Zoo-ooo-ooo-ooo – a day out at London Zoo with the Phil and Teds Vibe

^ as the monkeys would say, according to the Wee Man.

Today, making the most of the unusually good weather and a 2 for 1 voucher courtesy of a baby monkey at ZSL, we made our way to London Zoo with the Wee Man and Bubby D.

This was our first real outing as a family of four, and as such, the first test of the monstrous double pushchair. (Its not really monstrous, it just looks that way when you’re used to a lightweight stroller). In fact, as double pushchairs go, its really one of the best size-wise. At the time I was investigating the potential pushchairs out there we had the Hyundai Getz, which has an abysmally small boot. This, along with the fact that the Wee Man likes to travel on buses, and I like to get through standard sized doors reasonably easily, seriously limited our choices.

For those reasons, a side-by-side was out as they definitely don’t fit down the aisle of the local bus, and they also wouldn’t fit in the boot without a fight. Looking at tandem pushchairs, I was interested in the Britax B-Mobile, the iCandy Peach and the Phil and Teds range. At the Baby Show at Excel in February, I had the perfect opportunity to aid my decision as they had a wide variety of pushchairs to look at. Whilst the iCandy and the Britax pushchairs were both good, when I tried the Phil and Teds Vibe V2 I knew immediately that that was the double pushchair for me.

Now, using it for the first time to transport us to see the monkeys, I am still sure I made the right decision. As I said earlier, it does feel pretty big compared to our stroller, but of course that’s to be expected given that it’s made to transport not only a newborn, snuggled happily in her cocoon, but also a big rambunctious toddler on top of her. If it wasn’t so sturdily constructed I’d certainly worry about her being squashed! The Vibe V2 is great as it can be used as a single pushchair, on the days when the Wee Man is off at preschool, for example, but with a couple of clicks its easy to attach the doubles unit and create the second seat.

At the moment, with Bubby D so small, the second smaller seat goes at the top – which the Wee Man loves as he is tall enough to press the button for the ‘green man’ – and Bubby D lies flat in the main seat underneath.

Once Bubby D is a bit bigger, the second seat will then clip on under the main unit, and the Wee Man will sit in the main seat unit instead.

Both seats have detachable hoods and both recline (although the smaller second seat only has a limited recline, compared to the fully lie flat position of the main seat). The pushchair also has a toy bar included, and optional cup holder and food tray. In addition, we have the Peanut Carrycot which clips onto the pushchair when it is in single mode, creating a roomy travel space for Bubby D to lie flat and be parent facing, a great plus.

The pushchair handle is height adjustable, and this is a definite necessity for myself and the Other Half, with him being a foot taller than me! A safety strap is included on the pushchair handle which can be looped around the parent, ensuring the pushchair cannot roll away unattended, and the brake is also set into the handle. It’s very easy to turn on the brake, I do find it a bit harder to turn the brake off again but I suspect thats more down to my terrible hand strength than the actual pushchair design. The Vibe V2 is a three wheeler, which has taken a bit of getting used to after always steering a four wheeler previously, but its very easy to push and steer, even with 20kg of children in it!

With the second seat unit attached to the bottom you do lose the shopping basket space – its where the second child’s feet will be – but this is a small sacrifice in return for the overall size and usability of the pushchair. It’s still possible to fold the pushchair to a compact size with the doubles seat attached too which is a bonus.

And so our trip to the Zoo, taking the pushchair on the tube and then a bus, was a great success. Not entirely down to the pushchair – the brilliant new penguin pool with its glass viewing wall at child height, the toddler crawling tunnels through the meerkat and mongoose enclosure, and the giraffe bridge where the Wee Man was able to get right up close to them all helped make it a wonderful day out. But certainly having a reliable means of transporting a tiny baby and a (very tired by the end of the day, as the above picture demonstrates!) toddler was a massive help.