British Isles without carseat for 3 year old?

[sciteach11]

My family (4 adults, 2 kids) will be taking a British Isles cruise next year. I am hoping that we can get around the ports with busses, trains, and walking so that we don't need to bring carseats or booster seats. Has anyone successful done that? Is it possible to reserve taxis or rental cars with carseats? We are planning to spend a few days in London first. Is the best option to get to the cruise terminal to go back to the airport and get the ship transfer since taxis may not take us from the train station? (London --> Southhampton)

 

Or should we just plan on bringing both seats? Kids will be 3 and 6, both in the weight limit for booster seats which are easier to travel with, though I think the 3 year old is supposed be past his 4th birthday to legally use a booster in the UK (he's big, and it's only a month before his bday).

[Harters]

2 hours ago, sciteach11 said:

Is it possible to reserve taxis or rental cars with carseats

Possibly. But probably not as taxis are not obliged to provide seats. Here's a link to the government website summarising the legal position.

https://www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/when-a-child-can-travel-without-a-car-seat

[sciteach11]

2 minutes ago, Harters said:

Possibly. But probably not as taxis are not obliged to provide seats. Here's a link to the government website summarising the legal position.

https://www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/when-a-child-can-travel-without-a-car-seat

Interesting! Thank you. It looks like the rules are pretty different than they are where I live.

[9265359]

19 hours ago, sciteach11 said:

Is it possible to reserve taxis or rental cars with carseats?

 

Virtually no taxis will have child seats because (as pointed out above) children can travel in the rear seats without them.

 

Virtually all rental car companies will hire you a seat (£15 a day would be the sort of price you would be looking at to hire a single seat, so £30 for both children).

[sciteach11]

5 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

Virtually no taxis will have child seats because (as pointed out above) children can travel in the rear seats without them.

 

Virtually all rental car companies will hire you a seat (£15 a day would be the sort of price you would be looking at to hire a single seat, so £30 for both children).

Thank you! That is very helpful. Looking at renting a car in at least one of our ports so that is good info.

[VMax1700]

3 minutes ago, sciteach11 said:

Thank you! That is very helpful. Looking at renting a car in at least one of our ports so that is good info.

If you are thinking of renting a car then it would possibly pay you to purchase a couple of the booster seats instead of renting seats of dubious health standards from the rental companies. https://www.halfords.com/baby-and-child/car-seats/booster-seats/

[jerseygirlinAZ]

On 7/31/2024 at 11:54 AM, sciteach11 said:

Thank you! That is very helpful. Looking at renting a car in at least one of our ports so that is good info.

 

We rented a car in Cork from Hertz and were able to get a car seat for an additional fee.

Edited August 3 by jerseygirlinAZ