10 best lightweight strollers for stress-free and compact travel

4 hours ago 1

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With their shrunken footprint and easy manoeuvrability, travel-style buggies can make life run more smoothly for city dwellers and frequent fliers alike. Just as these folding, compact strollers can become small enough to fit into overhead lockers, they can also be stored away without much hassle – great for those with tighter living spaces.

Like many parents, we bought a larger buggy ahead of our baby being born, not considering at all how cumbersome it might be on public transport, or how much space it would take up in our London home. We resigned ourselves to having to buy a cheap travel buggy separately to take on flights, along with the separate running buggy we had accumulated, too.

In reality, living in the city meant we only really needed the larger buggy for the odd occasion where you want to pile the basket full of shopping or take on especially muddy paths – and even that’s just for convenience, it’s not essential.

The wheels of a compact buggy can make uneven surfaces trickier to navigate, but if you live in a city and are far more likely to traverse public transport than you are a country lane, a compact travel buggy can absolutely be the only investment you need to make.

The models suitable for everyday use tend to have a comfier seat, suspension, a decent recline system and the option to add accessories, such as a footmuff or bassinet. Something to watch out for with these buggies versus traditional travel systems is that the accessories you’d expect to be included are often sold separately, such as footrests and rain covers, which can make the cost mount up.

How we tested

Over the course of three months, we put a range of compact strollers through their paces, with the help of our one-year-old and a three-year-old tester. We tested in all weather conditions and graded the buggies on ease of fold, weight, handling, look and feel, and durability.

Why you can trust IndyBest reviews

Chloe Hubbard is the UK editor at The Independent, overseeing all UK editorial departments, so she’s a voice you can trust. She’s written several review features for IndyBest, specialising in parenting, and has meticulously researched the different aspects of a stroller that are important for parents.