8.17.2022

Why We Didn't Love the UPPAbaby Vista (and what we got instead)


I wanted to get this quick blog post together (hi, yes, still blogging... kind of) because I had a few questions about why we decided to get rid of our Vista stroller and what we are using instead.


When I was pregnant, I decided to register for the UPPAbaby Vista as our everyday stroller. Mainly because all my friends had it and everyone I knew raved about it. It was originally going to be the gift from my parents but a friend of mind gave me hers and another friend gave me their Mesa car seat (that attaches to the UPPA), so we totally lucked out and were able to save a lot of money thanks to both of them!

And in the beginning, the UPPA was great. We would take it on nice strolls around the neighborhood (we loved using the bassinet attachment), would use the car seat attachment in a pinch/when we weren't going to be somewhere long, and even brought it with us when we would drop of the baby with my in-laws.

So what we used it for was great. And it is a great stroller. No one is saying otherwise. But I don't know if it was right for me.

It wasn't until we transitioned from the bassinet to the toddler seat that we hit a bit of a snag. My friend, who graciously gifted her stroller, didn't have the toddler seat. Which to me was no problem! I'd just buy it on my own. And it turns out I would have to buy all the replacement parts to construct the chair myself and I think it was around $250 in total to make this seat (which is the cheapest anyone has ever paid for a UPPAbaby Vista lol).

What stopped me from checking out (I had it all in my cart) was a review of a travel stroller from my friend Jess. It was a pretty cool stroller and seemed to check off some boxes that the UPPA didn't: easy to fold, easy to grab, lightweight, small footprint. But did I really need another travel stroller?

Right now for travel, we have the Doona car seat/stroller and we love it. We have used it for travel and it's been great. But it will only last us until the baby is about one year (if that) due to weight and height limits. So what happens after the Doona? Another stroller for travel? Because I would never travel with the UPPA. It is seriously way too big.

I decided to leave the decision up to Andrew: stick with the UPPA (and maybe down the road need to buy a travel stroller) or just use this travel stroller as our everyday and travel stroller? And in a surprise to anyone reading this, we decided to go with the UPPAbaby stroller. 

That is until we took it on vacation. 

We were at the beach for the first half of August and relied on the UPPA as our main stroller. It was our first really true test with it out in the wild and not around town. The storage is great and the ride is smooth, but it took us all of going to ONE restaurant to decide to get rid of it. 

The thing is, it's just too big and rather heavy. It's not easy to just pull in/out of the car, to set up, to hold/carry... anything. And then inside the restaurant? We didn't fit between tables/chairs. I could hardly fit in the elevator and there was a single step I had to go over and it took three of us to lift it up. So in the car ride home I ordered the travel stroller

We had to wait until we got home to use it so I will say this review is fresh and still very new, but I'm really happy with our purchase. I think it just fits our lifestyle a lot better and I personally feel more comfortable using it when I'm on my own too. I love how easy it is to fold up, how small it is to store, and how LIGHTWEIGHT it is with and without the baby. I mean the fact that I can store it in the back seat is a real game changer. I can pop up and down steps and curbs with ease, and it's just a lot easier to get around.

Indoors the ride is about the same: smooth. Outdoors the UPPA is a lot smoother in terms of absorbing the shock for bumps but only by a small margin. Like if the UPPA was a 10/10 outside, the Nuna would be a 9/10 (the Doona like a 4/10). The storage is obviously nowhere near the same as the UPPA, but it does have good storage overall. UPPA 10/10, Nuna 8.5/10, Doona 0/10.

And what I really love about this stroller is that this will be it for the baby -- I was even telling Andrew today that we'd take it to Disney in December and it would be great to have and use. It also comes with a bag for travel so you can wrap it up before gate-checking it (the UPPA I can't imagine gate checking and for the Doona, you have to buy the bag separately).

I was even thinking for the next baby: would we want to keep the Mesa (which we love) and therefore keep the UPPA to use again for the newborn stage? I thought long and hard about it until I found out that the Pipa (our second choice car seat) fits into the TRVL stroller as is --without any extra clips/equipment. So I was sold. And just like that, we became a Nuna family (our convertible car seat is the Nuna RAVA that we bought during the Nordstrom sale)!

I'll have to show you guys more on stories comparing the two strollers and why the TRVL stroller is our winner so keep an eye out for that on Instagram!


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