The perfect umbrella stroller
June 9, 2015
I have poured over hundreds of reviews, blogs and watched an obscene amount of videos, obsessed find the PERFECT travelling stroller. (Well, I've come to found that there is no such thing, but the City Mini Zip comes pretty close with a few
The City Mini Zip is almost the same size as the regular City Mini, but the material is a bit thinner (making it lighter) the footprint is significantly smaller when fold. This will be great for us when we take DS out to dinner, the BJ City Select, which we love, is rather large to store at restaurants. It's a lightweight stroller with the benefits of a full sized one. There is a reasonable sized basket for storage underneath. The canopy is HUGE compared to any other stroller that we've seen, the downside is there is no peek a boo window, but the canopy is huge and it has SPF 50 which is key for our upcoming Disney Cruise to the Carribean.
A HUGE bonus is that it has a belly bar, which I've found that a lot of the travel strollers do not have. I don't know why, because DS LOVES holding on to it- he grabbed on and pulled himself forward, as soon as I snapped it on. I wish the bar would swivel open, so I don't have to put him in behind the bar or take the bar off completely to get him in, but again, I rather have it than not. For some reason, the belly bar is not available on the Baby Jogger website.
The recline is very nice, almost flat, so I'm confident DS will be able to nap comfortably when we are old all day on port excusions. I wish that there was a lever to engaged the recline instead of the drawstring, thus making it a two handed operation. The footrest is nice, so DS's little legs aren't just dangling there, which he really did not like in the Armadillo. I also like that the bottom portion of the seat can be adjusted, so his legs can be straight when he is napping.
We have the Britax B-Safe car seat and it is compatible with this stroller, so it makes convenient to use when our DD arrives in October!
The wheels are small (5.5 inches) and made of a hard rubber, which makes it a noisier ride than our BJCS. When I tested it out in our historical city, it did not fare well over cobblestones or uneven pavement, but this isn't our everyday stroller so I'm ok with that. However it maneuvered beautifully in Whole Foods and we got by some displays that we normally would avoid with the CS. The one handed steering is great, I don't have an issue with the buckle in the center of the handle bars as others have.
The brakes are straight forward, red on the right for lock and green on the left for unlock, I have not had issues with it sticking as others have mentioned.
I like that baby jogger finally threw us a bone and gave us a cup holder, however it protrudes from the side of the stroller and I can't image using it for something other than a closed container. I think a starbucks coffee would spill after the first bump you hit.
The downside so far was this is our SECOND Zip in 24 hours! The first one, a piece of the frame cracked and flew off when I folded it, so I took it back to the store to exchange for another one. So far this one is holding up well, but I've only had it for the weekend, so only time will tell.
I think we might have achieved finding the 'almost perfect' travel stroller, less a few minor grips, but I'm always finding any excuse to buy a new one so this one will suffice for now.
This product review was collected by the manufacturer.