Travel strollers are meant for—you guessed it—journey. When I began testing strollers, I assumed I might simply ignore this class for any objective in addition to long-haul journeys or flights. Travel strollers, additionally known as light-weight or umbrella strollers, have fewer options, since they concentrate on being as simple to hold as doable. For as small as they’re, they weren’t as low-cost as I anticipated. Some had been even pricier than strollers designed for on a regular basis use.

I ended up testing two light-weight strollers facet by facet: the Nuna TRVL, a $500 journey stroller, and the Joovy Kooper, a $250 light-weight stroller. The Joovy got here with extra options for half the value, together with a spot for me to place my water and keys, which just about no stroller I examined had.

So why cannot I cease utilizing the Nuna TRVL? After all of the strollers I examined, I spotted that just one characteristic actually mattered to me: How simple it was to fold. 

Stroller Shopping Strife

There are tons of stroller sorts on the market. There’s jogging strollers, conventional strollers, metropolis strollers, double strollers, wagons, and even trike strollers. Last however not least, there’s the journey or light-weight stroller class.

Every class guarantees various things, forcing you to navigate the query of the way you stroll round together with your baby. Do you must undergo numerous subway turnstiles? Find a stroller with a slim profile. Looking to haul numerous stuff? Get a wagon. 

These questions make it sound easy, nevertheless it shortly devolves into evaluating specs with a magnifying glass and additionally attempting to foretell what your life will appear to be within the coming months. This applies notably when you’re purchasing whereas anticipating—and particularly if that is your first baby. 

What will your life appear to be with a new child? How a few bigger child, or a toddler? Who will you be? What will you want?

When I used to be looking for a stroller, I targeted an excessive amount of on what was appropriate with my toddler automobile seat, and whether or not it had toddler choices. I additionally needed to spend as little as doable after additionally shopping for a crib, mattress, automobile seat, sound machine, and playpen. And then my child grew out of the toddler stroller after utilizing it only some occasions. Even as somebody who compares merchandise for a dwelling, attempting to navigate stroller purchasing felt overwhelming.

The Power of Fold

My child is a yr previous now. In that yr, I’ve tried almost each form of stroller, and I found that an important characteristic to me was how simple a stroller is to fold and carry.

There’s a couple of the explanation why that is the case for me (and won’t be the case for you). I stay in an house complicated that has a brief however steep staircase between myself and the bottom stage, with no accessible ramps. I additionally realized that I’m not that coordinated. The final thing I need to do whereas balancing my child within the parking zone is bend over and unfold my stroller from the bottom, or decide it up from the bottom after folding it to pull it down a set of stairs.

Enter: the Nuna TRVL. My favourite factor is that this light-weight stroller virtually folds itself—I push the deal with buttons and provides it a lightweight push, and it folds itself ahead right into a standing fold. The handlebar that my son chews on sticks up, so I can have my child in a single arm and seize this stroller within the different. It weighs 13.6 kilos with out the cover or arm bar. I take advantage of each of these issues, which makes it barely heavier, nevertheless it’s nonetheless simple to hold one-handed down the steps. 

The TRVL does not have any particular options past its light-weight functionality. It does not have the flexibility to show the kid to face backward. While it may possibly work with Nuna’s toddler automobile seat with out an adapter, Nuna does not promote adapters for every other automobile seats to work with the TRVL, so you possibly can’t use it together with your Graco or Britax seat. It does not deal with bumps nicely, and it solely has undercarriage storage. It’s twice the value of the Joovy, which has extra storage choices and extra toddler automobile seat compatibility.

If you might have a storage or an accessible walkway, you won’t discover the TRVL to be as helpful as I did. The Thule Shine (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is a greater, well-rounded stroller that is only some kilos (21.6 lbs) heavier than the Nuna TRVL, and it additionally folds standing up. But these few kilos actually matter to me. The TRVL is uniquely nicely fitted to my house dwelling and coping with staircases. Now that my son faces ahead, it is all we want for errands or walks to the park. 

The hardest half about first-time parenting is realizing what you do not know. Babies are solely little for such a short while. If I may return and speak to my pregnant self, I’d inform myself to fret much less about an toddler stroller, and to be prepared with the Nuna TRVL as soon as my son was able to face ahead.