Best Baby Strollers

There is a lot of buzz about Bugaboo strollers, especially since they are favored by Hollywood megastars like Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow. Sure, movie stars can afford to drop nearly $700 on a stroller, but what about the rest of us mere mortals? Does the Bugaboo Gecko really live up to all the hype surrounding the brand?

First of all, let’s be honest. Unless it’s plated in 24 karat gold, no stroller is worth $700. However, the Bugaboo Gecko does have some advantages over the competition. The Bugaboo Gecko is definitely cool-looking, and it does have a lot of nifty customizable configurations. For the base price you’ll get the Bugaboo chassis, bassinette, stroller seat, and a few other bells and whistles.

The Bugaboo Gecko’s bassinette is detachable and it comes with a mattress that is comparable if not nicer than many other baby beds, so you can use it as your baby’s primary bed for the first few months. Both the Bugaboo Gecko’s bassinette and stroller seat are reversible, so baby can face you or look out at the scenery. The Bugaboo Gecko’s chassis is also quite a marvel. Bugaboo has designed the Gecko’s chassis to convert from a more maneuverable form, suited to the city or the mall, to a sturdier all-terrain form for long walks over mildly uneven terrain. By all accounts, the Bugaboo brand of stroller has the smoothest ride of any brand out there. Every single review I have read mentions how easy the Bugaboo Gecko is to push and maneuver.

All that being said, the very customizability of the Bugaboo Gecko is also its downfall. On the Bugaboo website, there is a “3D Movie,” designed to illustrate all the possible modes of the Bugaboo Gecko. I’m fairly sure it is supposed to be an exciting bit of marketing, but, frankly, the whole thing made me feel a little sick. As the Bugaboo Gecko transforms from one form to the next, little red arrows indicating the direction of adjustments and where to make them start popping up. In some instances, there were half a dozen little arrows flashing in various locations across the Bugaboo Gecko’s frame. I felt like I was getting ready to play a video game instead of operate a stroller. Also, the Bugaboo Gecko’s stroller body kept disappearing in the video while the chassis was contorted in various ways. I couldn’t help but ask myself where the stroller body is supposed to be while you are adjusting the frame. You certainly couldn’t hold it since it clearly takes two hands to fiddle with the Bugaboo Gecko’s chassis. What’s more, where is your baby all this time? It seems like it takes an awful lot of work to use all the Bugaboo Gecko’s fancy features.

Ultimately, the Bugaboo Gecko is like a lot of things that are popular among Hollywood’s elite. It’s pretty to look at and fun to use but value is out of the question, and you’ll need some hired help to make the most of the Bugaboo Gecko.