Child seat hire

tillster

Flying back to the UK in October, and this will be the first trip with our newborn. She'll be 2 months old at the time.

I am not sure if it's more / less hassle to

rent a car seat from the car hire company
take our own child seat with us and leave it at the mercy of the luggage hold

If the former, are there any companies which are good value for renting care seats from ? Most seem to have a damn healthy rate of return on a 100 quid investment!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

jyonda

Depends on the company and length of rental, some charge daily, some a one off fee. If you booked an extra plane ticket for the baby then some airlines will let you take the car seat in the cabin to secure to the plane seat. This is beneficial in that the baby is in a familiar seat and you are not carrying them the whole time in a cramped space. Otherwise most airlines won't charge you to carry your car seat in the hold and you can put a large plastic bag over it for protection. Once in the car rental it's also better that the baby is in their own familiar seat and if you're in any way fussy about what your baby travels in then I'd suggest you don't throw yourself on the mercy of whatever seats the company happens to have lying around that day. In terms of safety, build quality, cleanliness and comfort your own car seat is probably far preferable.