I am planning on taking the car seats for my two younger on the plane with us. We will be renting a car 2/3's of our time, and both girls required to be in car seats. Are we legally allowed to use American car seats in Europe? I would rather have our own seats instead of renting them from the rental companies.
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
251 posts
Dig through this forum and you will find my recent delimma about the same thing. You don't mention your daughters ages. We recently rented a car for 3 weeks in France, I was unsure about trusting my son to a car seat I had never seen before, and weeks before was adamant about taking MINE. but the thought of dragging it along the airport and Paris(when we were w/o the car) won out. (I changed my mind at the airport!)I did not need to worry. The car seat I received was newer and fancier than even my fancy one here in the US. It was installed when we picked up the car and we never had to haul it anywhere, which considering how much we did haul just for the kid, there was no way we could have handled something else.
The research I did showed that my US seat would have fit/been legal. The only thing is in some countries kids are in seats until 4 (not boosters).
Friends lent us a plane seat harness for the plane and that worked great.
(I just want to add one unrelated thing. If you will be renting holiday apartments/houses. Chances are there will be plenty of toys for all ages, even very young. The one thing we over packed was toys, we found them everywhere we stayed in our Gite and Apartment.)
Posted by
OP
Tacoma, WA, USA
671 posts
My son will be 14, and he's a big guy, so we don't need to worry about him (whew!) My oldest girl will be 11, and she is very petite (under 70 lbs and short), so we plan on bringing a booster for her and checking it.
My middle girl will be five. She is tall but thin and will possibly/probably still be under 40 lbs. This is pretty much her current seat: http://www.target.com/Eddie-Bauer-Bryant-Prospect-Booster/dp/B000K4YROG/sr=1-8/qid=1209137657/ref=sr_1_8/601-4421185-6281718?ie=UTF8&rh=k%3Aeddie%20bauer%20convertible&page=1
My youngest girl will be two (close to three), and is just around 22 lbs right now. She is also petite. This is her seat: http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Triumph-DLX-Convertible-Seat/dp/B000X3MSXQ/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_2_txt?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0006NM090&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1NFX0RDTV0GK6F5VMAMR