What’s the best travel booster car seat? (2023 reviews)

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If you’ve been traveling with your kids since they were tiny, finally getting to the booster stage will feel like winning the jackpot! After years of lugging around a car seat that’s bulky and heavy, now you can rest easy: there are plenty of amazing booster seats for travel that will keep your kids safe and slip easily into your carry-on luggage.

What’s the best travel booster seat for your kid? That depends a little on them and a little on you! In this article you’ll find candid reviews of some of the best portable booster seat choices in 2023 as well as guidance on what to look for when you’re shopping for a lightweight booster seat. If you’re on the hunt for the best travel booster car seat, this is the article for you.

While you’ll find many similar “reviews” and roundups online, our family actually owns many of the booster seats on this list, and we’ve used some of them full-time. In the reviews below you’ll find plenty of hands-on, real-world experience to help guide your choice in addition to my expertise as a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician.

In case your curious, here’s a sampling of our collection of travel booster seats as – I’ve even added a few more since taking this photo:

Unfortunately, as of 2023 some of these excellent booster seats for travel have been discontinued or out of stock. As such, I’ll provide alternatives in the reviews below.

Quick picks: best travel booster seat options

If you want to skip the details, here are my top picks for the best travel booster car seat:

• Ride Safer Travel Vest – age 4-6; booster seat alternative perfect for lightweight travel with preschoolers (full review here)
• Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120 – age 5-10; folding highback booster seat with tons of great features (also available here)
• Bubblebum – age 6-8; inflatable booster seat for mature kids who don’t sleep in the car (full review here)
• Graco RightGuide – age 6+ AND 50lbs; best travel booster seat for big kids (full review here)

DEAL ALERT! Save $11 off the Ride Safer Travel Vest with coupon ‘VOYAGE‘

May 2023 update: So many of you love hifold that it’s out of stock everywhere! There’s no ETA on a restock at this time, but unfortunately I suspect it’s discontinued.

If your travel needs are pressing, check out the Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120 (a bit heavier and folds a little bigger, but loaded with features that make it a great every day seat) or Ride Saver Travel Vest (full review + discount). For kids under ~45″ the Cosco Finale makes an affordable lightweight option.

Portable Booster Seat Comparison

Travel car seat		Size
Ride Safer Travel Vest		booster seat alternative; 2 lbs
Baby Trend Yumi		highback booster or backless booster; 9 lbs
Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120		highback booster; 15lbs
Diono Monterey 5iST		highback booster; 19lbs
Bubblebum		backless booster seat; 1 lb
Graco RightGuide		backless booster seat; 2 lbs
Chicco GoFit Plus		backless booster seat; 5 lbs
Cosco Rise LX		backless booster seat; 2 lbs

If you prioritize comfort over portability, check out these extra-comfortable booster seats that are great for family road trips!

Still researching? Pin this for later!

How to choose a portable car booster seat

Before you buy a travel booster car seat, it’s important to think honestly about your child. Is he big enough to meet the minimum requirements of the booster seat for traveling that you’re considering? Is she mature enough to sit properly in the seat 100% of the time? That means no bending down to get a tablet that falls down or putting the shoulder belt under her arm because it annoys her. Will he fall asleep in the car if he’s jet lagged after a long flight?

These are all things you’ll need to consider before jumping into traveling booster seats. In my experience, many kids are ready to transition to a backless booster for travel at age 6 (though there were a few times during our gap year when our 6yo fell asleep and I wished we had something different for him). Our younger one did great in the Ride Safer travel vest from age 3.5 to around 6, at which time she switched to a highback booster seat for travel since she was still a car sleeper.

What should you look for in a portable booster seat for travel? Here are a few suggestions:

-Choose between Ride Safer travel vest, highback booster and backless booster based on your child’s age, size and how much they sleep in the car

-Look for one that is light enough and compact enough to take as a carry-on or out in the city for the day

-Ideally it should last at least 3-4 years

Every trip may have different needs, too. If your travels involve lots of driving you’ll want to make sure you choose a comfortable option. On the other hand, if you’ll just be taking a quick taxi ride from the airport to the city center then portability might be more important than cushy padding or supportive headwings.

As you can see from the criteria above, there’s no one “best booster seat for travel”. Once you know your family’s needs, you can pick the right travel booster car seat. As you can see below, there’s a huge variety of portable booster seat options on the market today.

Read more: Bringing your booster seat on an airplane

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Ride Safer Travel Vest review

Several years ago the kind folks at Safe Ride 4 Kids sent us a Ride Safer Delight travel vest to review, and it hasn’t left our travel kit since. The Ride Safer travel vest (“Delight” has been dropped with the latest Ride Safer travel vest Gen 5 release) is completely different than the travel car seats above.

You could say that the Ride Safer travel vest is sort of in between a booster seat and a traditional forward-facing car seat. It relies on the car’s seat belt to handle most of the restraint, but also has an optional-but-please-use-it-always top tether that minimizes head movement in an accident and keeps your child in the correct position even if they fall asleep (or drop a toy). It’s the best travel booster seat for toddlers who aren’t ready for “normal” portable booster seats yet. While we won’t put our youngest child in a booster seat yet since she’s a car sleeper – especially when jet-lagged – we’re comfortable with her riding in the Ride Safer vest.

DEAL ALERT! Save $11 off the Ride Safer Travel Vest with coupon ‘VOYAGE‘

So comfortable, in fact, that we brought our Ride Safer vest on our year-long trip around the world! It’s seen action on six continents and served us well the whole time. Once we practiced a few times, we got very fast at putting her in the vest and getting her secured in the car. The biggest change from the Ride Safer Delight to the Gen 5 is an easier buckle in the front, so that should help many parents.

The Ride Safer Gen 5 is rated for kids beginning at 3 years old and 30lbs, but honestly we felt that the fit was better starting at 3.5 or even 4 years old and other parents agree with us. Fortunately size small should last most kids until 6 or even 7 thanks to the adjustable shoulder strap length. It also comes in large and XL sizes to accommodate kids who are older or bigger but still not quite mature enough for a booster seat. Because there’s no side impact protection, it’s a good idea to put your Ride Safer in the middle seat if it has a top tether available.

For families going on extended journeys like ours who just can’t take a traditional car seat or those heading somewhere like NYC or Paris, where they’ll mostly rely on public transportation but need an occasional taxi ride, the Ride Safer travel vest is a fantastic option.

For a more typical trip that involves flying and then renting a car for a week or two, we sometimes opt to bring our other travel car seat. But if you’re choosing between the Ride Safer travel vest or a backless booster seat, the vest is the better choice for younger kids and/or car sleepers.

While we generally think of the Ride Safer as a travel car seat alternative, we also use it at home often. I keep it in my trunk at all times so that we can fit 3-across in our car for those unexpected carpools or for when Grandma comes for a visit! Since the vest is as narrow as the child in it, there’s no trouble fitting it between two big car seats in our compact SUV.

Want to know all my best secrets? Click here to learn how to travel with your car seat like a pro!

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Best travel highback booster seat options

Ok, so what if you feel like your child year old is mature enough (and big enough) for a compact high back booster seat? There are a few great choices to consider for the next stage.

Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120 Booster Seat review

For a long time, I hesitated to recommend this next seat as a travel booster seat due to its high price tag. However, in light of so many discontinuations of less expensive and lighter competing seats, I’m bumping it up in the list.

The Peg Perego Viaggio Flex 120 has some great features, but a price tag to match as well. You can generally get it cheaper here with their coupon. It’s hard to fathom spending that much on luxury foldable high back booster car seat that doesn’t have any other modes available. However, some of the premium features make it a solid choice.

First off, it’ll last forever… or at least as long as you want it to. The upper size limit is a whopping 120 lbs and 63″, which is the size of a petite adult. Most riders that size will fit in a seatbelt just fine without a booster seat so you may not ever need a backless booster. The other piece of lasting forever is that Peg Perego gives 10 years until expiration of this seat. If you have a second child (or third or fourth!) they’ll be able to get a few years out of this seat as well.

Second, it’s loaded with reassuring safety features. The Viaggio Flex 120 has rigid LATCH connectors to easily install the booster seat and keep it from moving around, while most of the other booster seats on this list don’t have LATCH at all to save on weight. The back of the seat is also steel reinforced for additional safety.

Third, kids generally like it. It’s padded, it has folding cupholders on each side and the lack of armrests (though a downside for long drives) means it’s easier for booster-age kids to buckles themselves. You can even recline it on the fly after installing with rigid LATCH to allow your kids to rest a little. It’s also a really narrow car seat, which helps if you’re trying to squeeze three kids in the back row.

So what’s wrong with this child safety booster seat, other than perhaps the price? It comes down to the portability aspect. The steel reinforcement and rigid LATCH add an extra 5-6 pounds compared to competitors, making you less likely to sling this one over your shoulder and use it out on the town. It’s not even close to the most lightweight booster seat for travel. Likewise, it’s not all that small when folded – about 2′ long! You’ll be lucky to fit it in the overhead bin, but taking it when you walk around a city means you’ll need a really big backpack to carry it.

The best use for the Peg Perego Viaggio Flex booster seat is probably when you’re flying to head on a road trip and won’t be moving it in and out of cars all the time. It’s an especially good choice for those situations if you’ll need to fit 3-across in a rental car since it’s so narrow.

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Babytrend YUMI Folding Booster Seat review

If you’re shopping for a bargain travel booster seat, here it is. The Baby Trend Yumi folding booster seat has been around for a long time under different names and was a pioneer in this type of product. But is this foldable booster car seat still worth buying?

The highback booster size limits are a little lower than the hifold above, but when your child is ready you can remove the back to use it as a no back booster seat that goes all the way to 100 lbs (theoretically – in practice, it would probably be too narrow for a 100lb tween to be comfortable). Combined with the rock-bottom price tag, the Baby Trend Yumi 2-in-1 folding booster seat is an incredible value. (Note: The previous version of this seat did not convert to a backless booster and is even cheaper.)

A big plus of the Baby Trend Yumi is that it’s a booster seat designed for everyday use. It’s got cupholders and plenty of cushy padding. That makes it a great choice if you plan to fly somewhere and then take the kids on a long family road trip. Other folding booster seats like the hifold might not win kids’ hearts on a six hour drive, which of course means less peace for us parents.

The big downside of the Yumi is the fold. Whereas the hifold collapses into thirds to make an ultra-compact package, the Yumi’s fold just isn’t as small. While you might be able to fit the hifold under the seat in front of you, the Baby Trend Yumi definitely has to go in the overhead bin – and possibly sideways, depending on the size of the plane. With overcrowded bins the days there’s something to be said for a tiny package that won’t attract the attention of the flight crew!

For families on a budget or those with long drives ahead, the Baby Trend Yumi is worth a serious look.

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Diono Monterey 5ist Booster Seat review

If you’re looking for the best travel booster seat for a child who will just be traveling to Grandma’s house now and then, put the new Diono Monterey 5iST on your consideration list. It’s not the lightest booster seat on this list, but it has a ton to offer.

First off, the Monterey 5iST adjusts tall enough and wide enough to last nearly every kid to the end of their boostering days (it’s officially rated to 63″ and 120lbs). Since it’s good for 8 years, if you buy it now you may not need to buy your child another car seat or booster seat ever again.

When you do plan to take that occasional flight, the 5iST folds to about the size of a domestic carry-on suitcase so that you can probably fit it in the overhead bin (YMMV depending on the airline and aircraft). I hope that the next version will have more supportive staps – or even a hip belt. Alternatively, you can just leave it at Grandma’s and she won’t even notice it in the closet since it folds so compactly.

The Monterey 5iST has plenty of great features: side impact protection, rigid LATCH, unbeatable ease-of-use and more. Subjectively, it also feels extremely sturdy. This is a wonderful everyday booster seat.

My kids absolutely love the booster we received from Diono. You can read more in my in-depth Diono Monterey 5iST review, but my 10 year old is so enamored that he’s chosen to ride in it full-time. That’s high praise from an image-conscious tween!

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Best backless booster car seats for travel

Using an ultra-portable backless booster seat can make your travels so much easier! We made the switch when our older child was 6 years old, mature enough not to wiggle around and rarely fell asleep in the car. Our younger child isn’t ready yet at 6 years old, so she still rides in a harnessed car seat – even for travel. Read these backless booster seat reviews to help you choose the right one for your family:

Bubblebum booster seat review

The best backless booster seat for travel is one with which we’re extremely familiar: the Bubblebum inflatable booster seat. We traveled full-time with this booster seat for the better part of two years.

The Bubblebum travel booster seat is pretty amazing. It weighs about one pound and deflates/rolls to the size of a soda bottle – it’s a truly packable booster seat. Setting it up takes just a few seconds, and there’s even a shoulder belt guide to give a great fit for kids of different sizes in all different vehicles.

If you’re a family with a mature kid who doesn’t sleep in the car the Bubblebum gives you the paragon of portability. It’s the perfect option for taking around on days in a city when you think you might hop in a taxi to get home at night or if you’re taking lots of planes and trains for an extended trip.

The Bubblebum is so light that it may shift if your kid is very wiggly. But if your kid is very wiggly, they may not be ready for a backless booster yet. In that case, I’d go with the RideSafer travel vest for an ultra-portable option or one of the high back booster seats for travel listed above. We also had an issue with one of our Bubblebums deflating after we left it inflated in a hot car for a month (oops!); we reached out to customer service and they sent us a whole new one for just the $7 shipping charge!

We started using this booster seat at 6 years old, and we think that’s about right. But it’s approved for 4 years old/40lbs and there are plenty of 5 year olds who can use it successfully, especially if your drives are short. This is a judgement call for each family and also depends on the specifics of your travels.

You can also read my in-depth review of the Bubblebum.

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hiccapop Uberboost booster seat review

If you like the idea of an inflatable booster seat for travel, there’s a new option to consider these days. The newish hiccapop Uberboost follows the same basic concept as the Bubblebum but with a few pros and cons.

Read more: My in-depth hiccapop Uberboost review

The hiccapop packs down slightly smaller than the Bubblebum but inflates to offer a larger seating seating area. Score! It does that by keeping the inside of the booster seat completely empty (meaning it’s just a heavy-duty air bladder), while the Bubblebum has memory foam inside the booster seat to help it pass crash testing even when deflated. The hiccapop Uberboost also has a grippy layer on the bottom to prevent it from sliding around.

The biggest downside for us is that our leggy 48″ rider needs the shoulder adjuster clip in most seating positions but finds it very uncomfortable. The clip is much bulkier than on our other travel booster seats.

If your child is 48″+ or has a longer torso, you might be able to avoid using the clip – just be sure that the shoulder belt makes nice, complete contact with the middle of the collar bone. In that case the hiccapop Uberboost is a great choice for a traveling booster seat. For a smaller child, I’d stick with the Bubblebum for now.

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Graco RightGuide booster seat review

If you have a big kid or tween who’s approaching readiness for the adult seatbelt (usually 10-12 years old) but not quite there, check out the Graco RightGuide. It’s ultra low profile and easy to throw in a backpack or clip to the outside of a carry-on suitcase. It does require that kids be at least 5 years old, 43″ and 50lbs – a weight many kids don’t achieve until they’re around 7 or even older.

The RightGuide offers a wonderful seatbelt fit even for kids at the bottom of the stated size range. It can be problematic with certain types of seatbelts, so be sure to read my Graco RightGuide review to know what you need to look out for.

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Cosco Rise LX booster seat review

Do you like the idea of a more “traditional” booster seat but want a more compact form for travel? Or do you worry that your child will outgrow the width of the Bubblebum too quickly? The new Cosco Rise LX might be your best travel car booster seat option! We own the original non-LX version and have used it extensively.

The Cosco Rise LX (and original) are the booster seat in its simplest form: you put it down on the seat and then your kiddo buckles and runs the seatbelt under the arm rests to place it properly on her body. If your child is on the shorter side, there’s also an attached adjustable shoulder belt guide to bring the seatbelt down low enough to cross her collarbone.

That’s it. It’s not a folding booster car seat, but at 2 pounds it’s one of the lightest booster seats on the market. It’s also incredibly affordable, coming in right around $20. I’ve used it for multiple kids ranging from 6 to 10 and the fit is good on all of them. Even if you never plan to use it for travel, this is a great one to have on hand as a spare since it’s the cheapest booster seat you can buy.

The Cosco Rise is also the narrowest booster seat aside from Bubblebum at just 15″. That makes it a viable booster seat for 3-across, especially since it’s narrower at the back where your child will need to reach the buckle. We managed to squeeze one into the middle seat of our old CR-V between another narrow booster seat and an adult!

The biggest downside of the original version is the sparse padding, including none on the arm rests. This isn’t the seat my kids typically want to ride in for more than about 30 minutes, and we probably wouldn’t choose it for a long road trip if we had another choice. I recommend that you spring for the LX for just an extra $3-5, as it has more padding including on the arm rests.

Note that the minimum height for this booster seat is 43″ – many kids won’t reach that until almost 6 years old. Our son didn’t get there until almost 7 years old, so parents of shorter kids may need to look elsewhere. But the Cosco Rise LX may be the best booster seat for 6 year old globetrotters who need more hip room and prefer a stable seating area. On the other end of the spectrum, the Rise may not offer quite enough thigh support for the oldest booster riders since the seat is on the shallower side; at 11 years old, my son usually refuses it.

At 2 pounds, the Cosco Rise booster seat is one of the lightest booster seats available. It’s also extremely affordable! If your child is ready for a backless booster and you don’t mind the extra size or weight compared to the Bubblebum or if your child has outgrown the small seat of the Bubblebum, this just might be the best booster seat for travel.

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Chicco GoFit Plus review

We own the Chicco GoFit and love it! (Actually, if I’m being honest we now own four Chicco GoFits and three of them are permanently in my van.)

The padding is nice and squishy, the arm rests and cup holders are great and the price is very reasonable. It’s not terribly wide and the cupholders fold in to help it play nicely with other car seats. Installing the booster seat with LATCH is just as easy as with all of our other Chicco car seats.

This is one of the best car booster seat options for kids who are on the smaller end of the growth chart. If you have taller or broader kids, the seat may not be wide enough to hold them until the end of their booster days. There’s also a 57″ standing height limit, which may not work for the tallest kids.

This is the booster seat we use at home and the one we take for our child when we know we’re going to be doing a lot of driving at our destination. It’s extremely comfortable and has a great carry handle integrated into the back of the seat (it’s where the back would attach if you’d bought it as part of the KidFit highback booster seat, which we also have and like). On some planes my son has put the GoFit at his feet, while on other flights he’s put it in the overhead bin.

If you want to save a little money and a little weight, the original Chicco GoFit weighs about a half pound less than the Chicco GoFit Plus – the only differences are the lower anchors and fancier armrest fabric on the Plus.

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Harmony Youth booster seat review

There’s beauty in simplicity. The Harmony Youth booster seat has been around for a decade but it still gets the job done. There’s not much to this seat, but there doesn’t really need to be.

It’s an extremely lightweight backless booster seat at just 2 pounds, so it should be easy enough for kids 6 and up to carry this on their own. The Harmony Youth booster gets excellent ratings for providing a safe fit for kids and it includes a shoulder belt adjustor strap for kids on the lower end of the allowed size range.

It’s also a solid choice to use at home, whether for your own kid or to toss in the trunk for an impromptu carpool. The best part? It’s one of the cheapest booster seats around.

The only downside for hard-core traveling families is that it won’t fold up to fit inside a backpack or luggage. You can definitely put it inside your checked hard-sided luggage or your child can carry it on and put it under the seat in front of her (or in the overhead bin), but if your travels will involve hopping on and off trains or taking Uber in a city just know that this booster seat stays at its full size.

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Tips for traveling with a booster seat on an airplane

When you’re shopping for a portable booster seat, it’s important to remember that booster seats are not FAA-approved. That means you can’t use a booster seat on an airplane. From a safety perspective, that’s fine: your child will be over 40lbs, so the airplane seatbelt will secure her properly. But what should you do with her booster seat so it’s not lost or damaged?

Take it on board! There are a few ways to manage this. One option is to buy a folding booster seat from the list above. Some of these look absolutely amazing and we’re excited to try them! They fold up small enough to fit in the overhead bin of a plane or even in your child’s carry-on backpack so that you’re never separated from them. This won’t be an issue with any of the backless boosters we’ve recommended.

If you’re traveling with a highback booster seat the other option is to detach the bottom from the back and put the back in a suitcase. It’s ok to check the back that way because it’ll be protected by the suitcase and padded by clothing. You’d then carry the backless part of the booster on-board with you and put it in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of your kid. The only risk is if your luggage is lost or delayed, but at least in a pinch you could use the backless portion of the booster on its own.

Get the full scoop on flying with a booster seat

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Best booster seats for travel FAQs

What’s your favorite travel booster car seat? Tell us in the comments below!

You might also like…

• Want a folding car seat for travel? Here are your best choices by age
• What’s the best travel car seat for a 4 year old?
• Car seats and taxis: here’s what you NEED to know

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