Inglesina Trip Review

The Inglesina Trip has a smooth stroller with rear wheel suspension. It offers padded shoulders, a 4 position back recline, and a padded bumper bar for better comfort. The Trip includes many extras like a cup holder, rain cover (standard), peek-a-boo window on canopy, soft ergonomic handles, large sun shade, and an under the seat storage basket. This stroller has an easy to use one hand fold, is self-standing, and comes in 6 different colors.

Performance Comparison

Ease of Use

The ease of use for this product was better than average with only 3 others scoring higher. It has a few items that other products we reviewed considered accessories, or didn't have at all.

Storage

The Trip has a storage beneath the seat that is average in size. The bin can be

accessed from the back and sides, and it can hold an average size diaper bag. However, the maximum storage space can only hold 7 pounds, so you will still need to pack light. You cannot access the storage bin when the seat back is in any reclined position, but this was true of most of the strollers we looked at, so it shouldn't be a reason not to buy this one in particular.

This product also has a storage pocket on the back of the canopy that closes with a hook and loop flap. The pocket isn't very big, but it can hold keys, phones, or wallets for easy access. It was a nice addition and only one other product we reviewed had a similar space for parent supplies.

Sun Shade
This product has what we called a large canopy, at least compared to others. The shun shade snaps to the back of the seat and covers just the top of the seat. When the seat is reclined, the canopy snaps can be opened for increased ventilation. There is a peek-a-boo window located in a good spot for viewing while pushing, and it is easy to see toddler mischief without slowing down or moving to the front. The frame on the sunshade snaps into position and doesn't require lock out arms to stay into position. There is also a small sun visor for added protection that works well when children are reclined to add extra shielding from the sun.
The photos above show the canopy transition from closed, to open, to open with visor.

Convenience

For an umbrella stroller this product has many things that most of them did not. For convenience items this product offers the storage pocket we already discussed in the storage section, and a bumper bar. It also has a cup holder that hangs off the back of the stroller, on the right side of the frame that extends up to the handle bar. It is a better placement for the cup holder than that on the Maxi-Cosi Kaia, which had the cup holder off the side that often got snagged on items as we strolled. And better than that on the Joovy Groove, which were fairly shallow and hung strangely; which allowed some taller water bottles to topple out.

The Trip has features that keep kids riding in comfort, and increase the overall convenience of this product. The seat back reclines to 4 different positions. This was different than most of the other products we tested which allowed infinite possibilities of reclining, as opposed to 4 distinct locked positions. It makes this product feel less versatile, but it is hard to say that you really need infinite possibilities when perhaps 4 will do. It does not recline as far as many of the other strollers we tested, so while children may be more comfortable in this stroller with the back down, it isn't near flat enough to ensure proper napping comfort. The 4 positions are operated by lifting an arm lever on both sides of the seat just above the storage basket. This means it takes two hands to recline, while most of the products we tested were one hand recline. However, it is easy to use, and the seat back can be elevated with one hand, something many of the other products required two hands to do. Which means, maybe it all evens out in the end.

The photos above show the Trip leg rest straight (left) and folded down (right).

This stroller also has an adjustable leg rest. It can move between a 90 degree angle bent down for back of the leg/knee support, or straight out from the seat for cozier curled up napping. The tabs to release are a little difficult to operate than the other products we tested with adjustable leg rests. The release buttons are located at the hinge point on either side of the seat bottom, and are partially covered by the seat fabric.

Maneuverability

The maneuverability on this product was only average compared to the others we tested, and it ranked fairly low in this metric compared to other metrics we tested. It was neither easy nor extremely difficult, but it could not be pushed with one hand, and the frame tended to flex when pushed weighted down. This makes the pushing, turning, and transferring to other surfaces more difficult than many of the rides we looked at. This product is harder to steer in grass, and nearly impossible to push or steer in deep gravel. This may not be a deal breaker for city dwellers, but if you need to traverse these to get into or out of your home, you will probably find it a daily frustration. It is more difficult than others to move over a 2 inch lip. The navigation of curbs and stairs is also a bit tricky as the flex in the handles and frame make stairs a little less controlled. In addition, the wheels seemed to catch a little before rolling up the step, making the movement up stairs a bit herky jerky.

Safety

Safety is important to us, so we reviewed some safety concerns with this category of products that included brakes, harnesses, and tip over tests. The Inglesina only scored a 6 of 10 for this metric. Only two stroller scored lower in this metric, Jeep Wrangler All-Weather and Contours Lite. The highest rating went to the Quinny Yezz, which earned an 8.

Brakes

This product had smaller brake pedals than many of the others we tested. This is one of the reasons it is only average difficulty to engage than the others, and fairly difficult to disengage. The process is also not sandal friendly, and it is markedly uncomfortable to do in bare feet.

The brakes were also more difficult to get snapped into place. Several users reported kicking the connecting bar forward instead of using a toe to release. The Trip also has very little play in the brakes once set, but it only took around 5 pounds on average for the stroller to slide forwards or backwards when the brakes were set. This was below the average for the products we tested, and significantly below the highest ranking stroller the Quinny Yezz, which required an impressive 19 and 15 pounds of pressure for back and forward sliding respectfully. Only two strollers required less pressure before moving, Jeep Wrangler All-Weather, and Chicco Capri C6 Lightweight.

Harness

The 5 point harness on the Trip was easy to get on, harder to get off, and difficult to adjust. The holes in the back of the seat for the shoulder strap adjustment are very tight, and required extra patience and finagling to move the straps from hole to hole. You will probably have to remove the back padding to adjust the shoulder straps. Once they were moved however, the straps adjusted fairly easily. The shoulder straps could be detached from the waist straps and buckle with two clips, but we don't think that is a good idea unless it helps adjustment and then are refastened

before the seat is used.

The crotch strap is fairly easy to adjust, and it is noteworthy that most of the products we tested came with adjustable crotch straps. The waist straps are bit more difficult to adjust, because there are additional buckles, which means there are two different adjustment points on the waist of the harness. Once adjusted the crotch and shoulder straps were still too loose, and it didn't seem possible to get them as tight as we would have liked. The buckle itself is stiff and somewhat harder to release compared to the other products in our test.

Tipping

The side tip angle for this product was 27 degrees, which made it better than average but certainly within the range of normal for this kind of product. Only a few strollers did better in this test with tipping degrees of 30, the Joovy Groove and Quinny Yezz.

The weight required to tip the stroller over backwards was 31 pounds and below average for the products we tested. In addition, there seems to be some risk that the stroller could tip over if the child moved further back in a reclined seat with the child lying straight. The Chicco Capri C6 Lightweight was the standout in the test with an impressive 75 pounds of pressure needed before tipping, and no reclined back tipping problems reported.

Quality

The Inglesina scored just above average for quality in our tests, however only 5 strollers out of 16 scored higher than it. The product did not have any major overall defects, but the frame and handles did flex more than most of the strollers we tested, and the fabric was a little loose where it was attached to the frame. In addition, the exaggerated stitching on the accent stripes looks like it will collect a lot of crumbs and dirt over time. The fabric is coarser than some of the other products, but it is machine washable in cold water; it does not appear to be water resistant, which is a feature we prefer.

The wheels on this stroller aren't as bad as some, but the front wheels definitely didn't swivel and move as well as others we tested. The flex of the handles and frame, coupled with the smaller, less agile, double front wheels means this product had trouble all around with quality of construction improving

performance. It is hard to put a finger on why this stroller doesn't feel as nice as some of the others for quality, but when compared side-by-side, it just lacked the quality charisma of the other higher rated products.

The wheels on this stroller are 6 inches in diameter. They appear to be molded plastic. They are puncture proof and need little maintenance. They are not as agile as some of the others we tested, and they had more difficult than most transitioning to rougher surfaces. In addition, they also tended to get stuck in ruts (literally), or they created ruts as we tried to maneuver them through thick grass or gravel.

The handles on this product were the highest of any we tested. They managed to be a comfortable height for tall men, but not prohibitively high for more petite females. They are covered in a comfortable foam with unique sculpted finger holds on the underside. Unfortunately, even though the handles were the tallest we tested, the back wheels were set too far back from the stroller base to avoid the foot/wheel kick, which can happen with longer or quicker strides. While this kick didn't happen all of the time, it did happen and it was annoying to have to remember to adjust stride to avoid this complication. The handles themselves felt sturdy and didn't have much flex, but the frame they were attached to did, which made the handles a little harder to manage.

Weight and Folded Size

Weight and Folded Size
The Trip was once again just slightly above average for weight and folded size. While the average stroller in our test was around 14 pounds, the Trip was just a hair over 15. The folded size however, did take up less cubic inches than some of the other products of similar weight, but it was by no means a stroller with a small folded footprint. The true folded dimension is our tests for this product was 14.5x42x13, and it took up 7,927 cubic inches of space. While all these measurements were smaller than a standard size stroller, it might still be more than some parents want to carry for any distance or length of time. Traditionally umbrella strollers were super light for ease of use, but many in our tests failed to meet this traditional definition of an umbrella product. The lightest product we tested is Jeep Wrangler All-Weather, which is almost 9 pounds. The smallest product in our tests for folded size was First Years Jet. The Jet folded like a traditional umbrella stroller, and its decreased size made it great for hand carrying.

Ease of Folding

This product is a one hand fold that requires far more foot action than hands, so be prepared. The fold itself is accomplished in 3 steps which seemed to be a fairly standard number across the products we tested, with only a few outliers. The steps are intuitive, foot friendly, and the stroller auto-locks and self-stands. This product also includes a side carry handle that is located on the left hand side of the stroller frame down from the handle bar. The one hand fold, auto-locking, self-standing, and carry handle all make a stroller that parents can easily transport even if their hands are full. Unfolding the Trip is also somewhat of a breeze; you just release the lock and it falls open.

Commuting

This stroller was below average for commuting. The longer length meant it could only fit in trunks one way, and the wheels tended to get caught on things more often than other products did. It did score well for having a pretty good locking feature when folded, but it lost some favor for being somewhat heavy and awkward to move around in tight spaces. It didn't do much better in the café department where it took up a lot of space even when pushed up against the wall. It wasn't the biggest in this test, but it sure wasn't the best either. The seat height is a little lower than some of the other products, and we feel a higher seat is an advantage at a café for feeding children, or getting them up high enough to see the sights as opposed to just gum under the table. Only three other strollers scored lower for commuting convenience than the Trip. The Mountain Buggy Mini had the lowest score due to its elongated design, larger than average footprint open and closed, as well as it overall weight.

Ease of Setup

The Trip is about average for ease of setup. It took about 5 and 1/2 minutes to put together start to finish. The instructions included illustrations and text; however, the text was in a completely different part of the manual which seemed odd and unhelpful. It would be nice to see the text accompany the illustrations, but overall it wasn't difficult to put together so that preference is really just us being nitpicky.

Best Applications

This product may not have a best application. It is a heavy, long stroller that is more difficult to maneuver than many similar strollers we tested which made it not a great transportable umbrella stroller. It has some storage, but not enough for us to say it would make a good substitute for a standard stroller. And it lacked the ability to traverse various terrain, making it sort of useless in anything but a strict city environment.

Value

This product was close to $200 on average, which made it one of the more expensive models we tested. There were definitely strollers more expensive than this one, including our Top Pick and Editors' Choice award winners. However, this stroller just didn't score well enough or have enough zazz to really justify the price tag. There are cheaper, higher ranking products in our tests that included more or better functioning extras. Both Best Value winners are better options than the Trip. The Chicco Liteway scored better overall and is about $50 cheaper, and Contours Lite scored just 1 point less overall than the Trip, but is $120 less on average.

Conclusion

Overall, the Inglesina Trip is just a stroller with nothing to make it standout or shine; it paled in comparison to the other products we looked at like an ugly duckling on a pond full of swans. It didn't do poorly, and it did out rank 9 other strollers, but it lacked anything wonderful or marvelous to make us want to shout. In essence, it managed to get the stroller job done, but for the price we feel it should have done more than that. If it had only been easier to maneuver or offered more for quality or comfort, it might have been enough to bump in up in the ranks and in our hearts. This is not a stroller we would recommend to a friend.

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