What to buy for travel with 3 yo

U

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I need to buy a new seat for airplane travel and car use at destination. Son will be barely 3yo and is around 70%ile height, 90%ile weight. Want something easy to install and narrow.

Younger son is 2.5 years younger and could eventually use this seat for travel when older son moves on to booster, or older son could continue to use it and we could buy something else for younger son when he is about 3. We have a smaller convertible that should last younger son until at least age 2. We travel about twice a year.

I saw recs for various Evenflo seats but am not sure if a convertible or combo would be better in terms of size, ease of use, and lasting the longest for our needs (within expiration date of course).

Thank you.
 
ADS
I'd definitely recommend a convertible over a combo for your purposes. There are some nice, inexpensive convertibles that would work well for you now. And when he's ready to travel with a booster in a few years you'll be able to pack something very small and light for him and use this convertible for your younger son.

A lot of people like the Safety 1st Guide 65 for travel. It's relatively light, narrow, and fits children up to 65 lbs and 52", so should last your son for a while. There are other good seats out there too -- look for something ideally no wider than 18.5" (for ease of use on aircraft).

Where do you travel? If you're generally staying in the States, this one should install easily for you. If you do much international travel, you may want to look into a seat with built-in lockoffs since in a lot of places the seat belts don't lock like they do here. But those seats tend to be more expensive and a fair bit heavier.
 
U

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Thank you. So far we've only traveled in the US.

We may travel to Central America at some point to visit extended family. I'm putting it off as long as I can due to safety concerns. A locking clip should work there though, right?

I'd love something like ClickTight, but you're right we don't want to spend that much, and it seems like those seats would be too bulky.
 
I love Central America! But haven't taken kids there yet. A locking clip should take care of installs -- I'd just look into built-in lock-offs for a travel seat if you planned to be out of the country fairly often. I really avoid locking clips, but not for a great reason -- my first time using one was a pretty tough install, and it was in Kenya, where the road safety is awful, so I felt the whole time like my child's safety was absolutely dependent on my getting it right! Ack, the pressure! So I was a bit traumatized by the thing. :)

The Clicktights weigh 30 lbs each, which knocks them out of the travel lineup in my book.
 
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What's the benefit of a convertible over a combo for a child who has outgrown RF?
 
What's the benefit of a convertible over a combo for a child who has outgrown RF?

There is no advantage if you know for certain you won't want to use the seat RF in the future. But the "light and narrow" for travel seems to knock out many of the combos. Evenflo Maestro is a light combo seat, at 11 lbs, and about 19" wide, and is a good possibility for travel but it only harnesses to 50 lbs so may not be the best option for you. Secure Kid harnesses to 65 lbs but is a little heavier and more expensive. In general, I don't really see an advantage to using a combo seat as a travel seat, as once the child is big enough and mature enough to use a booster, he or she should be at least 40 lbs and safe to use the plane's lap belt -- and it's much simpler to travel with a super-tiny backless or to pick up a light HBB, like the Turbo, that can be separated for easy packing & transport.

If you like the Evenflo seats, SureRide harnesses to 65 lbs and 54", weighs 10.5 lbs and is 18.5" wide -- it'd be less expensive to get one of these and pick up a BubbleBum down the road than to get the SecureKid. But any of these would be good picks for travel.
 

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