We have taken 3 Europe Trips with our two boys, ages ranging from 4 months to 6 years and each time required a different combination of car seats. This post is sharing my top three lightweight car seat choices I recommend you consider for international travel with children ages one year and up.
To start, I want to emphasize you check the manufacturers notes to make sure each seat I am recommending is suitable for your child’s height/weight.
Lightweight Car Seat Option 1: Cosco Scenera
The Cosco Scenera is an amazing value for travel (under $75). It is certified for use on an aircraft, extremely lightweight (less than 8lbs) and easy to install. We used it exclusively for travel, and worked well until my toddler was 3 and outgrew it. We used a regular car seat bag to transport it and since the Cosco Scenera is so compact, we typically could also fit a booster or extra diapers/jackets in the bag as well.
Lightweight Car Seat Option 2: Ride Safer Vest
On our most recent Europe Trip (see full itinerary here), my youngest had outgrown the Scenera but was not ready for a booster. I did a lot of research on options for this age and landed on the Ride Safer Vest. My hesitation was the price tag and if it would be worth it for our 1-2 trips of air travel a year. However, we were determined to not take an extra piece of luggage on this last trip just for car seats. The Ride Safer Vest for my youngest and the Bubble Bum Booster for my oldest, meant we could easily pack the car seats in a carry-on duffle. After losing a car seat bag on a trip to Italy, it also gave me a piece of mind that we would arrive with a car seat at our destination.
We also have itineraries where we have a car for a portion of the trip, but are also using public transit. It is nice to have really small car seats to be able to take along for the day if we need to use a taxi – or for a transfers from our hotel/vacation rental to the airport.
There is a little bit of a learning curve with the Ride Safer Vest. I recommend fitting your child at home and doing a few test runs before taking it on a trip. It is not as efficient as buckling into a booster, but doesn’t take more than a minute or two to install if it’s fitted properly. The best fit was also when my toddler was in the Ride Safer vest and a booster. Some of our transfers had a booster included and so we would leverage that too if it was available.
Lightweight Car Seat Option 3: BubbleBum Booster Seat
The BubbleBum booster was another great addition to our most recent three week trip to Europe. It was our first time having a child in a booster internationally, and the one we use at home by Diono is very bulky. The BubbleBum is lightweight, compact, and easy to install (just takes one or two breaths to inflate). I also really appreciate the seatbelt attachment which anchors the seatbelt to sit on the childs shoulder. When my youngest outgrows the Ride Safer Vest, we will just travel with two BubbleBum boosters. The colors are fun and the price is under $50.
For context, at home we use the Diono Radian, Diono Solana, Maxi Cosi Magellan and Nuna Rava. While these car seats are great once installed, and receive amazing safety ratings, they would be hard to travel with (and are not all certified internationally).
Side note: We have not rented car seats with our rental cars. I have always worried we would not be offered the right one for my child’s size, hard to use, or worse case – the rental car company could not provide one.
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