The Mamas & Papas Cybex Callisto weighs 8.4kg, and £250 will buy you the buggy, raincover, bumper bar and shopping basket. The buggy is suitable from birth, but you can turn it into a parent-facing pram by adding the matching Callisto carrycot for £130. This cosy lie-flat carrycot boasts a collapsible shell to save a bit of storage space. Buy adding the Cybex Aton car seat (£125) and Cybex Car Seat Adaptor (£22), you’ve got a parent-facing travel system for £527.
The Callisto’s folding mechanism is really nice and simple – you just push up the back bar with your foot, then hold down the button in the middle of the handle and fold. There’s a clip that keeps it folded and a side handle for carrying, so it’s portable and easy to transport and store.
The buggy has a one-handed recline toggle on the back of the seat, which makes it easy to change from upright to flat. The seat harness has a great, easy-to-use tightening device – like the ones you get in car seats – that makes strapping your baby in more straightforward than in many buggies. The leg rest is adjustable, too.
The Mamas & Papas Cybex Aton is a Group 0+ car seat, suitable from birth to 13kg, which weighs a light 3.5kg. When MadeForMums reviewed it earlier this year, it scored an impressive 4 out of 5 stars. See the full Mamas & Papas Cybex Aton car seat review for more details, specs and comments.
One of the big bonuses of the Mams & Papas Cybex Callisto Travel System has to be that once you’re past the travel system phase, you’ve got a lightweight buggy for use with a toddler.
What we love
I’m a big fan of the Callisto buggy’s single handlebar. I find one handlebar, rather than two handles, makes it much easier to hold the hand of another child while you cross the road. I also find it easier to push, as I’m always needing one hand for something else (but there’s the downside of not being able to hang your shopping from the handle!).
I’m impressed with how easily the matching Callisto carrycot can be attached and removed. You just slide off the buggy seat and slide the carrycot on. And it’s easy to do without waking a sleeping baby. The carrycot is also nicely padded and could be used for overnight sleeping when you’re away from home. The same adaptor can be used for the car seat and the carrycot, which means fewer bits and pieces to remember.
The Cybex Aton car seat is also easy to click on and off the chassis, and because the buggy seat comes off the chassis when the car seat is on, it makes a very light, manoeuvrable travel system. Sometimes with a travel system you feel that you’re getting a car seat that you wouldn’t choose if you were buying it on its own, but this isn’t the case here. The Aton is light, stylish and sleek looking. It feels very safe and comfortable for a newborn, and provides room to grow for older babies.
What to watch out for
The shopping basket of the Callisto is small, but this is fairly standard for this kind of lightweight buggy.
The brake is a kick-down, kick-up mechanism, which is tricky to release when you’re wearing open-toe shoes.
The seat is lightly padded, but you might want to add a padded liner for smaller babies.
In buggy mode, the Callisto is forward facing only and the hood doesn’t have a viewing window, which means you can’t keep an eye on your child when the hood’s up.
The Mamas & Papas Cybex Aton car seat doesn’t come with an in-car base, although you can pay extra if you want one. This base uses your car’s own seatbelts to be installed, not ISOFIX.
Who is the Mamas & Papas Cybex Callisto Travel System best for?
Families who want one purchase to last from newborn days to the toddler years.
The Callisto isn’t a budget buggy, but it has lots of useful features and a quality feel to it that makes you feel it’s worth the price tag. By purchasing the carrycot and car seat, you can combine all the benefits and versatility of a 3-in-1 pram, with those of a lightweight, compact stroller.
