Baby Gear for Travelling Babies | City Stroller Rentals

Remember those days when you gallivanted around the world with just a purse and fairly stuffed suitcase? Yeah..add two kids and you’re lucky if you get even a third of the suitcase. Long gone are my many shoes and purses that accompanied me on my travels and instead I carry diapers, car seats and plenty of baby clothes.  I love to travel light.. anything more than a purse and I dread the fact that I have to lug it around and that I must not forget them at various place – the plane, shopping kiosks at the airport and ofcourse the duty free booze store. So when City Stroller Rentals invited me to test out their baby gear services I was curious to see what it was all about.

When it was just the Little Monkey I sucked it up and traveled with a car seat and umbrella stroller during our travels but now with Baby Boy we have double the gear and with many airlines charging for even the first checked baggage, things can get pricey. For our Los Angeles trip I discovered the awesome services of the every so attentive City Stroller Rentals and I don’t think I’ll ever travel with any of our gear! Sure I could have taken atleast one car seat on board since we bought a seat for the toddler but having to wheel that (remember our TravelMate I still love it) and the excess hand luggage would have been a bit difficult and a royal pain the arse.

Disclaimer : I received complimentary services but as always the opinions are totally mine! 

A couple weeks prior to our departure I booked two car seats and a double stroller and the rest was taken care of. A representative followed up promptly and even gave me some advice on which stroller would work best for us based on the fact that we had a newborn and a toddler, By the way, they’re on Twitter. You know how I like my socially active brands!

According to their website items are delivered by 10 a.m. and picked up by 6 p.m. and if you need the items the night before you should order a day ahead (and pay for the extra day) but we were renting a car at midnight! YES midnight! This did not seem to pose a problem as the lovely representative was there to greet us and even provided us with some tips on how to install the gear and maneuver the stroller. All paperwork was signed prior to me leaving home (digital signing is awesome!) so that meant there was no paper work to haggle with which was a blessing given our late night arrival and two cranky kids.

As you can see from the pictures the little ones were quite happy in their extremely clean (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY cleaner than the ones we own!) car seats. It took the toddler a little while to get used to the new stroller, mainly because she wanted to walk everywhere but it was the only way I managed to sneak in a few naps during our days at the theme parks. We’re still debating on which stroller we’ll get so this was a great test run for us. I definitely know that the one we rented was great for our travels but not for our city living lifestyle. 

The car seats were absolutely necessary as we did a roadtrip to San Luis Obispo and also because things in Los Angeles are spread out. However, the stroller was only used on three occasions; at the theme parks and our walk on the Santa Monica Pier. Sure we could have rented a stroller at the theme park (City Stroller is actually one of the Disneyland recommended vendors) but the challenge there is that they can run out (or the station may be closed as it happened the day we were at Universal) and ofcourse I’d be a bit cautious about the cleanliness.

City Stroller Rentals not only sources new items but they also maintain a strict policy when it comes to sanitizing the items and being aware of any recalls. I found this out through my chat with the representative who delivered the goods to us. Between each use all non-cloth items are steam-cleaned and sanitized with a non-toxic environmentally friendly antibacterial disinfectant. In fact they follow the same guidelines that California licensed child care centers are required to follow!

So I guess you’re wondering about the costs right? On average the items sit at about $60 for the week though some items are cheaper. They have a range of strollers, car seats and pack and plays on offer and you get to choose everything through their online form. Expect a quick turnaround to any questions you may have and attentive personal service. I decided last minute to check into an airport hotel the night before and there were no issues in leaving the gear at the concierge station for pick up by the City Stroller Rentals team.

City Stroller Rentals covers a few California counties and Orlando as well – major cities for family friendly travel. How do you usually travel with all the gear? Have you ever used a gear rental company on your travels?