Since Maya was born we have been using the stroller that came with her Chicco Travel System.  It has worked out well for us so we hadn’t bothered buying another one.  However, traveling with a big bulky stroller isn’t easy or fun.  Since we had a trip planned this summer that involved flying and renting a car we decided we needed to suck it up and plop down the cash on a light-weight stroller that would be more convenient for traveling.

Before making a choice I did a bunch of research online and had narrowed it down to a couple of different strollers.  We headed over to our local baby store and tried out a few of them.  After being pretty disappointed in the ones we tried we decided to try out a Maclaren.  I hadn’t originally wanted to buy a Maclaren as they were more money than I wanted to spend.  However, after trying out the Maclaren Volo in the store we decided it fit our needs, was really well made and seemed to handle well.  Since the price of the Volo was more than we had originally wanted to spend we decided to do some shopping around and were able to find it online at Albeebaby.com for a pretty good price.

The Maclaren Volo is the bottom end, bare bones model.  It does have a small mess bag under it for carrying a few items and has a really good sunshade for an umbrella style stroller.  You basically get a great quality stroller with only the necessities and none of the extras.  It doesn’t have any cup holders so we opted for the universal organizer, which provided us with two cup holders, a small mess pocket for storing small items like keys and a large mess pocket for storing larger items.  I’m glad we decided to buy the organizer as it has come in really handy so far, I would definitely recommend it.

A few of the things I really like about the Volo include the mess back on the seat  as it helps keep Maya cool during walks out in the hot St. Louis heat, the sunshade, the 5-point harness, the fact that I don’t have to hunch over to push it, and the ease with which it opens and closes.  The Volo weighs only about 13lbs so it is really easy to get in and out of the car, or to carry around if you need to (it has a strap so you can carry it over your shoulder).   I also really like how sturdy the frame of the stroller is, it feels like it’ll last a long time.

A couple of the things I don’t particularly like are how small the wheels are, how difficult the stroller is to push “off-road” (like on grass or gravel), and how tippy it is when there isn’t a child sitting in the seat.  The stroller manuvers really well on flat ground and turns on a dime but as soon as you get it on grass or gravel it becomes difficult to push.  If the wheels were a tiny bit bigger I think it would solve this problem.

Overall, my first impressions of the Maclaren Volo are good.  I’m happy with my purchase and feel like I’m going to get a lot of use out of this stroller so I don’t feel so bad spending more than I had originally planned.  And Maya likes it too.  She seems really comfy in it and I think she enjoys the better view of things she gets with the openness of the Volo compared with her bigger, bulkier stroller.