, that is easy to get up steps, and isn't as expensive as the icandy (we REALLY like it in the primrose colour!) Is there such a unicorn?

Unless the icandy is the be all and end all... Then we'll buy it I'd rather wait until January but there are some good deals around at the moment (800 for peach incl carrycot)

Thanks (sorry it's so long!)

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Hello,

We've noticed this thread is quite old and some of the product recommendations are a little out of date. We've spent weeks speaking to parents and testing prams and pushchairs, from lightweight easy folding prams to all terrain buggies, we've seen them all. Here's our round up of the best pushchairs on the market right now.

Hope that helps!

MNHQ

Bugaboo bee? Or the babyzen yo-yo but I don’t think that’s parent facing.

If you have to take it up stairs then I’d go for something as light as possible. Remember you have to add the weight of your baby/toddler to the pram which could easily be another 10kg.

Sorry this isn't what you asked but I've had a couple kids and really couldn't be done with a buggy or stroller in places that aren't buggy friendly. Stairs are so dangerous with the wheels too. Have a look at slings there is heaps to try and with the combination of sing/buggy/car you can get about anywhere with baby/toddler.

I had a city jogger - which wasn't perfect from birth, but was so good as I could literally fold it one handed.

I had a quinny Buzz when I lived in an upstairs flat with no lift, and it was great. It's really light so easy to carry, folds reasonably small for a travel system, and has huge back wheels with air tyres - they were amazing for bumping it backwards up stairs. If he fell asleep while we were out (which he did, all the time) I could gently bump him all the way upstairs without him feeling a thing. Only downside was a small shopping basket, but I just got one of those big clips for the handle. No pram is perfect I don't think, but that one was great for town centre living and lots of steps.

You could look at the icandy Raspberry? I have the peach and I love it but I think it might be tricky to get up loads of steps daily. Check out mamas and papas too, they have some good options and quite often get overlooked.

Babyzen yoyo. We lived on a narrow boat for the first 10 months of DS life, and it was a godsend.

Stops being parent facing once you sit them
up though ...

The joie Mytrax is good for folding down one handed. It is also suitable from birth. In your situation I’d be tempted to get a good baby carrier and the keep a pram in the car boot and not take it up and down steps

Choose the most comfortable buggy for you to push and your baby to sleep in and store it in the car.

Another one saying sling. Try and find a meet near you (Google 'sling library '). Faffed with a pram with DC1, who hated being in a pram anyway, and saved my life with a sling with DC2. Steps are a non-issue with a sling. I still occasionally carry DC2 at the age of three and a bit if it's too far to walk.

Venice ( quite a few steps here ) the No1 seller is the City Jogger Mini... Most versatile , lightweight and great for steps.

Thank you for the replies. So it looks like it might be easiest to get one that I can fold easily and stick in the car. I didn't like the look of the bee, it seemed so flimsy, and we will sometimes go through parks, but even if I don't use my steps then there are lots of kerbs to bounce up and down on here
I can bring it up next doors path which is 3 shallower steps and round to the back door, which is much fewer & less steep steps than the front door, so that's another option.
Does anyone have an uppababy vista? I like that you can fold it with the seat in, which you don't seem to be able to do with the peach. I liked the look of quinny online but the one we looked at in a shop (wasn't buzz) seemed a little unstable...

My worry with a sling is I walk EVERYWHERE & do pretty much all my shopping on foot, and I think it would be difficult with a backpack/bags etc with a sling, whereas with a buggy I can stick it in there...

I was (almost) you. City living walk everywhere and steps to front door. Uppababy vista all the way. I've had several buggies, all very thoroughly researched and it was by far my best for that lifestyle then (I ended up putting on both an extra seat and the tag along stand and pushed 3 kids with it. Big wheels means it's easy to get up and down stairs but it isn't as light as some.

If you need light, and don't need to think about tooo much groceries etc under the buggy (my vista carried loads), then go the baby zen yo-yo. We have had one the last 18 months (we have been permanently travelling and it's a fantastic, light, space saving (both folded and in use) buggy with still enough storage underneath and it has handled much better than I thought it would when I first got it. I was afraid it would fall apart under the extra weight of groceries hanging from the handle and the 4 year old who kept climbing in when he was too tired (his little sister was easier to carry). Not as good on stairs, though mine has taken a lot of them and survived fine; just more awkward and more 'lifting' while the uppababy just rolled up them 😀

Baby on front in sling, back pack on back (my changing bag was a £10 Tesco rucksack), bags in both free hands. Steps and escalators a complete non-issue. No arguments about wheelchairs vs pram spaces. No asking you to fold a pram full of bags on a train. Very happy baby getting held and rocked constantly just like they were in utero. Mum burning loads of calories. The pram gathered dust with DC2 and I was able to go on things like boat rides which had signs like 'prams must be left dockside'.

Also - a really good wrap sling is £70. An equivalent quality pram is 10x that.

Thank you, I am thinking about a sling, but not for my day to day shopping and wandering in my town. I don't use public transport, and I have a bit of a dodgy shoulder (& currently a bad sacro-iliac joint leading to back pain & sciatica) so I don't think I can manage baby + bags etc (I currently use back pack & bags either hand for aldi shop, but a cross body hand bag and shoulder shopping bags for the town shops.

I can see a sling being perfect for trips to London, flights, or city breaks, but for day to day life I do want a pram

We were looking for something similar (live in a city with lots of cobbles/steps and uneven pavements) and ended up getting a much less well known brand, called the greentom upp. It is more expensive now than when we bought it because of exchange rates, but is still a lot cheaper than many of the others out there.

You can get it as a travel system with carrycot, then the parent or forward facing mode and finally forward facing mode. It has reasonably sized solid wheels which means we've always been able to take it up steps easily (we simply take it up backwards and bump it up), and down we just bump it down on the back wheels - DD never seemed to mind. It's also super light - on a par with the baby zen I think. The only downside is that it doesn't fold as small as the baby zen yoyo (we don't have a car so that bit didn't matter to us) and the shopping basket bit is quite small. It's also made entirely from recycled bottles. We absolutely love it and have used it daily, along with slings for over 2 years and it's still going very strong.

I have the Icandy strawberry 2 - it's cheaper than the peach and I am really pleased with it

We’ve got 30 steps between the front door and the pavement, and no car.

I use a variety of slings.

We also own an icandy cherry and a micralite fastfold.

The icandy is OK for bumping down the stairs, though I wouldn’t do it with the carrycot attached (take wheels down first, then baby in carrycot and clip on). A friend had a buggy where the wheels weren’t structurally sound without the carrycot (Bee maybe?) which was a bit awkward - avoid that.

The micralite is brilliant. We haven’t got the carrycot - only got it when DD was too big - but we could bump her up the steps asleep. We’ve got the extended handle bars, which are designed to be used with a buggy board, but point them upwards and they mean you can bump the buggy up/down without bending your back over half as much.

Oh, and get a buggytug.

We have a load of steps at the front of our house and we bought the icandy cherry - and replaced the chassis after it got stolen, for DC2 when she came along. It's the lightest icandy, handles the steps with ease, has a sleep-friendly carry cot and you CAN us a standard maxi cosi car seat on it with the right adapters. I also have a couple of decent slings but I do like the icandy cherry.

I had the vista, a yo-yo and an ergo-baby sling. All brilliant for different times.

Sorry, another thing: you won’t be able to bump the buggy up the steps with loads of shopping in the basket - it’ll fall out. You haven’t said how many steps: if it’s less than ten with the pavement in sight from the front door, you might be happy unloading at the bottom of the steps. But if you’ve got a long twisty path with several flights of steps (like me!) you’ll end up with a backpack anyway.

I can’t imagine how people manage with a sling and no buggy. Mine was always loaded up!

It sounds like you are really leaning towards the icandy! If you’re not sure about the price there is a page on Facebook called icbabyuk. She reconditions icandys and they look immaculate if you are open to buying second hand. (Though they’re heavy!) I am considering buying one or a bugaboo if I can find a similar seller as I really need a new one for baby #2 but just can’t justify the price. The ups baby vista is meant to be very good as well and similar to bugaboo chameleon

Also there’s the egg quail which is due to be released soon? The original egg is a lot like icandy (my friend told me it’s the same designer, not sure how true that is) but the quail is the lightweight option