Chicco - KeyFit 22

We went with Chico bravo stroller and car seat system and been liking it so far. We live in an urban/suburban area. It is pretty heavy, but folds up/unfolds quick and easy. I like how sturdy both the car seat and stroller are though. Not great for “off road” purposes which we discovered at an Apple orchard last weekend 😂 but I’m not sure there would be a stroller that would be good on unpaved surfaces. If I’m wrong let me know!

I would skip the travel system. Buy a car seat and a stroller that you like. A lot of brands have adaptors to fit whatever car seat you want (I think Chicco is the exception here - they don’t have adaptors for their strollers). We got a Chicco bravo/keyfit travel system with my oldest. He HATED that seat and we switched him to a convertible seat by 5 months. We reused it for my second and she ALSO hated it. I got a nicer Graco seat for her and it changed everything. We also weren’t huge fans of the Chicco stroller but it folded easily and was one of the few at the time that had an adjustable handle height. We ditched that stroller for a nicer one (mockingbird) with #2 (I suggest starting with a single to double stroller if you want to have more kids in the future) and the nicer stroller had a universal car seat adaptor, but we only took her in the stroller in the car seat a few times. I primarily babywore whenever we went shopping and the stroller is just for walks. You can skip the bucket seat all together if you want and go straight to a rotating seat (we have the Chicco fit360 and love it), the bucket seat is just convenient for taking into the doctors office or wherever when they’re super fresh or getting them buckled in inside in the winter/summer.

Eh my kids never slept through taking the bucket seat out of the car so that wasn’t really a concern of mine when swapping to a convertible seat. The bucket seats are just convenient because in those super early days you want to be able to set baby down somewhere (outside of the house) easily to fill out forms or do shopping but you don’t want to set your newborn on the ground in the doctor’s office, so having the bucket seat is really nice. My kids just hated the *chicco* bucket, my daughter loved her Graco one. The chicco one always had her chin on her chest even when the bubble level said it was in properly and I think she just couldn’t breathe well. It may have been that way for my oldest too but we were inexperienced and didn’t know better. For the stroller, I just suggest building your own travel system instead of buying one already paired up. Travel sets force you into buying a car seat you don’t like because you want the stroller or a stroller that’s mid because you like the car seat. But so many brands of strollers have adaptors to work with other brands of car seats so you don’t have to compromise on either. I only mentioned Chicco because they’re the only brand I know of that doesn’t have adaptors for other brands (Graco is usually their main competition but I think even Graco has adaptors for some brands)

How many kids? What kind of car seats? How tall are you? We had a chicco key fit rear-facing mounted in the middle of the back seat and it was totally fine. We’ve changed to a chicco swivel one mounted behind the passenger seat and, as a tall person, I don’t really fit in the passenger seat anymore. But, that car seat and base is enormous.

I had an infant car seat then switched to rotating convertible at 4m and wish I went with convertible from the start. We never used the infant car seat as a method of transportation if you want to call it that, it always stayed in the car and we just took baby out into stroller or carried her home or baby wore. Our main stroller is the UB vista and our infant car seat was the Chicco key fit and our convertible was evenflo 360.

Chico key fit is one of the top rated car seats on consumer reports. (#2 I believe) and affordable. I got the jogging stroller that is compatible and we love it. It’s very maneuverable and the large Wheels are great for sidewalks. It’s much smoother than other strollers we have with smaller wheels.

Yes - this is the answer. Thank you. We didn't know we could install the car seat without the base. We have a Chicco Keyfir with the Uppababy stroller and this is a perfect solution

This is the answer. Thank you. I had no idea I could use our car seat without the base.

We have the Chicco keyfit system- two car bases, the car seat with the infant insert, and stroller base. It was about $400 and we’re set to transport her around for at least 18 mo-2 years in the car and even longer in the stroller. My issue with the bassinet attachments on strollers is the baby is only in it for a few months- after that it’s so impractical to store somewhere! This has worked really well for us so far, and we got it based off of 2 separate parents with 6 kids spread across them that recommended it. Another plus is that the car bases are relatively inexpensive- making it easy for my parents to get one too for babysitting.

Look up Ruvalino on Amazon. Lots of color options, lots of storage, and best of all, not expensive (and they also run sales all the time). For the car seat/stroller we got the Chicco Corso/Keyfit system. Still use the stroller now that my kiddo is almost two! I went with recommendations from friends who are parents and have passed these to newer parents and we’ve all had good experiences without overspending.