Top kid travel gear: GoGo Kidz Travelmate

This post is part of a series on top kid travel gear.

As I've written previously, we prefer to gate-check our car seats, even when we don't bring them onboard the plane, to minimize the risk of any damage issues. Unfortunately, car seats are pretty bulky and heavy, making them a royal pain to lug around the airport.

Enter the GoGo Kidz Travelmate. It's a set of wheels that attaches to a convertible car seat, allowing you to wheel the car seat around the airport. So easy!

I first bought the Travelmate back when Littles was 11 months old. We were in the process of moving from California to Texas, and had a month where Littles and I were still living in California, but Hubby had already moved to Texas. During that month, I had two trips back-to-back that I had to take alone with Littles. For the first trip, I stuck her car seat inside our full-size stroller so that I could wheel it around the airport. That worked OK, but when we got on the parking shuttle, I had to pull the car seat out of the stroller, fold up the stroller, and put the stroller and car seat on to the parking shuttle. Then I had to reverse the process upon arriving at the airport. Repeat the process and then reverse the process when clearing security. And so on. Did I mention I was also trying to keep track of a newly walking Littles through all this, not to mention all our other bags?

So, on our way to the airport for the second trip, I stopped by Babies R Us and picked up a Travelmate. It provided the same mobility as the stroller, but was much faster to set up/break down (just raise/lower the telescoping handle) and less bulky overall.

A couple of tips and quirks regarding the Travelmate:

• We have the older version (UNIQR). The Travelmate attaches to the car seat by means of two thumbscrews.
• There is a newer version as well (QRKIDZ), which offers a quick-release strap with a buckle, in place of the thumbscrews. GoGo Babyz sells the quick release strap separately, so we recently got one. I'll update my review of the Travelmate after we've had the chance to travel with it!
• We have used both a Britax Roundabout and a Cosco Scenera with the Travelmate. The Roundabout attaches more securely than the Scenera does -- so it does work a little better with certain car seats. (Note: The Scenera is only compatible with the UNIQR version.)
• The car seat + Travelmate does not fit through the x-ray machines at most airports. We ask TSA to hand-scan the whole thing, to avoid removing the Travelmate from the car seat, because with the UNIQR version, it takes some time to take it off and put it on. TSA is usually happy to comply with the hand scan request.
• You can install the car seat + Travelmate directly into the airline seat. The orange wheels have quick releases on them, so you can quickly remove them when installing the seat and then replace them at the end of the flight. (Do not install the car seat + Travelmate in the car, as the Travelmate is not crash-tested.)
• Once Littles got bigger, we found that it was better to remove the Travelmate from the car seat onboard the plane, because when it was attached, it put her a little bit closer to the seat in front of her for kicking purposes! Not good!
• I wouldn't recommend using the Travelmate as a full-time stroller at your destination. For starters, it would mean removing and then reinstalling your car seat every time you wanted to use the "stroller." Also, I just don't feel like the Travelmate is sturdy enough to take the abuse that a stroller takes. It would certainly work in a pinch, but I wouldn't plan on walking for hours with your kid in it.
• Along the same lines, I should point out that we don't typically travel with a stroller at all. We use a baby carrier (such as our Ergo) for kid-hauling duties at our destination. If we did actually need a stroller, I think we would ditch the Travelmate, and just wheel the car seat around the airport using the stroller, like we did in our pre-Travelmate days. Then we'd have it to use at our destination. But since we don't need the stroller, we're able to travel a lot lighter by relying on the Travelmate and Ergo instead.

Bottom line? We never, ever, ever fly without our Travelmate. I think it's a great investment for any family that flies frequently, especially if one parent needs to travel alone with the kid(s). That said, at $90 new, I don't usually recommend it to families that don't fly frequently, especially if they're planning to bring a stroller anyway. If you're only flying once or twice a year (or every few years!), you can probably put up with just dragging the car seat around for that trip.

Strolling

Closely related to the car seat decision point is the decision about whether or not to bring a stroller when flying.

For some families, I'm sure, the answer to "Should we bring a stroller?" is as emphatic of a yes as our answer to "Should we bring a car seat?" But we really aren't a stroller family in general, preferring to babywear instead. With both kids, I've used a Moby Wrap in the early months. Around 4 months of age, they've both transitioned into an Ergo carrier, which is nice because Hubby will wear it as well as me. (He says the Moby Wrap is too "girly." :)

That means we don't really need a stroller at our destination.

Now, strollers can make it easier to navigate the airport, since they're a convenient place to put the car seat -- which we always bring, as I mentioned in my previous post. When Littles was in the infant seat, we brought a Snap-n-Go stroller frame. The infant seat hooks into the stroller frame. The frame itself is lightweight and easy to deal with, so we didn't mind bringing it along, even if we only used it in the airport.

We brought our travel system stroller (Graco Metrolite) along on the first few trips after Littles moved out of the infant seat, but we quickly discovered that it was more trouble than it was worth. As I mentioned in the car seat post, we stuck the car seat in the stroller to wheel it around the airport, but this meant we had to do a lot of unfolding/folding of the stroller -- when getting on the parking shuttle, when going through security, at the plane itself, when getting on the rental car shuttle at our destination...

Instead, we purchased a GoGo Kidz Travelmate, which is a set of wheels that hooks onto a convertible car seat. This was perfect for us. It allowed us to wheel the car seat easily around the airport, but it was much easier to deal with than a stroller. Then, at our destination, we simply used the Ergo when we needed to transport Littles. On our vacations, we tend to go a lot of places that aren't stroller-friendly (crowded aquariums, hiking trails, etc.) so we really don't miss the stroller.

We went back to using the Snap-n-Go with Noob's infant seat after his arrival, but now that he's out of the infant seat, I fully expect that we'll go back to flying stroller-less. It's certainly not for everyone, but I find it much easier to travel without a stroller!

No stroller? No problem! Noob in a mei tai wrap (Littles was in the Ergo) on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park (8 months old)

To car seat or not to car seat

Littles snoozing in her infant seat + Snap-n-Go during a layover in Atlanta (3 months old)

Another key decision point that we make on each of our trips is around car seats. Specifically, should we bring a car seat with us? If yes, should we check it with our bags, gate check it, or bring it onboard?

The answer to the first question has always been straightforward for us: Yes! We have brought a car seat on every single one of our trips. Most of the time, we rent a car on the other end and do a significant amount of driving. Rental car companies do rent car seats, but it's usually expensive (around $10/day), they are not guaranteed to have an appropriate seat when you arrive, and the seat may be in very poor condition. It's much less stressful for us to bring our own.

Once we're at the airport, we do different things with the car seats depending on the situation. Our general rule is that car seats do not get checked with luggage. Reason being, if the car seat gets lost or damaged, we would be stuck in a strange airport with no way to transport our kid. And that would suck. (We do sometimes check it on the way home, since this is less of a concern.)

This means that we've needed an easy way to get the seat to the gate. Car seats are fairly bulky and heavy, so wheels are the way to go:

• Littles was in her infant seat until 10 months of age. In this phase, we traveled with a Snap-n-Go stroller frame. This made it easy to navigate the airport with the car seat.
  


• When she moved out of the infant seat, we initially brought our travel system stroller (Graco Metrolite) and simply stuck her convertible seat in the main part of the stroller. This was much easier than attempting to carry the car seat around the airport. It was not sturdy enough to place Littles in the car seat while we wheeled it around, but we usually had her in a baby carrier anyway. (We use an Ergo.)
  


• After a few trips with this setup, we realized that we were almost never using the stroller anywhere besides the airport. So we started leaving the stroller at home, and purchased a GoGo Kidz Travelmate to attach to the car seat.

Once at the gate, we gate-checked the seat if Littles did not have a seat. But as I explained in a previous post, we opted to purchase a seat for her on every trip past 10 months of age. So when she did have a seat, we brought the car seat onboard. We found that she did really well sitting in it, probably because she was used to it from the car.

Around her second birthday, she discovered the joy of kicking the seat in front of her. Unfortunately, the car seat put her in the perfect position to do just that. She was also starting to do activities that required the use of the tray table, like color, play with Playdoh, and watch DVDs, and her car seat did not allow the tray table to fold out fully. So her last trip in the car seat was at 27 months. These days, she sits directly in the airline seat, which gives her full use of the tray table and prevents seat-kicking.

When Noob came along, he was also in the infant seat until about 10 months of age, so we pulled out the Snap-n-Go again for use with his seat. We continued to use the Travelmate for Littles' seat.

We haven't traveled yet with Noob in a convertible seat, but we plan to put him in Littles' old convertible seat, using the Travelmate. For Littles, we recently purchased a Safety First Go Hybrid Booster seat. It is super lightweight (less than 10 lbs) and folds into a small bag for travel. I think it will be a lot easier to deal with than a second convertible seat on a Travelmate! I'll be sure to post a review of it after we do travel with it for the first time.

Updated July 2011: We now travel with Noob in a convertible seat (Britax Roundabout) on the Travelmate, and Littles in a Go Hybrid booster seat. That combination is very easy to transport! Here is a link to my review of the Go Hybrid Booster.