Bugaboo Donkey owners - please be honest!

[dottytablecloth]

Do you really love your Donkey? I like lots of the features of it but I'm at how big it is!

Is it a complete pain going out and about? I think it looks like it would be excellent for walks, parks and days out etc but it looks like a pain for things like shopping or coffee shops.

Dc1 will be 22 months when dc2 arrives and at the minute he's not walking so spends lots of time in the buggy!

I've looked at a few other doubles and they seem horrifically big and bulky.

If you want a side by side definitely then hmm yeah, the donkey is as compact as the reversible ones get. Forward facing ones often feel smaller overall, I always kind of assumed this is because the footprint is the same as a donkey but they don't occupy as much of the vertical space. Plus the fold is obviously easier, simpler to use etc. It just depends what your priorities are.

Anything of that general size and width will be a pain sometimes in shops and cafés, if you can live with or work around that and you walk a lot then I doubt you'd regret it. If you don't walk so much, have to put it in and out of the car a lot, that sort of thing then I can imagine it driving me nuts extremely quickly. With each additional child I had less reserves of calm and patience though, you may not be like this and may be quite happy putting it in and out of the car etc.

I pushed a donkey for the first time a few weeks ago (despite a loooong streams of doubles and tandems over the past 4 years or so I had never had one) and it was lovely. Realistically however nice it was to push if I can't get into playgroup, school, the doctors, the ridiculous bits of narrow medieval city pavement then it won't work for me. Loads of people have no access issues at all with side by side doubles, I had them constantly. It depends so much on where you live, what you do and the format in which you do it. Not to mention dcs, their preferences and yours etc.

I really love my donkey as it means I can actually enjoy outings with my twins. It's a dream to push and the babies love it--they'll sit in it for hours without complaint while we shop, walk, etc. I have had very few problems with mobility, but then again I live in Greater London where things are perhaps a bit wider? We don't own a car, so the donkey takes us everywhere on public transport, even on train journeys across the country. As it has the footprint of a wheelchair, it can go anywhere that is handicap accessible (which is most places these days). Fits on the bus with another pram easily. Coffee shops can be a squeeze if they're the little boutique kind, but there is always space in the bigger chain places like Costa, Starbucks, Nero, Carluccios, Harris and Hoole, etc. I go for coffee/lunch with friends all the time and it's never been a problem.

The things I love most about it are the fact that the seats can parent-face and the fact that it can go into single mode. The latter is fab if you know you're going somewhere with tight spaces because you can always put one child in a sling or on a buggy board and the other in the buggy with all of your shopping. Super versatile.

It is a faff to get in and out of a car boot, so if that's how you would be using it (constantly in and out), I can imagine it would get to be a pain.

I really love my Donkey and it does look big but's actually one of the narrowest side by side doubles - I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

Where I live they have narrow shop doorways and aisles but I've had no trouble getting the Donkey through doors and on public transport even with luggage and the twins on board. The seats are brilliant, one of my twins hates slouching so the fact that the seats right up more than most strollers is a big plus for him and for me. He also likes to ff while his brother prefers to lie down rf so it's great to have the different options.

I also love the basket underneath, once or twice I've stored the 2nd seat underneath so I could convert the stroller to a double later on, and still have space underneath for stuff.

Like the poster above said, it is quite heavy but I have no problems lifting it in and out of the car, but 9/10 we keep it up in the hallway.

If you don't want the Donkey, I suggest having a look the Stroll Air Duo it's kinda the same but with less options.