They really can be expensive. I had a friend trying to sell one that she hardly used.
I have 3 strollers now. One I got as a travel system with the infant car seat (Graco Quattro Tour....love it). Then I got another one that was a lot chaper for travel (not the umbrella stroller...kind of a step up from that). But, I traveled with it once or twice and realized I hated it. I pretty much haven't touched it since (forget the name of it). The 3rd one is a double stroller. We got that one off of Craigs list shortly after DS was born. We no longer use that one either b/c DD rather walk.
Now when we travel, we don't take the stroller if we don't have to. But, if we have to, we just take our Quattro Tour.....the very first stroller we got.
I agree about the backpack. We bought one a few years ago and used it a little with DD for hikes. We keep saying we should use it when there are large crowds, but we always forget. We just took DS in it on a hike the other day and he loved it. Now its in the car and hopefully we will use it when we are in large crowds and such.
I also loved the front carrier (Bjorn). DD LOVED it. I used that most of the time for travel, the mall, the store, walks until she got too heavy (she grew pretty fast, so I used it for the first 6 months). DS actually didn't like it all that much.
