Best Umbrella Stroller for Nyc Easy to Push

My friend is having her first child and is looking for advice on strollers and car seats. She lives in New York City. Any tips? Is our full-size stroller pick the way to go or is there something easier for lugging around the city? —Marguerite Preston, editor of Wirecutter's kitchen guides

As a New Yorker with a 3-year-old and a baby on the way, as well as being the editor of our stroller guides, I've kicked the tires on a dozen strollers and pushed a half dozen through the city. What's your friend's living situation? Can she keep the stroller in the foyer or a storage area, or will she need to keep it in her apartment? Does she have an elevator, or will she need to lug it up the stairs?

She will have to keep it in the apartment, but it's a pretty spacious one-bedroom and they have an elevator.

The four options I think she should consider are the Uppababy Vista, Uppababy Cruz, Baby Jogger City Mini, and Uppababy Minu. For the use your friend will get out of it and the beating it can take in a walking city like ours, an Uppababy stroller can really be worth the investment (and I'll explain why our full-size stroller pick, the Baby Jogger City Mini, isn't my only recommendation).

If she thinks she might have another kid, she should consider the Uppababy Vista, which is the one I own. It comes with a bassinet and is compatible with many infant car seats, including our pick, the Chicco Keyfit 30, and she can use either option when her kid is a newborn. (Our daughter slept in the bassinet on a stand in our bedroom for the first few months of her life.) The Vista's storage basket can also hold a ton—much more than most comparable strollers—and also provides better access to your stuff, making the kind of shopping you need to do in NYC much more convenient. (I even saw someone pushing a Vista with a kindergartner sitting underneath it the other day, though please note that this is inadvisable for many reasons.) We had some snowfall in NYC recently, and I was reminded again of how superior the Vista's wheels are to the smaller ones on travel and umbrella strollers on rough terrain—not just salt- and snow-strewn streets, but also mud, dirt trails, curbs, and potholes.

One of the Vista's main selling points is its versatility, which is why it's our upgrade double stroller pick. It's sold for use with a single kid but can be expanded, so once our son is born, we plan to attach the ride-along board for our daughter, replacing the stroller seat with the bassinet or infant car seat. If my daughter were a little younger, we would have converted the Vista to a tandem stroller by getting a second seat.

The Vista is a tank and sometimes it can feel like too much stroller, so if she wants something a little leaner, there's the Uppababy Cruz, our upgrade full-size pick, which weighs 5 pounds less and is smaller overall. It's similar to the Vista but doesn't come with a bassinet, holds a little less in its storage basket, and doesn't accommodate two kids. Either Uppababy stroller would be a great option, and both have reversible seats, which is nice if the parent wants the baby to face them. We especially like the Uppababy models because of how reliable and versatile they are; spending a bit more in this case may make sense for parents who are going to end up putting many miles on their stroller every week. Uppababy owners can also get free tune-ups with their strollers, including getting new tires. (New Yorkers have an Uppababy service center, and the company has a traveling team that offers free maintenance services in other locations.)

If your friend needs to collapse her stroller multiple times a day, she could go with our full-size pick, the Baby Jogger City Mini (a new version is coming out this spring), which is easier than either Uppababy to fold and unfold quickly, and is also compatible with many infant car seats. It's a few pounds lighter than the Cruz but its smaller, harder-to-access storage basket might prove limiting if she wants to do a lot of shopping or stuff-schlepping on foot.

One issue I've had with the 27-pound Vista is that it can be challenging to heave up and down stairs, especially when you're also wrangling a 25-pound toddler. (And especially if you're petite, like me.) We have some stairs to contend with in my building, and if I could do it over, I would consider relying exclusively on a travel stroller, like the Uppababy Minu. Travel strollers are convenient for virtually any kind of city living situation—except snowy conditions—and also easy to travel with. And the Minu has a lot of the advantages and performance of the bigger Uppababy models.

Depending on how your friend feels about having lots of baby gear around, she can also live without a stroller and use a wrap or carrier for the first few months (or longer). I prefer this option because I find it the least encumbering, especially for being out and about in the city.

What would you recommend for taxis? I think they are mainly getting the car seat because they are required to have one when they leave the hospital. They don't own a car.

If they're really worried only about the ride home from the hospital, the Chicco Keyfit 30 is fine. If they plan to use taxis with any frequency, they may want to look into the Doona, which is a stroller/car-seat hybrid.

What about buying a used stroller?

In New York and many other big cities, it's fairly easy to come by hardly used baby gear at much reduced prices, and especially for durable strollers like the Uppababy models or the City Mini, buying secondhand through Craigslist or a local parents mail listserv or Facebook community may make sense. Your friend may find something really well-cared-for. Or, if not, she'll get familiar with what things go for in NYC and be better set up to sell her own gear to take the sting out of an upgrade purchase down the line.