Super Travel Thingy

When I was a kid I remember being pushed about in a 'push chair', a simple tubular metal framed McLaren thing with a blue and white hammock like seat cloth thing. I remember younger babies being carted around in a 'pram', which was essentially a big basket with a handle on four wheels.

We started looking around for prams in late 2008, was somewhat taken back ever so slightly by the enormous range of products on offer. I used to cart my brother around when he had his first and was looking for a pram of his own so I had some experience of it, but it's just not the same as looking for yourself.

I thought we'd go to a couple of shops, try a few out and then go order it offline for a cheaper price. Naively I thought all this would be done in a day, maybe two at the most. Such a headache, and with the advent of baby car seats over the past 10 or so years things have become ever more complicated. Let me explain...

These days prams are not called prams, they are 'travel systems'. Maybe this is something to do with the new digital age; everything has to be a system of some kind. Anyway, we looked at quite a few 'travel systems' over a couple of months. Things we considered when choosing:

• sturdiness
• practicality
• reputation (good reviews)
• price

With regards to sturdiness we saw quite a few three wheelers, which seemed a little to unstable for our liking; they had a tendency to sway from side to side and didn't feel well put together.

Practicality looked at size, weight, storage areas for baby things as well as shopping bags. Most travel systems offered some form of under carriage storage with the main difference being capacity/load. Others felt as if they would be slightly unstable if a changing/travel bag was hung around the handles, while some offered storage for cups and snacks. One of the main things here was maneuverability which related to the size and weight of the travel system. I would say I'm over fairly average build, probably slightly stockier than some and 5'8" tall, while my wife is 5' and quite petite. What's comfortable for me, isn't for her.

Reputation is matter of opinion for most. Essentially though you can use to quickly judge which products to avoid and which may be of particular interest. As with most user reviews, it is common place to find negative opinions and less positive ones; people tend to make a bigger fuss about something if it doesn't work too well or have bad experiences. However, certain official reviewing sites/organisations like 'Which?' work towards making an unbiased review of a product and this can help set aside any doubts for a particular brand.

There's quite a lot of brands out there at the moment, companies that have been in business over 30 years and newer brands still in their infancy. Various brands have different selling points and generally cater to particular audiences. For example, Britax simply produces baby equipment such as prams and car seats and thus have a reputation for producing quality baby equipment for many years, as do McLaren. On the other hand you have newer brands such as... [I seem to have forgotten the names, let me go check] ... Bugaboo, oBaby and iCandy (Apple anyone?). Some are tailored for practicality and robustness, where others seem to be a fashion accessory for parents, with disk brakes, fancy tyres and alloy wheels.

In the end we went for a Britax Voyager Ultra that came with a carry cot, car seat and push chair. The car seat and carry cot can be used in conjuction with the push chair by laying the seat down flat and clicking either the car seat or carry cot into place. This is a bit of a beast of a pram and I feel slightly bad for suggesting it as I think my wife will find it quite difficult to push around. It's got a handy undercarriage load capable of carrying upto 7kg and it's sturdy enough to place a changing/travel bag on the handlebar. It's also got a little cup holder and a snack compartment on the handlebar.

Price was an important factor and once we'd decided on the Britax, we started looking around some more for better prices. Eventually we ordered ours from Mothercare for about 225 in sale. I think that particular model has now been replaced by a newer (lighter?) version. The main thing for us was that we felt our baby would be safe in it.