Cosatto are delivering on personality and functionality with the To & Fro.
Quick Summary: Cosatto have clearly thought long and hard about every aspect of the To & Fro. The concept of a duo directional seat is clever and there are plenty of features to help make life for parents simpler and the ride for baby more comfortable. The included accessories are great quality, maintaining the theme of Cosatto's signature bold and vibrant designs. In conclusion, the To & Fro offers vibrant looks, clever design features and lots of free accessories making it a compact, value for money travel system that really.
Whats good?
- Easy lever recline
- Clever parent and world facing mode
- Vibrant designs
- Freestanding fold
Whats not so good?
- Small brake pedals
- Fiddly to swap seat modes
- Basket is hard to reach when seat is laid flat
Table of contents
Colours
The Cosatto To & Fro comes in three different designs – Pitter Patter (which we tested), Firebird and Charleston.
Chassis
The To & Fro is an extremely sturdy stroller, weighing in at 12.6kg and measuring 49cm wide. Of course, it has the signature Cosatto splash of colour added to the frame.
Wheels
The wheels are made from hard wearing rubber with the front wheels having the option of being locked off. As the stroller boasts all-round suspension, it gives a comfier ride for baby over urban terrains. It is comfortable to push and easily manoeuvres through small aisles and around corners when out shopping.
Handle
The handles on the To & Fro are comfortably padded with hard wearing foam and adjust to two different height positions by pressing a convenient, if a little abrupt, quick release button.
Brakes
To stop the To & Fro in its tracks, the brake is simple to put on but sometimes fiddly to release as the pedals are small.
Basket
Although it won’t fit oodles of shopping, the shopping basket does have a big enough capacity to hold the every-day bits and bobs you need to carry around with you. It’s an adequate size for an umbrella fold stroller and is accessible from the back and sides of the stroller. When the seat unit is fully reclined in newborn mode, the access is slightly restricted, but Cosatto have tried to make this easier by adding zips on the side of the basket.
Seat
Now this is where the magic happens! The ‘duo directional’ seat flips from forward facing to parent facing mode and has a built in harness on both sides of the seat so that there is no need to fiddle around adjusting the harness every time you change the direction of the seat. The instructions on how to change the seat direction are simple to follow. However, it isn’t easy enough to do one handed – you definitely need two baby free hands to do this as there are lots of pieces of Velcro to sort out. The seat boasts several different back rest positions, from lay flat to sit up straight, which are easily adjusted via a lever on the back of the seat. The seat is suitable from new born in forward facing and parent facing modes as it lays flat in both directions. The seat has an adjustable calf support in forward facing mode which doubles up as a clever back support in parent facing mode. The seat is also nicely padded, and of course colourful, giving your little person plenty to look at whilst they are being strolled around.
Harness
The 5-point adjustable harness is comfily padded with yet more colour co-ordinated covers adding to the quality feel of the stroller. Adjusting the harness straps into the three slots in the seat unit is perfectly possible, however a little fiddly, so you may need to leave yourself a few minutes to make sure your stroller is sorted and fits your child well.
Hood
The hood of the To & Fro has a UPF 50+ protection rating and gives great coverage. It has a pull down visor to give extra protection against those extra strong rays. The hood was relatively quiet in its movement although not as sturdy as I had expected from such a cleverly thought out stroller.
In the back of the hood there is a handy storage pouch to keep all sorts of nick-nacks in as well as a magnetic, silent peep hole to make checking on your little one easier. The hood is reversible boasting a different fabric design on either side and simply flips over when changing the pushchair from forward facing to parent facing – very simple but very clever!
Fold
The great thing about the To & Fro is that it folds in a compact umbrella fold style no matter which direction the seat is facing. The fold is similar to other umbrella fold strollers and is done by pulling the release ring upwards and pushing down on the foot lock on the side of the frame. It’s quick to do and has an auto-lock to help it stay in a compact package. The best thing about the To & Fro fold has to be the stand that means that the stroller is free-standing when folder – a great feature that makes storing the pushchair so much easier.
To unfold the stroller you flick the auto-lock hook off the frame and push down on the foot pedal and click the stroller in to place.
Carseat
The To & Fro changes seat direction but is also compatible with the Cosatto Hold car seat which can be purchased separately. The car seat adapters come free in the box with the stroller and easily clip onto the side of the stroller frame.
Accessories
There are several other accessories included which coordinate with the fun prints of the stroller fabrics. Firstly, there is a handy head hugger to give added support to your new born. There is also a reversible footmuff which can double up as a pushchair liner when the front is zipped off. The liner of the footmuff contains a removable wedge to support the backs of younger babies. The front of the footmuff also boasts a mini hand warmer to keep your babies extra snug and cosy in the colder weather – another example of Cosatto’s clever attention to detail with this stroller.
A cup holder is included, although Cosatto state that it is only to be used in forward facing mode for safety reasons.
The rain cover is a fabulous fit and not at all fiddly to put on. It covers the whole of the stroller so there is no danger of any of the fabrics getting soggy.
Conclusion
Cosatto have clearly thought long and hard about every aspect of the To & Fro. The concept of a duo directional seat is clever and there are plenty of features to help make life for parents simpler and the ride for baby more comfortable. The included accessories are great quality, maintaining the theme of Cosatto’s signature bold and vibrant designs.
Overall, the To & Fro handled well over smooth terrains and is easy to fold and unfold. The auto stand is a fabulous addition to this already feature-packed pushchair.
The fiddly aspects of the pushchair let it down slightly with lots of Velcro to do and undo when changing seat modes. The brake could also be easier to use, with larger foot pedals and the shopping basket is not huge.
In conclusion, the To & Fro offers vibrant looks, clever design features and lots of free accessories making it a compact, value for money travel system that offers lots of things for the parent.
