Bugaboo Bee Review

Overall Rating

1. Lightweight: getting it in & out of the car isn't much of a strain on the postnatal spine.
2. Fully collapsible: no need to take off the seat to fold it down, and it's easy - just press a click button on the handle with a little push on the frame and it collapses down.
3. Suitable from birth: for newborns and young babies you need to also purchase the 'baby-nest' (now called the 'cocoon'). Just fully recline the seat and place the nest in, which has holes for the 5-point harness so baby is fully secure in the buggy. The baby-nest is machine-washable and doubles up as a cosy footmuff for cold-days. In the summer, you can zip-off the front of the nest so that baby is nice & cool. The minor downside is that you have to remove the baby-nest to fold-down/collapse the buggy but this is just a matter of slipping it off (no awkward buttons,etc).
3. Compact when folded down. We don't have much storage-space in our home so this was a vital feature for us. It's not as compact as a Maclaren but it would definitely fit in any small hatchback car.
4. Height-adjustable single-handlebar. We wanted a single bar rather than separate handles so that it's very easy to steer with one hand - great if you also need to hold an umbrella or if you have another child or dog with you. The fact that it's height-adjustible is a bonus - simply fab.
5. Not too wide. It's no wider than a Maclaren and I have no problems fitting in the aisles of small shops. It's also great on public transport and trains (I often travel on the train and have never needed to collapse the buggy down as it doesn't take up too much space, especially if you adjust the handlebars to the lowest point).
6. Very stylish. I just adore the over-sized hood.
7. The seat can be reversed. This means when baby is young you can have them facing you, and you can switch the seat round the other way when they are a bit older and more interested in the rest of the world.
8. Great optional accessories: we bought the transport-bag which is on wheels and was great to use when we travelled abroad in the summer - the airline we used allowed us to check-in the buggy for free (we preferred to use a sling for transporting the baby around the departure-lounge to plane). Other extras you can buy are: footmuff which looks wonderfully comfortable and I wish I'd started using it earlier as it fits much better than the baby-nest (so I'd recommend anyone to use the footmuff as soon as baby is old enough to be inclined, i.e. 3months+); anti-UV sun canopy (waste of money unless you are in sunny climates as it's more of a permanent fixture - it's rather a lot of hassle to remove the existing hood and replace it with this one); anti-UV sun/insect net (very stylish looking and quite good if using it on a young baby in the summer, but I don't think an older baby or toddler would tolerate it as they can't really see through it).
9. Very manoeverable: my husband says it's a dream to steer and very smooth.
10. Has a basket: not very big but more roomy than the Quinny.
11. The Maxi-cosi Cabriofix infant car-seat attaches to it nicely if you buy the bugaboo adapters. These adapters enable you to click the car-seat onto the buggy in one click - and I promise you don't need to remove the bugaboo seat to do this (although you might want to). I never bothered to remove the seat although it looks a little odd but it's a hassle to remove the seat just for the sake of it.

It comes with a rain-cover which is very well-designed, although my only niggle is that it's a little awkward to flip-off if you want to get baby out quickly.

So far, all my friends with babies who bought other prams (including the bugaboo cameleon) ended up buying a Maclaren after 6 months for various reasons (i.e. pram too bulky/heavy/not collapsible/etc) but I'm still very happy with my Bee.

SIZE: The flipside for being so nimble and lightweight is that it's on the small-side. My baby is small so it's not really a problem - she's now 15 months old and still fits in it with plenty of room however she's below average weight. (25th centile)
So I can understand the other reviewers who had to change buggies for larger than average toddlers.
Having said that, I would want to challenge them to ensure they had adjusted the shoulder-straps accordingly. It took me 10 months before I discovered the shoulder straps could be adjusted to a higher position in the seat (there are holes in the back of the seat to do this - I thought they were just for ventilation!) and so could actually accomodate quite a tall child.
However if your child is quite wide then it might be a problem.

The Bugaboo Bee is versatile, Practical, Lightweight, Nimble and Stylish