Compact travel-friendly stroller recommendations
 

Looking for recommendations for a compact travel-friendly stroller. Our current stroller is a full-sized convertible pram bought during the height of the pandemic when we thought we would not be able to safely travel in the near future. While we are not looking to actually replace our current stroller for home use, we are not against the idea. What features should I look out for in a travel stroller and what seemed like a good idea but were actually not that useful? I am currently looking at the gb Pockit+ All Terrain. Our baby will be approximately 16 months next summer when we plan to travel with her to Canada.

I used the City Mini until my little was 6. We travelled all over with it. I loved how easily I could fold or open it with one hand.

We used intensively the babyzen yoyo+. Super light, fits in the overhead luggage bins.

We found that simpler was better. While it’s been well over ten years since we last bought a stroller, we traveled with our daughter in her stroller until she was 11 years old (and in her car seat until 13 years old which we carried through each airport).

While we know nothing of the current range of strollers, our suggestion would be to look for something simple, durable, and safe. Most importantly, we would recommend considering how the stroller can help you travel. When our daughter outgrew her first stroller, I remember we spent a long time looking for a replacement that would be suitable for traveling. We started with a long list of features we wanted for our daughter and ourselves (recline, canopy/hood, compact when folded, etc.) but the more we looked, and later tested, those things became less important. Instead, we found that durability, sturdiness, and simplicity were much better.

We found that the more features, storage, and options a stroller had, the more likely it was they’d become inadequate solutions for certain things and/or excuses to be less organized. We ended up choosing the Maclaren Major which was (is?) very basic – an umbrella type stroller with no canopy, no complex folding, nor attached storage features. While it was the opposite to what we had thought we wanted, once we had tested and asked our daughter if she was comfortable in it (which she was), it made the most sense.

Being a simpler design, it was very sturdy and durable, and along with having less parts, the chances of serious damage was pretty low. It also helped us to minimize what we took with us, and created a consistent and simplified routine where we wouldn’t be resting jackets over it, sliding bags onto the handles, or taking too many things for our daughter which we might drop or misplace. The only storage it had was a basket underneath the seat (which, being a much larger stroller designed for older kids, was quite large). Perhaps most importantly, it was also very safe (obviously all reputable strollers pass safety tests but not all are equal!); the folding mechanism was really solid and the footplate locked the stroller open. It also had a 5-point harness (which, having seen too many kids jump out of strollers, tip them over, etc., we always adjusted and buckled properly. Before she was 9 years old, our daughter was buckling herself in the stroller and reading her book before we’d left the jet bridge!).

It might sound overly simple, but we found that the simpler the stroller, the simpler our luggage, and the simpler the rules, the easier and better traveling became. We always made sure to use her stroller as much as we could through the airport; the only times she wasn’t in it were going through security and getting on and off the plane. That meant we knew she was safe and happy, we knew what we could take with us, and we knew our routine which we could focus on - especially in new places. With a complicated stroller with lots of features, it’s unlikely we could have simplified our traveling as much as we did with a simpler stroller. While a stroller is obviously only one thing of many, thinking about how it can help and simplify things might be a good way to approach your choice.

We were fortunate that our daughter traveled very well (most of the time!), but some kids will obviously not want to sit in a stroller, so it may take some working out what works best for your situation. We hope this helps!

ditto. I used bungee cords to keep it closed Plus I then put it into a red travel stroller bag. Easier to leave on the jet bridge.
i loved city mini by baby jogger so much :-)
the perfect convenient form factor for open/close. Wow!

I also couldn't use many umbrella strollers since they were too short for me. The City Mini was the perfect height

Have also used the babyzen yoyo+ with our little guy. Real nice being able to throw in the overhead bin on a longer flight. When traveling we use the car seat adapters as we typically get our son and have him sit in the car seat. Makes the whole process pretty seamless. When folded it also has a little shoulder strap you can use to carry. Folding is pretty easy. As I would imagine with most compact travel strollers it doesn't work great on non-paved surfaces.

Evenflo - Hummingbird, Uppababy - G-Luxe, GB - Pockit. these are compact but also affordable. Got mine from littlecanadian site. GB Pockit is my choice cause it can be strolled through all sorts of terrain.