Best parent-facing buggy?

[HGrace]

We're about to adopt a 10 month old boy. We are looking for a parent-facing buggy. Ideally, we'd choose a one-type-fits-all buggy that copes with rough terrain as well as a trip to the shops. We'd like it to fold in its parent-facing position. Is this realistic? Any recommendations or buggies to avoid?

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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We've noticed this thread is quite old and some of the product recommendations are a little out of date.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. Here's our round up of pushchair reviews for the best prams on the market right now.

Hope that helps!

MNHQ

Congratulations!

Do you have a budget? If you're outdoorsy I'd recommend a backpack, ds is great in it. This then opens the door to a lot of parent facing strollers. The prams are already redundant by 10 months and longevity seems to go with weight.

Do you use public transport? A fast fold is more important then.

I'd look at the bugaboo bee. Dsis loves hers.
There's also the petite star njoy bubble, candy cherry, m&p sola.

The bugaboo chameleon can parent face and has lovely big wheels too.

I had the quinny zapp xtra - HATED it. Rattled, felt cheap and the wheels wore out. Sorry it's not a recommendation more of an avoid, avoid, avoid.

If you need something to cope with terrain options are more limited, the baby jogger city Versa or versa gt should be okay, the casualplay kudu 3 folds parent facing and has air wheels (iirc) and there's the easywalker mini (fairly £££ at over £600). The easywalker mosey will be out soon, less obviously terrain-y wheels than the mini but lighter and simpler possibly.

There will be a few more, it's do able but they won't be the lightest smallest pushchairs.

Bugaboo bee!

For a 10 month old id go with an njoy bubble or something like the babystyle gem/oyster i would recommend bugaboo's me and OH were in mothercare trying them out yesterday,I'm 4"11 and when i took the cameleon down off its stand to try it the front wheels felt no existent and the handlebar was shaking even when the assistant showed us how it went back and forth it was still moving about when we touched it also even on the lowest setting it was digging into my chest and too tall, then we tried the bee which was slightly better but still felt rickety and unstable also the seat unit barely reached my waistline and the wheels stuck out at all angles, IMHO bugaboo's all look like special needs pushchairs anyway, but go into a pram shop and look around first and see what you like and them come on here and ask about the prams reputation etc so much easier

*wouldnt

I love my Maxi Cosi Mura 3, which parent faces and is fab on rough terrain. It seems to be incredibly comfortable - get lots of comments and will last a long time once you do the switch to forward face with the front step once your baby is older.
Only thing it doesn't do is your parent face collapse. If you need it for public transport then no good - but if its because its a small car boot then may be worth checking out as I have had no problem in a range of boots. (Its got an easy release front wheel, but I've never yet even needed to use that)

I would look at the baby jogger versa. Baby joggers seem to have nice sized seats that will last well.

I've got a mountain buggy cosmopolitan, which is a fantastic buggy/pram which will parent face, but it is very big/wide/heavy. For this reason I also got a joie mirus, which is nice and small and easy to switch to parent facing mode, but harder to push this way... sorry probably not a very helpful comment!

bugaboo bee. mine has lasted for 6 years (2 DDs) with heavy urban use (20 mins walk to nursery 2x per day) and is only semi-retired now younger DD can walk the distance without it.

Just posted this on another thread. Might be good?

www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplay0_10751_-1_266013_10001

I second the Jane range. I have a Mumm. It's great.

Babystyle oyster 2 John lewis are the only place stocking them at the moment.

Also try best buggy for reviews.

I'd say definitely look at a Baby Jogger - the Versa is great. I got the city mini because I needed it to be as light as possible, but they're v similar. It's bigger than the Bee, and my friend who has a Bee said she had to stop using hers at about 2 yrs. IMHO I think the " handling" is much nicer on the BJ, feels very sturdy.

I can't believe no-one has mentioned the Stokke Xplory. It is fantastic. The child is very high up, which is great for interacting with you and with others. My DD was able to be forward facing for as long a she used the buggy, until she was around 3.5.

We have an uppababy vista which dd (aged 22mo) still fits in very comfortably. It does both parent and outward facing and is really easy to change between the two. It is great for country terrain (rough tracks and such) and has a big shopping basket underneath. It is a bit bulky on public transport or in the boot of the car, but it suits our lifestyle and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.