I love my McLaren buggy but it does take up a bit of room in our car boot so on our recent holiday I thought about a roof box but at around £400 decided to see how much a holiday buggy would cost. At £35 the Trip buggy from Mamas and Papas seemed ideal.

What is great about the Trip buggy is how light and compact it is. It weighs 5.8 kg and measures just 26 x 23 x 103 when folded. So what did this means for us? Well it fitted with a bit of a squeeze straight along our boot although for convenience we put it on the floor behind the front seats. This left plenty of room for the wee man in his car seat and all our other bags and toys! Also quite handy if you are planning to take a few bottles of wine back from France.

We bought the bluebell Trip which is a nice shade of blue. Our son was very happy being pushed around in it. For comfort we bought the pack which included a parasol and padded seat. I have to confess we didn't use the padded seat although I think had we had the wee man in it for long periods we probably would have done. As we were in France in August the parasol was a must. It did the job but I did miss the better protection the McLaren provides. At £35 the Trip is great value for money but the additional pack which was in the sale was almost the same price.

The Trip buggy has nice foam handles which are comfortable to hold. They are not adjustable however and this did cause my tall husband a bit of an issue if pushing for a while. Even at my 5 foot 4 height I would like the handles to be a bit longer so this buggy may not suit a tall couple. On our holiday my husband did the hard up hill pushing whilst I did the downhill and the flat.

Although the buggy has no sunshade it does have a small net basket underneath the seat which is handy for storing sun lotion. The seat doesn't recline back as the McLaren does but my son was happy to nap in the upright position. We also used the buggy as a high chair when no high chair was available. The seat and straps were fairly easy to clean with a quick wipe down. The buggy has a standard 5 point harness which was easy to use and felt very secure.

Folding and unfolding the buggy was pretty straight forward. The bar in the middle of the back just needs to be pushed down. I found this easy to do with my hand although it was a bit difficult to reach with my foot. A major advantage was how light it was to carry as we felt we could take it everywhere with us.

Overall I am happy with this purchase as it does make a good holiday buggy and I will certainly take it with me when I fly to Scotland to see my relatives there as it will be a lot easier than the mclaren for lifting on and off the security x ray. It is a bit disappointing that the additional extras are almost the same price as the buggy itself. My advice here is to look for the extras in the sales. My son also seems happy with this purchase too which I am pleased about as I thought he would find it less comfortable than his usual Mclaren. The Mclaren does give a smooth ride but the Trip buggy did cope fairly well off road and over cobble stones.

A very handy holiday buggy although probably better suited to the more vertically challenged.