TRAVEL · Travel Strollers
When you fly with a family our size, the everyday stroller stays home — you need one that folds small, survives a gate-check, and pops open one-handed while you hold a baby. The travel stroller we chose is the Graco Ready2Jet — compact enough for the overhead bin, light enough to carry through a terminal. Here's what we bought, plus a few others we seriously considered.
What We Chose
This is the travel stroller we actually pack when we're flying. The Graco Ready2Jet folds down small enough to gate-check or slide overhead, it's light enough to carry one-handed through a terminal, and it still gives the baby a real ride at the other end.
A travel stroller should be light enough to carry one-handed, fold compact enough to gate-check or stash overhead, and still give a smooth-enough ride for real naps on the go. Below the one we chose, we've rounded up a few others we considered for different trips and budgets.
What We Chose
$189.99
Mom loves: that it collapses one-handed and I can carry it up the jet bridge without setting the baby down.
Check PriceAlso considered:
$550.00
Dad loves: the Doona going from car seat to stroller in one motion — no separate stroller to lug, perfect to gate-check.
Check PriceAlso considered:
$499.99
The kids love: the Maxi-Cosi Tayla Max because there's room to stash snacks, jackets, and everyone's odds and ends.
Check PriceAlso considered:
$159.99
Our oldest says: the Mompush Wiz is comfy and the bassinet mode is cool for the baby, and it didn't cost a fortune.
Check PriceAlso considered:
$119.99
Grandma says: the little Kolcraft Cloud Plus is light as a feather and folds up like an old umbrella — easy for me.
Check PriceAlso considered:
Also considered:
Also considered:
From Our Family
Nothing teaches you about strollers like a gate agent's face when you roll up with the full-size one. We'd flown with the big everyday stroller exactly once — folding it took two people and a knee, it barely fit down the jet bridge, and it came back off the plane with a wheel pointing the wrong way. Somewhere between the security line and boarding, with a baby on one hip and Will asking for the fourth time if we were there yet, Dad said what we were all thinking: we needed something that actually flew.
So we started packing the Graco Ready2Jet, and it solved the exact problem. It folds small enough to gate-check without a fight, and small enough to go overhead on the roomier planes, which means it rides where we can see it. It's light enough that one of us can carry it one-handed up the jet bridge with the diaper bag on the other shoulder, and the one-handed fold matters more than we expected when the other hand is holding a squirmy little one.
Honestly, the others each make a real case. The Doona is brilliant — car seat to stroller in one motion, no separate stroller to carry — but it's the priciest of the bunch and heavier to hoist, so it never quite became the travel pick. The Maxi-Cosi Tayla Max is roomier and does everything, which is exactly why it stays home for road trips where trunk space is free. The Mompush Wiz and the little Kolcraft Cloud Plus are perfectly good backups, and Grandma swears by the Kolcraft's featherweight fold. The Ready2Jet just won on the combination that mattered in an airport: it packs small, it still gives the baby a real ride, and the price didn't make us wince every time we handed it over at the gate.
Disclosure: EightTakes may earn a commission when you shop through our links.
