When we came back from my Mum’s after Christmas we had so many presents to bring home that we had to leave the Donkey there until my next visit! The Donkey is small but there has to come a limit when you only have a tiny car! Gutted I have to say but at least we have had the Bee to use, buggy pushing would be so much harder without a trusty Bugaboo! Anyway, despite having my Bee (which I love) I have been missing Le Donk and obviously haven’t been able to write about him since my cheeky ‘Nativity post’… Soon to be rectified as he’ll be home shortly but in the mean time, I’ve found another Bugaboo product I just have to shout about! Mama’s Got a brand new bag! Oh yes!

Everyone knows I’m a Bugaboo fan, no new news there I’m afraid! What you might not know is that I have never (before now) been a fan of the Bugaboo Bag! I don’t know why but I’ve never got on with them and they’re quite literally the only Bugaboo product I have been dissatisfied with! Saying that I have only tried one and my sister-in-law (who had the design in between the last bag I had and the one I have now) said that hers was fab but my first Bugaboo Bag experience is not something I forgot and I was reluctant to believe they could have changed! Now, it’s not just Bugaboo Bags I have disliked over the years, a changing bag is very often a compromise on a bag in general because it has to serve all purposes but it is, at the end of the day, just a bag. I’m just mentioning because my opinion has come full circle when it comes to the Bugaboo Bag and the new Bugaboo Bag is JUST right!

So, let me build the story first! The first Bugaboo Bag I had was one of their older styles and what I disliked about it was that there was no space inside it, the two bottle bags at either end made it look a lot bigger than it actually was and then if you didn’t bottle feed you didn’t even get use out of the two ends anyway… The changing mat was awful too, so thin and small it barely did the job it was intended for and I discarded it almost immediately for taking up precious space that was, as I’ve said, of a premium! Now, like I mentioned, my sister-in-law had the bag design in between my old one and the one they have now and she was very happy with it but also said she didn’t find there was quite enough space to fit everything! So there was quite a lot to change for me to change my opinion so dramatically…

When I opened my new bag I quite honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing! Without a shadow of a doubt I could see on simple first impressions that it was as if Bugaboo had taken my list of nuances with their bag and made a bespoke design especially for me!

The new bag is HUGE but can be made smaller!

It has pocket after pocket inside and out (14 to be exact) including ones with zips, ones with poppers, big ones, little ones, a padded one for your iPad and one on the outside for a phone!

The Changing mat is brilliant, the right size and with pockets for nappies and wipes.

The list is pretty long so I’m going to let the photos speak…

Here is the bag in its biggest form and filled with EVERYTHING I need to take out daily. This includes, nappies, wipes etc, changes of clothes for two children, snacks, drinks, money, phone and a whole load of lots more!

At the base of the bag there is a special pocket which has a lining you can do up to make the base a separate compartment (excellent for something heavy you might need immediate access to) or you can unzip the lining and extend the depth of the bag! The base is also waterproof with a plastic rubbery coating. I always put my bag on the ground and this prevents it from getting wet! Genius!

Inside the bag (with the RED lining) you can see more pockets. I especially like the mesh ones which are easy to see and feel and as you can tell from my picture, the bag has a handy zip down the side of the bag meaning no more blind routing around! How FAB is this bag!

What else is inside it then? Well, a pretty fabulous changing mat as it happens! LOOK!

The changing mat is a world away from the one in my original old style Bugaboo Bag. This is one I’d happily buy separately to go in any other changing bag that I’ve had as it is quite outstandingly better than any mat that has come with any of the bags I have ever used (The bag is actually better than any bag I’ve used or reviewed before too by the way). It folds up small enough to pop in this or any other bag, does up with velcro, is padded for comfort, has wipe clean surfaces and the best bit is that it has two pockets to fill with changing essentials. On the far left the mat is shown empty and on the far right it is filled with 5 nappies, a full pack of wipes, a large tube of cream and a half full bag of nappy sacks. When closed it is STILL slim as if in some sort of minimising magic act! Folded out for a baby to be changed on and it’s big enough for a large child up to the age of about 2 and a half. I’m not just impressed. I’m VERY impressed!

Look at these pockets, just two of 14! One is insulated for a bottle (or 3)! It is very long and also wide enough for two bottles side by side and more underneath if you ask me. I don’t really use bottles when out but Jonny does occasionally and this pocket is big enough to put yogurt snacks and fruit in too. The pocket on the right is outside the bag and I use it for my phone. It has a natty piece of elastic which pops over the top of the phone ensuring it doesn’t jump out! There is also, as I mentioned a padded pocket big enough for an iPad!

Now this is showing the bag in lighter mode. Not something I will be using often as I carry so much truck around with me but you can, if unlike me, you don’t need to carry everything but the kitchen sink around with you! It simply folds over at the top clicking down with a magnetic popper and hey presto! The zip along the top can be shut and kept shut and to gain access there is a sneaky little secret zip on the side, see below!

This bag has it all including a long and adjustable shoulder strap with padding for comfort when over the arm and a carry handle. The strap is long enough to go over the handle bars as shown in my first two pictures (at the top of the post) and would easily fit on the handle bars of even the widest buggy! I have a clip that the carry handle also fits over and even when in LARGE mode this is easily carried on my small Bee! Yet again Bugaboo have produced a product that’s head and shoulders above all its competitors! I may not have liked my old bag much but I LOVE the new one and will be telling everyone about it!

My new bag is Bugtastic!

For more information on the ‘Bugaboo Bag’ and all other ‘Bugaboo’ products please see their website www.bugaboo.com. It’s also worth noting that ‘When you choose a ‘Bugaboo’ product (now available in more than 50 countries) you are choosing a company which is a proud (PRODUCT) RED™ partner. ‘Bugaboo’ contributes a portion of its profits across all products – to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa, with the goal of ending mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2015.