The UppaBaby G-Lite Umbrella Stroller – an Amazing Travel Stroller that will make you very happy you didn’t choose the Maclaren Volo

UPDATE – 4/12/11:  It’s now a year later and our UPPAbaby G-Lite Stroller has now traveled with us to Canada and Aruba, too, along with plenty more use at home.  After our flight home from Aruba last summer, it no longer stood on its own.  We emailed UPPAbaby to ask if there was anything we could do to fix it.  They responded by sending us a new one!!!  Now THAT is what we call customer SERVICE!  Not only has this amazing response confirmed our love affair with UPPAbaby, but it gave us a chance to see some of the updates they’ve made to this already amazing umbrella stroller. 

Some of the changes seem small and not necessarily better (not worse, either).  The one big difference we noticed is the sunshade.  It has gone from being good for an umbrella stroller to being AMAZING.  The new sunshade now features an extra flap that extends out to provide fabulous coverage – better than most full-sized strollers!  We are SUPER excited to use our new UPPAbaby G-Lite when we fly to Canada soon.  We already loved this great, lightweight umbrella stroller and now a great product has become even better! 

We seriously cannot recommend the UPPAbaby G-Lite umbrella stroller enough.  Between the light weight, the removable (washable!) seat cover that you can take off in the event of an accident and still have a seat, the high handle height that makes for comfortable pushing and now this huge amazing sunshade we are sure you will love this stroller as much as we do!  In fact our plan for a double travel stroller?  Two UPPAbaby G-Lite strollers attached with Munchkin Stroller Links, Black

Original Review:

We have a giant full-sized Cadillac of strollers for at home and local road trips.  We LOVE our UPPAbaby Vista and have used it a ton.  But it also weighs close to a ton and fills up at least half the trunk (boot), so we knew we wouldn’t want to take it with us when we went to New Zealand.

So, we started hunting for an umbrella stroller.  We considered the ever popular MacLaren Volo but we were seriously underwhelmed by its miniscule sunshade and the seat seemed much less than comfortable.  We’ve been extremely satisfied with UPPAbaby’s customer service so we looked into their offerings.

UPPAbaby is based in the USA and make both a G-Lite and a G-Luxe umbrella stroller.  The G-Lite was lighter (as you might expect).  In fact, it’s the lightest full-sized umbrella stroller available in the US at only 8.3lbs. (3.76kg).  It also has a carry strap that goes over your shoulder.  It stands when folded – which we found useful in our hotel room.  The sunshade isn’t massive, but is much better than the ones we saw on most other umbrella strollers.  Steering was easy and the stroller handled bumpy sidewalks much better than we had expected, so apparently the advertised 4-wheel, shock absorbing suspension really does work.

But,  by far the G-Lite’s best feature (and the one that really sold us on it) is its seat.  It has a padded seat which is (hopefully) more comfortable than the thin nylon seat you get with most umbrella strollers.  Comfort is great, but the best thing about the G-Lite’s seat is that it’s attached with Velcro.  If, for any reason (say, coming in contact with a baby/small child) it gets dirty – you can take it off and WASH IT.  AND – it gets better.  There’s a mesh seat underneath – so you’re never left without a stroller even when Junior turns into a vomit/poop/pee spraying machine.  This came in handy during our trip – not once, but TWICE.  VERY nice feature.  (And no, UPPAbaby isn’t and never has paid us a cent to say these things).

We got the very handy UPPAbaby G-Lite and G-Luxe Stroller Rain Cover , as well.  It’s super easy to use and came in very handy during windy weather as well as on rainy days.  It has a convenient little flap you can open so that if it’s only drizzling or just windy your little one can get some extra air.  It was reasonably priced and we would definitely recommend it.

The UPPAbaby G-Lite and G-Luxe Stroller Travel Bag seemed annoyingly expensive to us till we got it.  It’s really heavy material and we can’t imagine it getting torn even with what airports put your luggage through.  It kept the stroller protected and clean and was super easy and comfortable to carry.  We’re happy we sprung for it.

All in all, we’re extremely pleased with how the UPPAbaby G-Lite Stroller has preformed.  We now use it all the time and we’re sure we’ll continue to travel with it for a long time to come.