The most used piece of baby gear

*this is not a sponsored review, I was not compensated for this post. I’ve enjoyed developing a relationship with UPPAbaby over the past year or so and they were kind enough to gift me a stroller. Reviews of strollers were helpful to me when I was pregnant with David so I hope to help any other mom’s in the market for a stroller with this honest review.

The two items I got completely hung up on when I was pregnant with David was the stroller and the baby monitor.

I don’t know why but I spent countless, COUNTLESS hours watching YouTube reviews and comparing features.

Walking into Buy Buy Baby and looking at what seemed like 6,000 strollers available for purchase was really overwhelming. And a lot of them seemed pretty darn similar, but would have one unique feature that could be a selling point.

Justin and I ended up buying the UPPAbaby Cruz and I was so happy with that purchase. I loved that stroller. We also bought the UPPAbaby Mesa car seat, which clicked right into the base of the Cruz without any extra attachments.

David went for at least one walk a day in that stroller for the first year of his life. I loved how I could flip the seat from forward to rear facing, I loved the huge basket under the seat, I loved how smooth the ride was, I could go on and on . . .

So when I found out I was pregnant again, I realized I was definitely going to need a double stroller.

Naturally, the Vista was my top choice. And as it turns out UPPAbaby just did a bit of tweaking to their original Vista and added some new features to their latest model.

One of those features, which was a huge selling point for me, was both seats could face forward or backward. There wasn’t a need for the boys to face each other the entire time we used the stroller. This isn’t the only double stroller that does that, but it’s a new feature for the Vista.

Another big factor in choosing the Vista for our double stroller was that the Mesa car seat would fit perfectly. I love that the seats are removable so I’m not clicking the car seat on top of a seat.

Anyway, I’ve had the Vista for a few months now and have really gotten a chance to use it in a bunch of different settings to give it a fair review.

Overall, as I very much anticipated, I love it. It gets excessive use, and gets tossed in the trunk of my van on a daily basis.

It’s 1,000 times smoother of a ride than the Cruz, mostly because the wheels are larger. It’s not incredibly heavy, the brake is even easier to use than the brake on the Cruz, and the versatility of using the seats, or the car seat alone, or a lower seat and a car seat is exactly what I was looking for in a double stroller

One thing that I missed initially was that I needed to add the upper adapters in order to add a little bit more space between two seats when the lower seat is facing forward. When I first put the seats in the stroller I couldn’t figure out how it would work to have the car seat and the rumble seat (the lower one) facing forward. There wasn’t enough room. After a bit of googling I discovered these adapters add a few inches so the car seat sits a little higher to allow enough room for the rumble seat. I wish those simply came with the stroller, but they are an add-on accessory.

I noticed that when I would go over a curb on an angle that the stroller felt unsteady. This would happen with any double stroller given the weight distribution. So, I typically back over curbs, mostly to keep the ride smooth in case Luke is sleeping, and to make sure I don’t scuff the bottom bar of the rumble seat. Otherwise, the stroller feels sturdy and well made.

The basket is enormous which is perfect for two boys. And I live so close to a grocery store that I just walk over to do my shopping. I can fit a ton of groceries in the basket.

It’s not lost on me that this is an expensive stroller. If you do a lot of walking, on various terrains, I’m confident that you’d be really happy with the Vista!

I’m happy to answer any other questions you may have about the stroller if you are in the market for one! Like I mentioned above, reading about another mom’s experience with one was helpful for me when I was researching options, so I hope this was helpful for you!