Travel Baby

This article has affiliate links but only because I love and personally use these items!

The Doona car seat stroller plus the Guava Lotus (especially with the bassinet is my favorite travel combo. To me, these two items are absolutely essential when traveling with a baby. 

The first time I really appreciated the Doona was when we were in Nashville without a car. We had used it as our daily car seat but I hadn’t thought too hard about it up to that point. We called an Uber to bring us from the airport to the hotel. I strapped the Doona into the backseat and sat in the back. It was a normal car ride until my son started to cry a little bit. “There’s a baby in the car?!” my Uber driver exclaimed. I had buckled the Doona in so quickly he didn’t even notice we had a car seat in the back! 

A similar thing happened with the Guava Lotus bassinet. After checking four bags, flying to San Jose, grabbing our bags from baggage claim, and an hour drive to Santa Cruz we were finally at my family’s house. “Where’s the baby going to sleep?” my aunt asked. I pointed to the rectangular suitcase and she was shocked. “A crib can fit in there?!” Not only a crib, but a bassinet!

Why I love the Doona

When I started doing stroller research, I was truly appalled by the cost of some of these strollers. $400 for a stroller? At that point, I wasn’t even convinced that I needed a stroller. As far as I was concerned, I could just carry the baby. (Now I know that is definitely not an option.)

Enter the Doona. It is sort of cute looking with its small profile, especially compared to the Uppababy Vista. I love how versatile it is. You can push the stroller handle backwards and forwards or even down if you’re in a small space like an elevator. It has a smooth handling and you can rotate it 360 degrees on a single point if you need to (and I’ve found that I’ve needed to several times). 

But the biggest selling point for the Doona is that you can strap it in the back of a car without a base. I have the base installed in my car for everyday use. But strapping it in with a seatbelt has been incredibly helpful when traveling. Whether it’s an Uber, renting a car, borrowing a family member’s car, or just carpooling with someone else. It’s been a complete gamechanger. I feel bad when I see other people hauling their carseats through the airport while I’m pushing mine around with my son inside.

Is Doona worth the price tag? I think it is. My thought is that your baby will only be a baby for so long. Might as well make your life as easy as possible. The Doona is one of the baby items where I would happily pay the price again (or perhaps even more?). 

Why I love the Guava Lotus

Similarly to the stroller research, I did not understand why the Guava Lotus was so expensive. You can get a Graco pack-and-play for around $150 and it includes a changing table, newborn seat, and even toys on top. On the other hand, the Guava Lotus is around $250 without any bells and whistles. It even costs an extra $150 for the Guava Lotus bassinet! 

Have you ever seen anyone put together a non-Guava Lotus? It is a horrific sight. I had the unfortunate experience of putting one together and it took almost half an hour to get the bars right. The Guava Lotus is incredibly easy to put together, you just connect the star bars and the moon bars (for both the regular and bassinet). Then you’ve got a pack-and-play!

I used the Guava Lotus bassinet daily once I brought my son home from the hospital. We have a small bedroom and it fit snugly between my bed and the wall. This is compared to something like the Halo BassiNest which is truly massive. When we wanted to hang out in the kitchen or living room, we would just bring the bassinet with us, it was that easy to transport. 

But I did not truly appreciate the Guava Lotus bassinet until I traveled to Nashville. That’s when we finally packed the bassinet back in the bag (incredibly easy) and took it with us on the bus to the airport. We had four different bags with us (traveling with a baby is difficult!) but the bassinet was not a big hassle to carry. It just has such a small profile when packed up. We didn’t need to worry about parts breaking on the plane either.

The next trip we went on was to California. We made four different stops in Santa Cruz, Redwood City, San Francisco and Sacramento. This meant plenty of unpacking and packing up again. This was when my son was a little bit older and no longer needed the bassinet. Once again, having the Guava Lotus saved the day. It gave my son a stable place to sleep (it’s hard for babies to bounce between different cribs). Plus when we wanted to hang out in living rooms or kitchens, it was really easy to just fold it up and bring it to the next room.

Conclusion

If you’re a traveler, you’re going to want to get the Doona car seat stroller plus the Guava Lotus. It just makes traveling so much easier. And when you have a baby, it’s all about maximizing ease.

PS Want more tips on how to travel more on credit card points? Check out The Ultimate Beginner’s on How to Churn Credit Cards and Award Travel