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Baby Jogger City Tour Review by Best Buggy

First Impressions

The Baby Jogger City Tour will impress anyone with its tiny box! It is hard to believe that inside is a full sized pushchair capable of taking a even a large 3 or 4 year old. The Baby Jogger City Tour is all about the fold and the lightweight (6.4kg) and is the perfect size to travel with, or to fit in a small car boot.
The City Tour has the typical Baby Jogger DNA and is full of useful features.

Child Comfort, Harness and Accessories

The City Tour has a very impressive seat. This is a pushchair which can comfortably be used for a child from 6 months old to 15kg.
Master BB is now 6 and a half, and 112cm tall. He fits very comfortably into the seat with room under the hood. We are not advocating that you use this pushchair for such a large child, and indeed the weight limit is just 15kg,  however, given Master BB fits, then there will be no size issue for a younger child. It would have been good if the seat had been just a little deeper, but it is fine.

The City Tour is suitable from 6 months because it has a partial recline. The recline is more than ample for an older baby or child to nap comfortably with, but is not flat enough for a newborn. The recline is a multi-positional toggle recline, so that you can stop the seat at any point to suit. The toggle is a squeeze one which makes it simple to release and recline by pulling the seat down – we hook a thumb around the top of the seat to pull it down. Squeeze the toggle and pull both cords to pull the seat back upright – it may be necessary to give the seat a push up to ensure it is fully upright. When the seat is reclined the rear is covered by a flap of fabric. This can be lifted up to allow for air flow, however this leaves the top of the seat completely open (no mesh) and there is no way to secure the rear flap open.

The City Tour has a fabric with a slight sheen to it. It feels good quality, and it also looks more stylish than the older Baby Jogger fabrics.
There is a deep footrest with plenty of space for feet. The footrest is black which will hide any dirt. There is no lift up calf support. There is an optional bumper bar available and also a cupholder. The City Tour can not be made into a travel system.

The harness is 5 point harness with harness pads, and 3 height settings. They give good adjustability for a range of children, however it was very difficult to alter the harness height. The shoulder straps too a lot of pushing through the holes, and the harness waist strap was tricky to do too. The top harness height setting is unusually high, and the harness length was ample, so there was even room for Master BB to grow. We had an issue with the top section of the seat which is designed to flex to assist the fold. This top section can pull forwards especially if the top harness height setting is used. It is not really an issue, but it doesn’t look very tidy, and may dig into the back of a child’s head or neck depending on their height.

The buckle is one which we have seen a lot on pushchairs, and we are not fans because of the sharp pointed edges at the top of the buckle. Master BB once cut himself on a similar design harness. These is no padding to protect a child from these, although a harness pad is provided for the lower half of the buckle. We also do not like how easily the harness breaks into 5 pieces – it is incredibly annoying to have to chase 5 pieces around a wriggly child in order to fasten them up. The Tour is a pushchair which you are likely to need to strap a child into swiftly e.g. after a journey on public transport, and this design is not helpful. We will be swapping the harness on this pushchair for a more comfortable, and easier to fasten one.

Hood, Raincover and Storage

The Baby Jogger City Tour has a large hood. There are 3 sections to the hood, and then a further flick out visor panel. There is a loop at the front of the hood. We have no idea why as it seems to be too small to secure anything through it.

There is a peekaboo window on the rear of the hood. This is mesh covered, and then has a fabric cover which is held down with velcro tabs. The fabric flap can be rolled up and secured with a toggle to ensure good airflow.

As with all Baby Jogger pushchairs, there is no raincover included with the pushchair. However, unusually for a Baby Jogger, there is an inbuilt zipped storage compartment at the rear of the basket. This will fit in either the storage rucksack when not in use, or a neatly folded raincover. It is also handy for smaller items or for hiding a purse or phone.

The basket is small but not tiny. Access is restricted at both the rear and at the sides. You can fit a medium sized bag through at a push – my handbag just fitted but only just. A changing bag wouldn’t fit. There is a mesh pocket on the rear of the seat which is handy to drop keys, phone , camera or raincover into. There isn’t really sufficient storage for a day trip, so you would need to consider this if you are purchasing the City Tour as a holiday pushchair, and invest in a decent rucksack, or even use the bag that the pushchair fits in!

Handlebars, Handling, Wheels and Brake

The City Tour handlebar is typical Baby Jogger – ridged rubber with the Baby Jogger logo in the centre. The handlebar is more square than say the City Mini or City Mini Zip handlebar, and we found it very comfortable to hold. The handlebar height is fixed and at first glance appears to be on the low side, but it is just high enough for me at 5ft 6ins, although I would have appreciated another cm or two. The other Baby Jogger pushchairs have unusually high handlebars in comparison.

The handling is very good. It is an easy pushchair to steer. We have found the pushchair to have a few cm’s of ‘give’ in the handle, which makes it feel a little ‘bendy’, however we had no problem getting up and down kerbs. The pushchair is a very different feel to the City Mini Zip though.

The wheels are small but perfectly formed. They appear to be solid rubber. We had concerns over the closeness of the front wheels and the stability, however, we have not as yet found any issue with this to date. The front wheels are lockable, swivel wheels. There is only front suspension and it is not very noticeable. The wheels can all be removed. They are quick release and are easy to pop off.

There is a small footbrake to behind the right wheel. This is easy to locate and flicks on and off.

Fold

The Baby Jogger City Tour is ALL about the fold. This is why you would buy the City Tour over say a City Mini. The City Tour is a tri-fold and folds down to an extremely compact size of just 55.9 x 45.7 x 25.4 cm. Baby Jogger very kindly include a storage rucksack for the City Tour. We were concerned that it may take a while to wrestle the pushchair into the bag, but it was quick and simple to do. It didn’t seem to matter which way you put the Tour into the bag, but we recommend you put the wheels facing outwards so that they don’t press against your back as you walk. The wheels can be left on, or can be removed to go in the rucksack. The rucksack seemed easy to put on, and the pushchair felt comfortable to carry. However, we admit that we have not gone far with it, so we would suggest trying it out for yourself before attempting an all day hike with the City Tour on your back! The rucksack does make the Tour a handy pushchair for travelling with, or for using at the end of a long day trip or walk. We like the embroidered logo on the bag – very smart.

Baby Jogger do market the City Tour as being suitable to go in an overhead locker of a plane, however we would advise caution because strictly speaking the folded Tour is slightly larger than standard IATA hand luggage size, so it really is down to the cabin crew to decide if they will allow the City Tour inside the aircraft. From our experience, you should be fine on a long haul flight, but may not be allowed on domestic or budget airline flights.

The City Tour is a one handed fold, although it is a little tricky. We have practised, and had the Baby Jogger rep here to demo too. However, we are still clumsy at folding and opening! The fold and unfold are supposed to be one handed, however, in real life you are likely to be holding a baby in the other arm, and we feel that you would need to bend too low to make this easy to do. However, practice makes perfect!

To fold, squeeze the button in the centre of the handlebar. This button is very stiff and you need good arm and hand strength to squeeze this in – there’s no chance of a child folding accidentally! Next, fold the top half of the pushchair forwards and down until it locks. At the rear of the pushchair, and to the left is a tiny round red button. Press this in, and it should hold in position. Then slide your hand underneath the handlebar and pull the “fold strap” situated in typical Baby Jogger style, in the centre of the seat. This is tricky to do because the handlebar is in the way of sliding your hand under, and makes pulling upwards is tricky. The Baby Jogger rep suggests not folding the handlebar completely down to lock before folding, however, we always forget to do this! The chassis will autolock if the wheels are not obstructing the fold. You probably need to lock the wheels before folding, but who really does this?! It is a shame that the City Tour does not freestand once folded, unless you lie it on its side, which then runs the risk of getting the chassis scratched. The City Tour can be carried using the fold handle once folded.

Opening the City Tour can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes we can unfold it elegantly so that the wheels slide apart as the top half is brought up into an open position. When this happens, it is great! Sometimes we feel like we are wrestling an octopus as the back comes up but the wheels refuse to slide open! Again practice will probably make perfect. We think that stood in the cold and wet with bags and a baby under one arm, we could feel quite frustrated if the opening didn’t work first time; and to then have to chase 5 pieces of the harness around a wriggly baby, would not make the best start to a trip. There are easier pushchairs to open to be honest.

In Conclusion

The Baby Jogger City Tour has a fantastic tiny fold size and it is simple to lift and carry, with the bonus of the storage rucksack. The seat is a generous size for such a small pushchair. There is a large hood and sufficient storage. The harness is poor and really needs swapping. However, what lets the Tour down is really the price compared to it’s brother pushchair, the Baby Jogger City Mini Zip. We wouldn’t normally compare pushchairs in a stand alone review, but given these two Baby Joggers are the same price, there is no doubt the Zip overall is superior. For exactly the same price, the Zip offers a bigger seat, more sturdy feel, a bigger basket with better access, a from birth recline and a lift up calf rest. The folds are different, but the Tour isn’t quite small enough for us to feel confident that we would be able to get it on board an aircraft (which is why we would need a small squareish fold). The fold is not as quick and easy as we would like it to be for use on public transport, and it could be quite tricky to fold and unfold one handed with a baby tucked under one arm, because you need to bend down quite low to grasp the fold handle to fold; and flick the front wheels out when opening.
Therefore we are going to give the City Tour a Best Buggy 4 and a half gold star rating because some features could be improved, and we think there are easier options out there.
Our full Baby Jogger City Tour photoset is here.

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