Baby Jogger City Tour 2 Honest Review: Pros, Cons and Who Should Skip It

I will tell you the part nobody puts in the product photos: the Baby Jogger City Tour 2 is not the stroller you use every day at home. It is the stroller you grab at 4:30 in the morning when your flight boards at 6:10 and you need one hand for the diaper bag and one hand for June. I have used ours on three trips since June turned 8 months old, and I have a much clearer picture now of what this stroller does well and where it asks you to compromise.

This is the honest review I wished I had read before I bought it. Not a list of features from the box. The real story, from a mom who has wrestled it through security, down an airplane aisle, and into the back of a 2019 Honda CR-V more times than I can count.

How I Have Used It

We bought the Baby Jogger City Tour 2 for one reason: a trip to visit my sister in Chicago when June was 5 months old. Our full-size stroller stays in the back of the CR-V most days, and the thought of checking it at the gate and hoping it survived the baggage hold was enough to make me look for something smaller. I spent about two weeks reading reviews and measuring the trunk of the CR-V with a tape measure before I ordered it.

Since then, the City Tour 2 has been on three flights, two long car rides, one trip through the Smithsonian, and countless walks around our neighborhood in Knoxville. It has been rained on, bumped through airport security bins, and folded and unfolded so many times that I stopped counting. I have also left it in the car overnight by accident, which is the kind of real-world test no spec sheet covers. The next morning it folded and unfolded exactly the same as it always had, which told me the frame was not going to be the thing that let us down.

The fold is the headline feature, so let me be specific about it. You pull two triggers, the frame collapses into a rectangle about the size of a large carry-on bag, and it locks into place. It stands on its own when folded, which matters more than you think when you are juggling a baby and a boarding pass. I can fold it one-handed while holding June, though it takes a little practice to get the motion smooth. The first time I tried it one-handed, I nearly dropped the whole thing on the kitchen floor, so give yourself a few dry runs at home before you try it in an airport.

What Nobody Tells You About the Fold

Here is the thing the marketing photos skip: the fold is easy, but it is not instant. The first few times, you will fumble with the two triggers and wonder if you are doing it wrong. You are not doing it wrong. It just takes a few tries to build the muscle memory. By the third trip, I could fold it in about ten seconds without looking. On our first trip, I stood in the security line and watched a dad ahead of me unfold his own travel stroller with the same two-trigger motion, and we both laughed because we had clearly practiced the same way.

The other thing nobody tells you: the folded stroller is compact, but it is not weightless. At just over 16 pounds, it is light for a stroller, but you still feel it when you are carrying it through a parking garage with a baby on your other hip. The carry handle is comfortable, and the weight is balanced well, but this is not a stroller you want to haul up three flights of stairs. I have done it once, when the elevator at my sister's building was out of order, and I would not volunteer for that again.

The City Tour 2 folds small enough for the overhead bin, and that single fact has saved us from gate-checking our stroller on every flight we have taken with it.

How It Rides

For a stroller that folds this small, the ride is genuinely good. The wheels are smaller than a full-size stroller, so you feel bumps more than you would in our big stroller, but the suspension does a decent job of smoothing out airport carpet and city sidewalks. June has napped through two museum trips in it, which I consider the highest compliment a stroller can earn. On the Smithsonian trip, she slept for a full hour and a half while we walked through three exhibit halls, and she only woke up when we stopped for lunch.

The seat reclines to a near-flat position, which is important for a baby who still needs to nap on the go. June is 8 months old, and she has slept comfortably in it on the plane and on walks. The canopy is generous for a travel stroller and blocks the sun well, though it is not as large as the canopy on our full-size stroller. On a bright afternoon walk in late September, I had to angle the canopy to keep the sun off her face, and it did the job, but I could see how a taller parent might want more coverage.

The harness is a standard five-point harness, and it is easy to adjust. I have it on the middle setting for June, and there is room to grow. The buckle clicks in and out smoothly, which matters when you are trying to get a wiggly baby in and out quickly at the gate. The shoulder pads are soft, and I have never had to fight with twisted straps the way I do with some car seats. One small note: the harness is snug, which is what you want, but it means you have to loosen it a little before you lift a sleeping baby out, or you will wake them up.

The Storage Reality Check

Here is where I have to be honest about a real limitation. The storage basket is small. It fits a diaper bag, barely, and not much else. On our last trip, I ended up hanging the diaper bag from the handles, which works but changes the balance of the stroller. If you are used to the deep basket on a full-size stroller, this will take some adjustment. I measured it once out of curiosity: the basket opening is roughly the size of a standard grocery bag, and anything wider than that has to ride on the handles or on your shoulder.

The seat does not have a parent console or cup holder included. You can buy accessories, but they add cost and bulk to a stroller whose whole point is being minimal. I have learned to carry a water bottle in the diaper bag instead of expecting a place to put it. On our Chicago trip, I clipped a small carabiner to the handlebar for the pacifier and a pack of wipes, and that worked well enough that I have kept doing it.

The weight limit is 50 pounds, which is fine for a travel stroller. June is nowhere near that, and the seat is roomy enough for a toddler. But if you have a bigger kid, or a preschooler who still wants to ride, this is worth checking before you buy. Eli is 5 and mostly walks now, but on the rare day he asks to ride, he fits, though his legs are close to the bumper bar. I would not plan on this being a stroller that carries a school-age child comfortably.

Who This Is For

The Baby Jogger City Tour 2 is for families who fly or travel regularly and want a stroller that comes on the plane with them. It is for parents who are tired of gate-checking a stroller and hoping it comes back in one piece. It is for grandparents who want a simple stroller to keep in the car for outings with the grandbaby. My mom has asked to borrow ours twice, and both times she commented on how easy it was to fold, which is high praise from someone who usually fights with anything mechanical.

It is also for parents who want a second stroller, not a first stroller. If you already have a full-size stroller for daily life and you want something compact for travel, this is a great fit. It folds small, rides well for its size, and has held up through everything we have put it through. The one thing I would add: if you are a family that flies more than a few times a year, the overhead-bin fold pays for itself in peace of mind alone.

Who Should Skip It

If you want one stroller to do everything, skip the City Tour 2. The small storage basket, the smaller wheels, and the compact fold all make sense for travel, but they are real tradeoffs for everyday use. A full-size stroller will ride smoother, hold more, and handle curbs and gravel better. On our neighborhood walks, I still reach for the big stroller nine times out of ten, because the bigger wheels handle the gravel at the end of our street without slowing down.

If you have a newborn who needs a fully flat sleep surface for long stretches, check with your pediatrician about whether a travel stroller is appropriate. The City Tour 2 reclines well for a travel stroller, but it is not a bassinet. We waited until June was about 5 months old before we used it for travel, and I felt good about that choice. Her pediatrician was fine with it for short naps on the go, but we kept the long stretches of sleep at home in the crib, on her back, on a firm flat mattress, with nothing loose in the sleep space.

And if you are tall, try it before you buy it. The handlebar is comfortable for me at 5-foot-6, but I have heard from taller parents that they wish it adjusted higher. Mike is 6-foot-1 and he manages fine, but he does not love the handle height on long walks. He tends to push with his arms slightly bent and his shoulders a little forward, and after a mile he starts looking for a bench. It is not a dealbreaker for us, but it is the kind of thing you only find out by pushing it yourself.

The Pros and Cons, Plainly

How It Compares to What We Expected

Before we bought it, I expected the City Tour 2 to feel flimsy because it folds so small. It does not. The frame feels solid, the wheels roll smoothly, and after three trips and countless folds, nothing has loosened or rattled. The fabric has held up through rain and spilled snacks, and it wipes clean easily. A pouch of applesauce exploded in the seat pocket on the drive home from the airport in October, and after a quick wipe with a damp cloth, you would never know it happened.

I also expected the fold to be the kind of thing you have to watch a video to figure out. It is not. The two triggers are clearly marked, and the stroller locks into its folded shape with a satisfying click. The first time I folded it, I did it in the living room while Mike watched, and we both laughed at how simple it was. He folded and unfolded it three times in a row just to be sure, and then he put it in the trunk of the CR-V to see how much room it left for the rest of our luggage.

What I did not expect was how much I would appreciate the standing fold. At the airport, I can set the folded stroller on the floor while I dig for our boarding passes, and it stays upright. That sounds like a small thing, but when you are traveling with a baby, small things are the whole game. It also means I can tuck it upright behind the front seat of the CR-V, which leaves the whole trunk free for suitcases and the pack-and-play.

The Bottom Line

The Baby Jogger City Tour 2 is not perfect, and I would not want it as our only stroller. But as a travel stroller, it has done exactly what we needed it to do, trip after trip. It folds small, rides well, and has made flying with a baby noticeably easier. The storage basket is small, the handlebar does not adjust, and the wheels are not made for gravel, but none of those things have ever made me wish we had left it at home.

If you are a family that travels, and you want a stroller that comes on the plane with you instead of getting gate-checked, this is worth a serious look. If you want one stroller for everything, keep looking. Knowing the difference is the whole point of an honest review. For us, the City Tour 2 earns its spot in the trunk of the CR-V, and it will be coming with us on every trip we take with June.