Rue

NGL, if you are very in the go… you will want an infant car seat that clicks into a stroller. Eventually yeah, you need to switch to a convertible seat but it takes so much longer to get baby in & out in a regular seat. The difference is that with a stroller system, even when baby outgrows the *car seat* the stroller will continue to work — with the doona, when they’re done with the car seat the whole thing is done with. However, even when baby is done with the car seat, you might want a more light weight stroller that cannot be used from birth (although if the car seat clicks in, you can). I have a Joie ginger + rue. It works!

I have the Ginger and Rue. I can’t comment on the DLX because my baby was born way before it came out. Imo, the canopy on both suck. I got the Rue over the mint because I wanted a base for my own car. My understanding is they came out with a base for the mint. If the mint could be used with the base in my car and just with the latch for grandma’s car, then imo it would be 100% worth it. The rue *can* be used baseless but I haven’t done it & don’t really plan on it. There was a two week period I swapped cars with my mom & moving the base was annoying. If my car seat had the latch, I would have just left the base. Whenever my parents babysit, I leave my car because of the base but if the seat had the latch, it would be a non issue.

The canopy is quite small on the ginger and the rue, imo. My friends with the Uppababy and Nuna car seats have much better canopies for the babies to nap on the go. I’m generally not a fan of Nuna but they have this nice flap that comes down to really give the baby cover

Honestly, most of the car seat *can* be used without a base, it’s just inconvenient to do (at least I think so). That’s why I said I haven’t done it & don’t plan on it. The selling point of the mint latch is it installs without a base via the latch system the bases will typically use without needing the base so it’s super easy to move it between cars. But you’re still dealing with pulling out the latch anchors so I can see why the desire for a base would be desirable in the car that you’re using every single day. But for grandma’s car? Then yeah, having the ability to use the latch without a base is very, very convenient

What about the Joie Rue or Mint Latch Carseats and the Joie Ginger LX, it has a bassinet mode. Joie also has a good amount of strollers that offere different features. We started out looking at Chicco but soon we became disappointing in the types of strollers they offered and then found the Joie Lineup. Joie is owned by the same company that owns Graco and Nuna and are very well known in Europe. We ended up buying the Joie Mint Latch and Nutmeg combo from target so we have a small easy one hand fold stroller thats light and we also plan on picking up the Joie Ginger LX or new Ginger DLX to have the bassinet mode for a newborn and when we go to Disney World.

The Joie Rue car seat and Ginger Stroller/Travel system. This stroller has a flat bassinet to use when you don’t use the car seat, and that bassinet transforms to be the stroller seat sitting up as they get bigger. 10/10 would recommend. The flat part (in addition to being an actually safe sleep space for infants) works great as a changing table when you’re out or in a place with no changing table in the bathroom. My husband and I rave about it all the time.

I'm personally buying the joie ginger and rue travel system, and to be completely honest I chose it because I couldn't find an extra carseat base for the graco travel system I wanted 🤷🏾‍♀️. I spent months refining my registry and by the time I got to the carseat/Stroller I was just over it and picked one that had good ratings, was cute, had a video on how to put it together, and had an extra carseat base I could buy

We love our Joie Ginger! We got the Ginger LX with the Rue car seat combo, which has a base. They also have an option to pair it with the Mint, which is a baseless car seat. The LX stroller has a few more features but if you wanna save a little bit more you could get the Regular Ginger. They have a few other stroller models that are also worth looking at that are all a little different.

We loooove our Rava, but are so glad we didn’t spend $400 (at the time) on an infant seat since our baby outgrew it at 6 months, so that is something to consider! The Joie Rue is also super light weight but so much more cost effective for something you will only use for about a year if you’re lucky.

I know you say you could make it work with that big stroller but… no. When real life happens, you’re not gonna wanna go up and down all those stairs twice. You’ll barely have the energy to do it once. Especially taking public transport and plans to travel, would say go for the joolz aer2 or the silver cross nia if you want the bassinet option. If a bassinet is optional, Silver cross clic also works with both nuna and joie car seats without adapters and has a newborn recline. Out of the options you mentioned, I’d go nutmeg over the Ginger DLX. But for your situation 100% don’t go for a heavyweight stroller.