Bugaboo Butterfly 2 Review

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2 days ago

Hello, friends. I'm Crystal and I became a first-time mom last year, which means I'm low-key obsessed with finding cool, interesting, and viral parenting products.
One of the places I see really interesting parenting products is social media (ESPECIALLY TikTok). And, thanks to ~algorithms~ the viral and highly beloved Bugaboo Butterfly stroller came up in my feed. So when I learned about the brand NEW, Bugaboo Butterfly 2, which just dropped June 3, I jumped at the opportunity to try one out!
Note: I was sent the Bugaboo Butterfly 2 free to try out for editorial review, but was under no obligation to give a positive review. These are 100% my honest thoughts.
So, the Bugaboo Butterfly 2 (which retails for $599.00) is a travel stroller, meaning it's designed to be lightweight, easy to carry, and something you can fold up in, like, one-second and with one hand. Obviously, there are many travel strollers out there, but the Bugaboo Butterfly (both the original and this new version) is considered top-of-the-line, hence the higher price range. And it comes up A LOT on social media and even Reddit.
For a breakdown, here are some of the highlights of the Butterfly 2 compared to the original:
And after "road testing" the Bugaboo Butterfly 2 for a couple of weeks — through the neighborhood, parks, malls, and even North America's largest IKEA — here's what I thought:
I'm OBSESSED with how small and lightweight it is.
For the last year-ish, I've been using a much larger "regular" stroller — which has been great for transporting our baby when he was younger in his infant car seat, which easily snapped into the large stroller, as well as being able to haul ALL the things needed for an infant — but I'd be lying if I said it was easy to use. Like, the thing is big and heavy. So, being able to use a travel stroller without the struggle I normally go through with my "regular" one felt incredible LOL.
I looooove being able to open and close it with one hand.
As I mentioned above, our previous stroller was large and you cannot close it with one hand. It seems like a small thing, but being able to hold your child (or for demonstration purposes with a pillow of my cat as in the GIF above) while simultaneously opening and/or closing a stroller is, like, huge. Love how easy it is with this.
It's really compact — did I mention how much I love how small the stroller is?!?
For comparison's sake, above is a photo of our regular stroller in my car's trunk vs. the Bugaboo Butterfly 2 (diaper bag for scale). It's like night and day. Being able to have more room for groceries and just STUFF is major. Another win.Also, in case you are wondering, the Butterfly strollers are IATA-compatible and designed to be TSA-approved, meaning they can be stored in the overhead compartment of an airplane when folded. (I haven't had the chance to try this out yet, but this was another MAJOR plus to me!)
The nearly-full recline is very handy.
Apparently, the first version of the Bugaboo Butterfly did not recline as far as this one. Our regular stroller has a full recline, which was handy for when our baby was younger and slept all the time since newborns need to sleep in a flat position. I've also always found the full recline feature helpful for changing diapers when a changing station (or even a clean one) isn't nearby. And while this stroller doesn't have a full recline, it gets pretty close, and it was enough for us to do a couple of diaper changes!
It's a super smooth ride.
Our regular stroller has much larger, air-filled wheels, so it's a VERY smooth ride. And, TBH, I was a little suspicious if the Butterfly 2, with its smaller, hard wheels, would be as smooth. But, to my surprise, it was?! Admittedly, I didn't exactly "off-road" with this stroller, but even on pavement and a few different terrains, the stroller moved really smoothly and had some good shock absorption. As I said, I tested this baby out in North America's largest IKEA (in Burbank, CA) — which, if you've been to an IKEA, you know how busy it can get — and I was able to maneuver between small aisles and meandering people with more ease than the regular stroller.
It can actually fit a decent amount of stuff even though the storage space in the under-carriage is significantly smaller than our "regular" stroller.
I was pretty impressed at how much I could fit in the bottom of the stroller. Now, admittedly, if we were going to be out for a long day or in a situation where we needed to carry a full diaper bag, toys, food, etc., then it would be a struggle to make it all fit underneath. But for purposes of popping out to a grocery store, or just going for a walk, etc. this worked great.
Other cool features I liked: The pocket in the back and the peep window on the sun shade.
From what I'm told, these are small changes/additions to the Butterfly 2, and I think they're great additions. The pocket in the back came in handy a number of times while out and about — I used it for my son's hat, some sunscreen, and toys — and the peep window in the sun shade above is always nice to have to check on your child while out for a walk. For example, I like checking if he is pulling his sun hat off for the 50th time (the answer is usually yes!).
A couple of things I think could be improved: adding a handlebar height adjustment and more padding for the handlebar.
A big advantage of our regular stroller vs. this travel one is that you can adjust the height of the handlebar. For someone short (I am 5'2"!) who has a taller husband, this is an important feature to have. I'm guessing in order to keep the Butterfly 2 as lightweight and compact as possible, this wasn't an option. I also found that the handlebar of the Butterfly 2, compared to our regular stroller, was not as comfortable over a longer period of time. I found that my hands started to cramp up a little (although my husband didn't have this issue, go figure), so maybe thicker padding on the grip would help. It might be nice to see these features fine-tuned if they do a Butterfly 3 in the future!
TL; DR — I LOVED the Bugaboo Butterfly 2 stroller. In fact, it's now become my go-to stroller over our regular one because of its easy-to-use features. So, if you've been considering getting one or you're in the market for a travel stroller, 10/10 would recommend!