Twin stroller in BKK and HKG
 

First visit to BKK and HKG (both for a week) I have 18 months old twin girls and were planning on taking their twin stroller but have been told by a friend that I should take two single strollers as the twin stroller will not get though the crowds or down the streets. Any thoughts?

I think you probably would have a hard time getting that wide a stroller around Hong Kong sidewalks, they do tend to be quite crowded and then in some cases like in market areas, you would be in narrow lanes. You may not find that people are that willing to move out of your way either. The concept of handicapped sidewalks which have no curbs at cross walks does not really exist here outside of some major intersections in the business district, and you will be bumping down curbs in many cases. There are also hills and stairs and you may not want to push or carry a double up hill (or hang onto it going downhill). I don’t think it would fit too well in the truck of a taxi, and bus drivers and passengers may not appreciate your trying to bring one onto a bus. If you take the subway, most stations require you to walk up or down stairs at least at some point to reach the station levels and you probably don’t want to carry a double doing that. (I also question whether you could comfortably fit it on the escalators of the subway, which are quite narrow, like the tube in London. You may have to take stairs all the way down to the trains.)

I think you would find much the same in Bangkok, sidewalks tend to be narrower in my experience even if they are less crowded. I also think you won’t want to lug it onto boats or up the stairs to the skytrain, and also fitting a double into the truck of a taxi could be tough. I also don’t think I would want to be the one pushing a double stroller in the heat and humidity of Bangkok.

Some other posts here in the past have recommened bringing the smallest and lightest stollers you can find, which I would tend to agree with. I assume the twin stroller is more of the larger, heavier model and not those sling-back folding kind. I think the latter kind is what you want. You may also want to consider baby carriers in addition to strollers, these may be much easier than lugging one two strollers.

Strollers are difficult in both cities. As Cicerone says, the sidewalks are crowded, and in Bangkok they are uneven and often have high curbs. You'll want to use public transport such as water taxis and the skytrain. I have seen a couple carrying a stroller up the stairs to the skytrain and it did not look like fun. The skytrain is typically crowded, so getting off the skytrain with a stroller isn't easy either. I've never seen anyone attempt the water taxis with a stroller. Really, the only places I can think of that are good for strollers in Bangkok are the shopping malls and the airport.

especially difficult in bkk...

Thanks for the help. I'll have to have a good think about it.

We travelled with a toddler to Bangkok - we did use our stroller but used taxis a fair bit, as well as skytrain. We could get a single stroller down the main roads ok and we used it around the grand palace but for example going up the skytrain steps, one of us would take the stroller and one would carry the child. I think you would really struggle with double width but if your stroller was one of the tandem ones it might work. We did use taxis quite a lot - we would use public transport to get somewhere and then use a taxi to get back when we had had enough. stroller in the boat. what about the backpacks? or perhaps your girls will be a bit heavy by then? We also used Tong for real sightseeinng days so we were going from place to place in air conditioned car.
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