We Tried It: The Bugaboo Butterfly 2 Stroller Checks All the Boxes, Even the Ones You Might Not Care About

I can’t remember a single stroller I’ve tested for work that had a brake my husband liked—until the Bugaboo Butterfly 2. There’s nothing special about it on the surface, but it’s easier to press than the brake on either the Joolz Aer+ or the Nuna Trvl LX (our Trvl has a wonky brake, actually, that continually gets stuck. I will not infrequently attempt to unlock the brake for so long that my husband has continued on for a block, oblivious to my travails). My husband’s size 11 sneakers don’t get caught under the brake while walking, but there’s no reaching required, either (want to trip on your stroller brake? Get an Uppababy Vista!). It’s perfectly flip-flop friendly, and though I wouldn’t dare wear flip-flops on the streets of my disgusting city (that I love), I do wear sandals, and I’ve had no issues flipping the Butterfly brake up or down while wearing them.

Minimal effort needed here—just the click of two adjacent buttons and the Butterfly folds in on itself. A quick push on the side of the now-folded Butterfly to click it into place, and the stroller becomes a compact 18x10x22, which is small enough to fit behind my front door when it’s open so my toddler can participate in his favorite activity (licking the glass storm door as he yells “uppy!” at any canine passersby). 

One of my minimal complaints is that the carrying strap (which not every stroller has!) is tucked into the stroller when it’s folded, so you have to dig a bit to find it. This is, truly, nitpicking, because it takes about three seconds to locate, and then you have a well-sized carrying strap for toting around the 16-pound Butterfly. That compact fold makes it small enough to fit in the airplane overhead bin and light and manageable enough for even a weakling like me to lift overhead.

Getting my kid situated in, and getting him out of, the Butterfly is a cinch. As with the Joolz Aer+, the Butterfly has a five-point harness in which each strap snaps independently into the buckle. In the Joolz, though, I occasionally had to work to get my baby to sit upright before I buckled him in, as the seat has a gentle slope. The Butterfly has a more dramatic angle in the seat, which allows for more stable positioning before I get the kiddo buckled in.

Each strap snaps easily into the central buckle. Most significantly, the shoulder straps stand up on their own, to better place a baby or toddler into the stroller without trying to finagle the straps around their sometimes protesting form. This is the kind of thoughtful detail that I wish more strollers (and car seats!) included. 

Bugaboo has improved the suspension and enlarged the wheels on the Butterfly 2, which are welcome additions. I didn’t officially test the original Butterfly, but I did try my friend’s, and I found the combination of the small hard wheels and limited suspension made it a bumpy ride. Not so with the new Butterfly, which has the best suspension of any travel stroller I’ve tried to date. I’d argue it’s competitive with a full-sized stroller in this regard. 

Its basket, too, is noteworthy. The Nuna Trvl LX has a basket capacity of 10 pounds (though it looks like it should fit more). The Joolz Aer+ can hold 11 pounds (although the new Joolz Aer2—which I haven’t tried yet—can handle nearly 18 pounds), and one of our top-rated travel strollers, the Baby Jogger City Tour 2, has a basket capacity of 15 pounds. The Butterfly 2 holds just about 18 pounds, making it one of the heftier travel stroller baskets on the market. This makes the Butterfly a good grocery shopping companion, provided I’m not stocking up on gallons of milk and cases of seltzer; it’s also being put through the wringer currently by my babysitter, who’s using the basket to store leftover pancakes, multiple water bottles, half-open bags of Bamba, and impulse toy purchases. 

It has an easy-to-adjust footrest that makes travel for my son more comfortable (not that he complains much when he doesn’t have one). It’s an improvement upon the original Butterfly footrest, which requires two hands to adjust.

More noteworthy: its canopy. It is so significant that it seems to make my baby angry; it almost entirely encloses him, so while he’s well-protected from the sun, he can’t see a thing. This made photographing him in it challenging, since he didn’t want to miss anything happening in the park while I snapped photos. It has a flap you can lift to see your kiddo in the seat below, and it can zip up to be smaller and out of the way.

Strollers must have a seat that reclines at least 150 degrees and include a foot enclosure in order to be considered safe for newborns, according to stroller safety standards. The Bugaboo Butterfly 2 reclines to 147 degrees and has no foot enclosure, so it isn’t newborn-safe. Joan Muratore, the engineer who leads CR’s stroller test program and has tested hundreds of strollers over the years in CR’s labs, says “many travel strollers max out at around a 130-degree recline,” so the Butterfly does have a deeper recline than most. Still, you will need to use a child car seat clipped into an adapter (sold separately) to use this stroller safely with a newborn. You can buy child car seat adapters, which are compatible with a wide range of car seats from (obviously) Bugaboo, as well as Nuna, Clek, Cybex, and Maxi-Cosi. 

The brand claims on its website that the Butterfly 2 can be used from birth, and that the Bugaboo Baby Nest is recommended for “added comfort,” implying that a car seat isn’t strictly necessary for use with a newborn. It’s confusing messaging, but I wouldn’t count on the Butterfly, sans car seat, for my newborn.

I would count on it, though, for my older baby and toddler, provided I wanted to cough up $599 for the privilege. My husband’s lack of complaints about this stroller just might make it worth it. But if you or the other caregivers in your life have a stricter budget—or a different roster of requirements—I recommend checking out our full travel stroller ratings, which feature strollers ranging from $109 to $600.