The Best Lightweight, Umbrella, and Travel Strollers of 2022

As a mother of two young boys, I appreciate the need for a good compact stroller—especially when I’m on the go. For this piece, I tested 21 lightweight models that were suitable as travel strollers, as everyday all-purpose strollers, or that could be used for trips around town (since no one is traveling that much these days). The goal was to find the best overall compact stroller: one that was lightweight, that had some storage capability, and that still had extras, like substantial canopy cover, decent storage space, and a reasonable recline. The strollers I tested ranged in price between $30 and $500, with the majority falling somewhere around the $200 mark.

The overall winner, the Joovy Kooper (available at Amazon for $299.99), is a modest stroller that falls in line with the criteria I was looking for: It’s reasonably light, packs up to nearly nothing when folded, has good storage capacity, is car seat-compatible with 35 models of car seats, comes with some functional extras, and folds with one hand. A great travel stroller, many parents will find that the Kooper is actually a perfect stand-in for an everyday stroller, too. For a more affordable option, we also liked the Graco Nimblelite. It provides more features than some of the more expensive lightweight strollers we tested, and strolls easily.

What You Should Know About Lightweight Strollers

You May Still Want a Second Stroller

Umbrella models are great for travel or in a pinch, but they don't make great primary strollers for most people. The biggest reason is they typically do not accept infant car seats the way a standard stroller will, which means they aren't useful until your baby is closer to 6 or 7 months and can sit on their own safely.

You can get around this by getting one of the few umbrella models that do accept infant car seats (and buying a compatible one), or picking up something like the Baby Trend Snap N Go which is a "caddy" that basically turns a compatible infant car seat into a stroller. Once your baby grows out of the infant car seat and can sit up safely, just use the lightweight model as normal.

Umbrella Models Often Lack Storage

Though our top pick offers a decent amount of storage, umbrella models often have little or no storage at all. We note this for all models where it's relevant in this guide, but if you get one without enough storage you're going to have to game plan what you do and don't bring with you.

Umbrella Strollers Fold Up More Compactly

Our top pick for this guide is not exactly an umbrella model, because it collapses into a square, rather than long and skinny (like an umbrella). In reality, there's very little difference between the two. The Joovy Kooper is just as light as most umbrella models, it has more storage, it's more maneuverable, it's much easier to fold, and it travels exceptionally well.

There Are Different Types of Strollers

Here's a basic primer on the differences between types of strollers:

• Standard stroller: This covers most strollers, and our top picks are found in our guide to the Best Strollers overall. They are average in size, typically weigh 20 lbs or more, and hold one child from about 6 months until he or she is about 50 lbs.
• Double stroller: Double strollers, like the name suggests, hold two kids at once. Some models convert from a single to a double with the addition of a second seat and an adapter. Some doubles have seats side-by-side, while others have seats that are aligned vertically, all of which we tested to find the Best Double Strollers. Side-by-side models are less maneuverable in tight spaces but it's easier to get kids in and out, and you have more storage space typically.
• Jogging stroller: These models typically have large wheels, often filled with air (like bike tires) and locking front wheels. They're designed for safely running with a child (or two children) in a seat. Locking the front wheel is essential because it helps prevent tip-overs if the front wheel were to hit a snag while you're running at full speed. Though Baby Jogger makes a jogging stroller (the Summit X3), it's worth noting most Baby Jogger strollers are not designed for jogging.
• Lightweight/Umbrella stroller: Though new designs mean that many standard strollers are only barely heavier than these models, umbrella strollers typically weigh 15 pounds or less and fold up compactly into a long, narrow shape (like an umbrella). These models are great for travel, or if you have an older child who doesn't need a stroller all the time. All the models in this guide are umbrella/lightweight strollers.

How We Tested

Hi, I’m Hannah Selinger. I’m a freelance writer and I live in East Hampton with my family—which includes two children under 4. My reviews include my own life with two young children, and are informed by my own experiences with single and double strollers. I can’t tell you whether or not there is a perfect stroller on the market (and a lot of friends have asked me this question, as I have embarked on this quest for perfection), but I can tell you that the best baby item I can recommend to a first-time parent is definitely a cordless vacuum cleaner.

I have owned five or six strollers since having children, from joggers to ultra compacts to stick strollers to side-by-side doubles to convertible singles with rumble seats. I know the mistakes I’ve made and the things I would do differently, all of which is now in my bank of information, which I can draw from anytime a parent asks me what they should do. The first thing I did in this testing procedure was make a list of the strollers I was interested in sampling, based on my own experience with strollers, as well as the strollers we initially tested in our previous round of testing in 2018. Then, I had strollers sent, en masse, to my house.

And I mean truly mean en masse. At one point, 21 strollers languished in the basement—and those were just the ones sent by distributors. Never mind the ones I already owned. I opened each box, assembled the strollers, strapped each kid in, rode them around the living room, took pictures, took them on rides around the neighborhood, and then entered data into the testing scoresheet. Finally, I took them down to my basement, while my husband seethed and asked me when—if ever—I would be done with Project Strollergate. (For the last part of the procedural test I attempted to put them on a high basement shelf.) My final assessment was based on assembly, weight, size, how easily the stroller folded, maneuverability, and a few other statistical factors.

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