cheap and cheerful buggy for summer holiday

[Carameli]

Hi,

We are taking our 10mnth dd on holiday to Ireland in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to seeing lots of family over there etc etc.

Anyway as much as I love my Venezia I cannot see how we'll fit it and dd and cases etc etc in our car. SO I am lookig for a basic buggy to use while we are over there.

I have seen a few around, i.e mothercare had some for £35. I wondered if anyone has used these types of buggies before and what you would recommend to use or stay clear of.

I will be so grateful for any advice as I don't want to get one that she will be really uncomfortable in, or will be awful for us to push around.

If you want to stretch your budget a bit further to £50 I can thoroughly recommend the Maclaren Volo - I was recommended it on MN last year. It is extrememly light - much lighter than the other models on the market. It is easy to carry around with carry shoulder strap, folds small, mesh so dries quickly/lets air through if hot.

and have a look on kiddicare.com to see what's on special offer. they're v good, speedy delivery and they send you an email after you've ordered, entitling you to other one-off offers.

(they do have a volo in iris a nice purplish colour at 35.99 and the rain cover is 9.99, instead of 19.99)

I bought the very cheap mothercare own brand (no accessories but had swivel wheels) 4 years ago for DD at 11 months (to fit in overhead locker on plane for first trip abroad) for a princely £20, and it is still in regular everyday use. We sold our Chicco trekking (fab but too bulky) and our Maclaren fell apart after 18 months but this one goes on and on. So pick a colour you like...

I don't know where you are but in Cardiff you can get a Maclaren Volo for about #30 at Tescos. Its fantastic-really really light. I have quite easily carried ds aged nearly 11 months up and down about 12 flights of cobbled stairs (in Prague-up to the bloody castle) in it. Only problem is sun and rain protection. Our solution is a Mothercare parasol (can't remember price but around #10 I think)-that keeps sun and rain off pretty well.

What REALLY annoys me is that a lot of airlines won't carry light foldaway pushchairs as hand luggage. They carry laptops and all sorts of crap ffs, I mean I've seen people get on with huge souvenier bears three times the size of our little push chair. Last time we went abroad we had NO luggage except this pushchair and one small bag between 3 of us, the flight was practically empty and Easyjet still made us take it as hold luggage. BMI baby is just as bad.

Chicco do one, I cant remember the name but its red and about £30, look in the argos catalogue. I found a better version in, I dont live in uk and cant remember the name of the shop, its a really cheap shop in most shopping centres and it sells everything fom shampoo, clothes garden furniture. I know this is very vague but if anyone can piece it together its worth looking for because the pram is lightweight, has rain and sun cover.

We got the Mothercare one with the number on it (don't remember the name). It's £30 if I remember right. It's light and folds down neatly.

thanks for all these ideas. I will be sure to look at them all.

We bought the Mothercare £29 one (one up from the cheapest because it had a basket) and it lasted well although don't expect it to do duty for more than one child, it gets very hard to push once the wheels start to wear.

Mothercare.com has the Jive strollers for £30 - we bought ours 3 years ago and it has seen us through two camping holidays abroad; it's now into it's 4th summer and still going strong.

Woolworths do them for £15 - Lay back, with swivel wheels too, Now thats a bargain! Don't know what it 'drives' like, but you could always ask to try it out around the store.

I also recomend the volo as has every other munsnetter on here!