Traveling to Europe, car seat question

Unregistered · Apr 27, 2008

We're traveling to Iceland and Norway this summer and I'm wondering what to do about carseats. We will be visiting family so we will be riding in cars, but not renting one- so we can't rent a car seat with a car. Also, we'll be taking a rather long train ride and I feel that we need to be pretty public transportation ready- i.e. not bringing a car seat with us. DS will be almost 18 months. We'll probably be able to borrow a car seat in Iceland, but not in Norway. Any suggestions? Maybe there's a place we can rent just a carseat?

QuassEE · Apr 27, 2008

Because you don't know the history of a rented seat, I would avoid renting. Also, with rental and unfamiliar seats it can be difficult installing them in unfamiliar vehicles. At least with your own seats, you are familiar with the seat installation and you have a bit of an advantage when installing in strange cars.

How large is your 18 month old? Will he be small enough to fit into a 30lb infant seat at the time of your trip? That would be my advice--take an infant seat if you can.

-Nicole.

lenats31 · Apr 28, 2008

My advice to you is:

1. Bring your US carseat for ds.
2. Put it away once you get here.
3. Buy a Scandinavian Britax, HTS, Brio or Graco carseat. Scandinavia has the world´s probably best and safest carseat for children from 0-7 years old. some of our carseats here can seat a child up to 55 lbs and 6-7 years of age in rearfacing position!!.
4. Bring that carseat home to the US.

Well, maybe you will not make use of point no 4, because these seats have not been approved for use in the USA, just like US carseats are not approved for use in Europe. But some of us choose to ignore that:

Many moms on carseat-org would LOOOVE to be in your shoes

Lena

Adventuredad · Apr 28, 2008

Tough question. Over here in Scandinavia you can usually rent very nice rf seats at an affordable price. There's a place here in Stockholm that charges about $15/week for an excellent rf seats up to 55 lbs. I know you won't be in Stockholm but Norwegians are also good at car safety for kids so they might offer something similar.

I've never rented a seat myself, always brought rf sets with us. But I would have no problem trusting this store with renting a seat. You won't see any stained or crappy seat in this place. It's not like those ugly airport stories everyone is talking about.

Where in Norway will you be?

Edit: Great advice by lenats31. I LOVe the seats we've got over here. End edit

lenats31 · Apr 28, 2008

Norway has the same seats as Sweden.

Lena

Adventuredad · Apr 28, 2008

According to some forum in Norway a store called Babyshop will rent car seats. Someone mentioned that the seats are only for younger kids but I'm not sure what age that means. Send them an email and ask if they or anyone else can help you. Like Lena mentioned, the seats are like the Swedish and you can rear face until 55 lbs.:thumbsup:

lenats31 · Apr 29, 2008

Yes they have the same weight limits.

Lena

Unregistered · Apr 30, 2008

QuassEE said:
Because you don't know the history of a rented seat, I would avoid renting. Also, with rental and unfamiliar seats it can be difficult installing them in unfamiliar vehicles. At least with your own seats, you are familiar with the seat installation and you have a bit of an advantage when installing in strange cars.

How large is your 18 month old? Will he be small enough to fit into a 30lb infant seat at the time of your trip? That would be my advice--take an infant seat if you can.

-Nicole.

We have the Safeseat, but the straps were tight on him last time we used it- they were also on the second to the top position, maybe we had something assembled incorrectly? I think he's safely within the height/weight range.

Unregistered · May 1, 2008

Adventuredad said:
Tough question. Over here in Scandinavia you can usually rent very nice rf seats at an affordable price. There's a place here in Stockholm that charges about $15/week for an excellent rf seats up to 55 lbs. I know you won't be in Stockholm but Norwegians are also good at car safety for kids so they might offer something similar.

I've never rented a seat myself, always brought rf sets with us. But I would have no problem trusting this store with renting a seat. You won't see any stained or crappy seat in this place. It's not like those ugly airport stories everyone is talking about.

Where in Norway will you be?

Edit: Great advice by lenats31. I LOVe the seats we've got over here. End edit

We'll be in Oslo and then traveling- by train- along the south coast to visit family

Adventuredad · May 2, 2008

Send an email to Babyshop and see what they say. If they can't help they might still have an idea of other places you could rent. It would be a nice thing to bring a Swedish sat back though. Have you considered that?

Unregistered · May 15, 2008

Hi, I just found this conversation while trying to answer a similar question about traveling...

My husband and I are going to be visiting his family in Sweden in July. While in Stockholm we don't need a car seat, but we are also going to Arild, in the south of Sweden. I don't want to drag along a car seat if I can avoid it... what was the name of the shop you mentioned that rents car seats in Stockholm?

Thank you so much!

Gigi

Adventuredad · May 15, 2008

Hola,

There is a nice store called Säkerhetsbutiken, http://www.sakerhetsbutiken.se , which specializes in child safety of all kinds. It's located about 1 mile form center of the city. The site is all in Swedish but they do have a page where you can book a seat via email. You didn't mention how old your son was but they do have infant seats, regular rf chair up to 55 lbs. and booster seats. I would just send them an email in English and explain what you need. Everyone here speaks English so it's no problem.

Normally, I advice people not to rent seats. But the seats you will find here are usually of very high quality and not some worn out crap. But, I would definitely write an email to the store way ahead of time and ask them specifically what kid of chair you will be getting. Don't confuse this rental with the normal Avis, Dollar etc. rental where poor seats can be found.

Infants seats are about $15/weekwith deposit of $100-ish, regular rf seat $25/week with $250 deposit. In case you prefer rental from another store, I'm sure we can find other sources.

Please let me know if you need any assistance. And thanks very much for thinking about using a car seat for you son!:thumbsup:

Traveling to Europe, car seat question

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