Travel cots - confused

[SundayGirlB]

I'm trying to balance being a tight git and getting a decent travel cot. We will need to use one at least 4 times a year. We had a horrendous night in a hotel with a travel cot recently - the the mattress was just a board with flimsy material over it.

I've looked at the Red Kite which seems cheap and practical but then all the reviews said the mattress is terrible and it needs a travel cot mattress to go with it.

My question is really are these travel cot mattresses safe and would not defeat the object of a lightweight travel cot if you then have to cart a mattress around too?

What has everyone else done and any travel cot recommendations?

tbh we just asked hotels to give us an extra blanket & sheet and used that on the floor as bed for baby.

I wish I could advise op , we hired a red kite one on our last holiday and our little boy refused to sleep on it as it was so hard.

We ended up putting a spare single mattress on the ground beside our bed.

We used an extra mattress in this country but you aren’t supposed to. Actually when we forgot it little one was fine. We have the red kite and I would say check dimensions as it’s quite short compared to others and she outgrew it quite early.

We must have used six or seven different ones and all of the mattresses have been similar, thinly padded boards. We've always just folded up a cellular blanket under the sheet for extra padding.

He sleeps awfully on the usual travel cot matress, we tried adding sheets etc. Anyone know of any comfy ines

Ones not 'ines'...

We have a hauck travel cot and have bought the separate hauck mattress for this reason. The mattress folds and has its own carry bag. Its a bit bulky but has been fine when we've just thrown it in the car. I have also seen travel cots which have inflatable mattresses, but have no experience of using one.

We have the redkite and got a kit for kids travel mattress that folds in 3 places. It wraps nicely around the cot for transport and gives good padding as the redkite "mattress" is essentially thick cardboard.

I bought a foam mattress that I was able to roll into a hold-all. It was a bit of a faff, but worth it for a decent night’s sleep. Once they were older I invested in a Bundle Bed.

We have a kind of super thick, padded mattress topper that we're got from John Lewis. Squashes down small, so does in a suitcase alongside other bits, and adds a comfy layer on top of the mattress.

We used one like this. Much better than the standard travel cots

www.littlelife.com/products/travel-eat-and-sleep/arc-2-lightweight-travel-cot

I have used a large blow up travel dog bed before. Works 3ell but can't remember where from

We ordered an extra from an online store which make to measure, think it was about £30 for a folding one that had its own bag. We used it in the travel cot then as a ready bed type thing on the floor when needed with bedding until they were about 3 or 4 so had our monies worth!

We ended up ordering bunk bed mattresses from the same place 3 years ago never had any issues with their products.

Think it was baby mattresses online.

Same as @HippoRampage for us. We have a fold up mattress for our Hauck for travelling.
We also bought a proper cot mattress for it as he went through a phase where he wasn’t keen on his big so he slept in the hauck for a few weeks!

*big cot