How does someone so small take up so much space? When babies are involved weekend trips look like a week long camping trip. And of course it's all stuff you need to bring - pack n play, clothes, diaper bag, stroller... I decided something needed to shrink so I started looking at travel strollers.
Originally I was comparing the Pockit Lightweight Stroller and the City Tour Stroller. The Pocket is the most compact stroller ever, but didn't like its lack of features and it had the saddest excuse for a sun shade ever. I almost got the City Tour Stroller. It had a nice compact fold and a lot of the other features I wanted, but the $200 price tag held me back. Then I moved on to comparing the Contours Bitsy and the Summer Infant 3D Tote Stroller. Our main stroller is also a Contours and I like brand loyalty. It folded up very compact like I wanted, but had a small basket that I didn't think would hold my diaper bag and another expensive price tag. The 3D Tote had a price point closer to what I was looking for, and tons of storage. But, it was an umbrella stroller which I really didn't want, because I feel like they take up too much room since they are so long.
Finally, I came across the Baby Trend Tri-Fold Mini Stroller and the Graco Jetsetter. Both were very similar. They had the price point I was looking for, and folded down very compact. The things I didn't like about the Baby Trend Stroller was that it didn't have an automatic lock when folded down. There was a hook that you needed to move to lock the stroller into the compact position. It also didn't have a bar (none of the other strollers above had a bar either - which I'll tell you below why that was important for me). I finally decided on the Graco Jetsetter, and so far I'm very happy I did!
The compact fold was one of the most important things to me. I love how easy it is to fold. I can do it with one hand, while holding Claire. It's compact enough that I can stick it behind the drivers seat in the car where it hardly takes up any room. The shoulder strap is also very nice, and makes it super easy to carry. I also really wanted a stroller with a bar.
In the reviews I read while researching, many people complain that the seat doesn't go up straight enough, well guess what, not many travel strollers do, it's not a problem just for this one stroller. Even with our big main stroller, the seat doesn't sit super straight, but I noticed that my daughter will use the bar to pull herself up and sit up, so that was an important feature for my stroller to have. We also only use the waist seatbelt so that she can pull herself up.
The other complaint I read about was that the pads on the straps are not connected so they can come off. Like I said, right now we're not using the shoulder straps so we don't need to worry about those, but the bottom pad I noticed could come off pretty easily when lifting baby out of the seat. So I actually stuck the bottom part of the cover into the hole that the middle leg strap comes through and it does a good job of holding it in place.
The basket is a nice size and easy to get to. I have a Land backpack diaper bag that fits in the basket perfectly. This stroller can also be turned into a travel system and used with any Graco carrier carseat. It has two pockets in the back where the carseat adapters are kept (we don't use this with a carseat as Claire is over 1 and our carrier car seat wasn't Graco brand), I use it to hold my phone, the shoulder seatbelt straps (in case we want to put those on) and a spare diaper (since sometimes we do on walks without the diaper bag).
Now, there are some things I wish were a little different/added. The first thing is that I really wish this had a peekaboo window. The canopy is huge and does a nice job offering shade, but I really wish they would have added a window in it to see baby.
The other thing people were complaining about was that the stroller felt flimsy. It obviously doesn't feel as sturdy as my big main stroller, but for an affordable travel stroller I didn't expect a rock solid stroller. It gets the job done for me, and I think it's fine for what I paid for it.
The last thing I wish it had, (I didn't even think of it until I was on a walk) was a bar at the bottom connecting the two back wheels. It's hard to get the stroller up or down from a sidewalk with a curb. Maybe the more I use it I'll figure out a better way to do this, but since there is no bar between the wheels I don't have anything to push against to lift the front end of the stroller up. It's not a huge problem, but something that I noticed (maybe in order to have a compact fold they can't have a bar - I don't know).
Overall, I really like this stroller and would recommend it. In my opinion the pros outweigh the cons and I'm glad I found a stroller under $100 that folds up as small as it does.
Komentar