Nuna - Turtle Air Series

Same situation here, living in a city and without a car. We were prioritizing getting a good and reliable stroller for the baby and decided on the Bugaboo fox 5. But we do want to take a few road trips over the summer during our paternity leave and probably also fly so we just looked up the car seat that works with the stroller base (Nuna turtle - 250$), it can be clipped in any car with the seat belts and on arrival attached to the stroller - so the bassinet doesn’t have to be carried too.

Nuna makes an awesome infant carrier we just got two bases

My brother and SIL had kids first in our family. My SIL is a little boujee and wanted Nuna everything. I had my son a year after their daughter so they lent my their Nuna carseat and bassinet with base and gifted me the Nuna stroller. I was appreciative but thought $1k for all that mess was excessive. I would not have sprung for it had it not been gifted. I really loved it though. It was so easy. I've lent it to friends. Our Nuna stuff has gone through 6 babies so far. I now have baby #2 5 years later. The infant car seat has since expired so I sprung for a new Nuna so it would fit with the whole system. She sleeps in the bassinet downstairs during the day and I just click that into the stroller for walks then I switch it out with the car seat to go somewhere. The stroller is really nice because even though it's big and heavy duty it travels really well. It's great for just getting over mixed terrain. My friend who borrowed it last wanted a smaller lighter stroller but ended up borrowing mine and using it more because it handled so much better on bumpy roads and terrain. Anyway I'm thankful for my boujee SIL because she was right and it was made my life a lot easier.

Bring your own car seat. I've been travelling all over with my baby since he was 6 months and we always brought our car seat to put into taxis and ubers. We use the Bugaboo Turtle Air: https://www.bugaboo.com/us-en/accessories/car-seat/bugaboo-turtle-air-shield-by-nuna-car-seat-400016MI.html Its super light and hooks up to the car seat straps in less than 10 seconds. If you buy the Bugaboo stroller (we use the Butterfly: https://www.bugaboo.com/us-en/strollers/bugaboo-butterfly/) which is a super lightweight travel stroller, it has a connecting adapter so it just slots in on top of the stroller. This system has worked for me, taking my baby all over the US and one trip to Dubai last year.

We have the Nuna Turtle - little on the heavy side but a great carseat. Compatible with the bugaboo kangaroo

We have the UPPAbaby Cruz, a bugaboo butterfly, and had the bugaboo turtle air until it was damaged by TSA. I considered this a complete system and I loved it. The Cruz is perfect for big long walks and the bassinet was a lifesaver. The butterfly is great for keeping in the car and travel and any nuna, clek, or maxi Cosi will work with it. We love our butterfly so much that we considered switching to the fox but I don't like the fold in comparison to the Cruz. I would definitely recommend squeezing in the butterfly as part of your system if you can. A lightweight stroller is a godsend. Go for the Cruz since it's cheaper if you can to help with getting the butterfly. And depending on when you're due, maximize sales. We got the Cruz for $525 and the bugaboo turtle air for $325 (they were clearing out stock before coming out with the latest one a few months later). With that you could definitely add the UPPAbaby bassinet and the butterfly and stay within your $1500 budget.

Why not the turtle air? Isn't it basically the same as the nuna but branded for bugaboo? I had the one before the current one and when I had an issue (TSA damaged it, nothing with the car seat itself) I emailed nuna still and they were very helpful so I don't see the difference

Oh that's not true! I thought that before I got one too but it's the same as the Nuna so it works with any stroller that uses the same adapters as nuna, clek, or maxi cosi

Our nuna car seats are hands down the best. We’ve bought cheap brands for travel + the maxi cosi’s for grandparents cars to compare. The nuna feels the sturdiest, highest end, and the thing doesn’t budge. It’s also incredibly comfortable and grows with your kids.

For us, no. We have the Nuna. Babies just hate being confined. Mine screamed every time she was in her seat from 4 months to 9 months! We played around with the Chicco and Cosco seats too, to see if any would help (nope - they didn't!). We ended up switching to a Britax One4Life around the 4 month mark to give her more space and so she could sit up more and see the world, but still dealt with screaming. Same thing happened to my friend who used both the Chicco and Graco systems for their two cars. They will eventually grow out of the screaming - we tried to bring a lot of entertainment and snacks to distract her and it helped immensely. She's just over 2 years old now and chills in her carseat for trips so it will get better, I promise you!

I’m a CPST who has installed hundreds of car seats and dealt with every company’s customer service. Nuna is top tier.

That’s why I feel like Nuna is a waste lol. The evenflo are very very very easy to install, so it doesn’t make any sense to buy extra bases, and they don’t even make them actually