Picking out the Right Double Stroller

Everyone who is expecting twins will go through the pain of trying to find the best double stroller.  It's a fact of life that no matter what stroller you look at you are not going to find one that is perfect, they all have their pluses and minuses, it just comes down to which ones you want to overlook.  After months of looking around at reviews, opinions, options, prices, specs, and going to different stores we more decided on the Mountain Buggy Duet.

When we were looking for strollers we had already booked our tickets to Germany, so we wanted something that could accommodate us on our trip.  We wanted something that wasn't a giant monstrosity, super heavy, folded well, but also not too lightweight and flimsy so it could handle a bit of a beating.  What sold us on the Mountain Buggy was the width of the stroller(or lack there of.)  It comes in at only a few inches wider than most single-wides and fits through pretty much any doorway, and we squeezed through some small ones without a hitch. Being shorter than tandems and narrower than every other side-by-side gives it great handling and makes going up curbs super easy.  We took our two test subjects(nieces) down to the store to try out a few strollers with some weight in them, when you are pushing an empty stroller they all seem like they handle great.  Once loaded up with two toddlers it was clear that the side-by-side handled way better than the tandems, and trying to pop the front wheels up on something like the City Select(our second choice) was far and away easier with the Mountain Buggy.  Our other major concerns with the Mountain Buggy were the weight and the lack of width for the future.  Our two test subjects aged 4 and 2, fit just fine, s owe figured we'd have no problem fitting the boys in for a few years.  The weight of the stroller is a big downside, however, I don't think you'll find a double stroller that is as light as you want it to be.  The Mountain Buggy is average weight for a double, so we'll just have to live with it.

If you take anything from this post it should be to take kids with you to the store, hell, you should take sandbags if you have to.  Without getting a real life picture of how it feels with some weight in it you shouldn't buy it.


 

Mountain Buggy Duet Double Stroller.

Travelling with Twins, Where to Stay? Hotels or Apartments

Hotels or Apartments, that is the question:   People would ask us before our trip how we were going to stay in a hotel room with our twins, as if it was the only option.  If you need someone to come in a make your bed and fluff your pillow everyday, you should probably stick to a hotel....if only it was that simple.  For us hotels can offer more than just some housekeeping, but apartments still give us the best bang for our buck.  Even with the boys sleeping in one crib and not needing much space to move around, we find even the more spacious hotel rooms don't quite have the space needed.  Even a studio apartment we booked through AirBNB during our Germany/Hungary trip provided much more space than a hotel, plus we had a kitchen and a washing machine.

There are some things though that hotels could provide that made us happy we opted to stay some of our nights in one.  A bed that isn't two twins pushed together is probably one of our biggest reasons to go for a hotel over an apartment.  After spending weeks sleeping on sub(american)-standard beds, a night on a good hotel bed felt a tad bit like heaven.  Hotels can give you an options for a much needed splurge, it is vacation after all. We stayed on the Regency Club Level room at a Hyatt in Germany and took full advantage of the breakfast and evening cocktail "hour," with snacks and free drinks.  Pools also make a hotel a worth option at some point, it's just nice to be able to go and have a dip in beautiful, heated hotel pool, the boys especially enjoyed those benefits.  Lastly one thing that we especially missed at times in our apartments this trip was some nice high powered, bone chilling, air conditioning.  Those Europeans and their energy efficiency sure are missing out when it comes to the A/C.  There are other small things like ease of booking/cancelling, easier check-ins, nice big lifts, and maybe a feeling of added security(sometimes),

Apartments though will be our main choice for accommodations.  It really just comes down to the extra space available and we can find somewhere with a washing machine. Especially next year when the boys are moving around and we have two cribs to set up, an average size hotel room just isn't going to cut it.  Sure you can get your clothes washed at a hotel, but for a price, knowing we have a washing machine where we are staying allows us to cut way down on the amount of clothes we are bringing, which is a HUGE plus. We used AirBNB for the first time this trip, and we are hooked.  It makes the booking process smooth, you get a good sense of what you're getting through reviews, and we found all of our hosts to be really accommodating and super easy to work with.  Two of our hosts even had cribs set up and some baby toys for us when we arrived, the whole AirBNB thing was amazing, I can't imagine using something else to book an apartment.  Places like Homeaway/VRBO seem to be such a hassle and booking upon arrival is just not an option for us anymore.  Our Italy trip is probably going to be mostly setup in advance and booked through AirBNB, but we'll probably also sneak in a couple hotel nights, just to lay on a huge king bed :)

If you click the AirBNB link to sign up you'll get $25 off your first stay(full disclosure: I would get a $25 referral after your stay)