Review: TernX Carry-On Luggage Stroller

I procrastinated flying anywhere with my son until he was almost 3. There were so many things needed—a car seat! Stroller! In-flight entertainment! His own luggage! A crib when we landed!—that it felt like too much to coordinate. And who can blame me? It's just parenting in a new location, after all, rather than a vacation.

Still, a trip we wanted to take finally presented itself. We booked a long weekend in San Francisco and the nearby wine country to see family and friends we haven't seen since I was pregnant, and to relive a family tradition (though sans my grandmother, since she passed in 2020) for the first time since before the pandemic. Just in time, the perfect gadget presented itself to make the trip feel a little more manageable: the TernX Carry-On Luggage Stroller.

The TernX is both a small carry-on suitcase and a travel stroller built into a single device. One less thing to carry as a parent is always a godsend, and being able to tote my son and his clothes with one device felt heaven-sent. The TernX was founded by two parents who brought the company to Shark Tank, so it's no surprise it has a parent-minded design, though the compact size makes it best for younger (or shorter) kiddos. It was no problem to wheel this around the airport and San Francisco streets as a stroller, and as a suitcase onto a plane (which not all travel strollers can do!).

Stroller Stride

Photograph: Nena Farrell

As a travel stroller, the TernX is pretty solid. It's easy to unfold, has a five-point harness, and sports a storage basket underneath that fits a small bag (I stuffed my kid's backpack underneath it while we walked through the airport). The TernX is always 14 inches wide, while reaching 38 inches tall and 35 inches long in stroller mode, compared to 22 inches tall and just 9 inches long in luggage mode. This stroller can also hold kids up to 48.5 pounds—almost as much as a regular stroller. When it's empty, it weighs 17 pounds, only adding 3 pounds compared to my favored Nuna TRVL stroller.

It's really best for small children since the seat is under 12 inches wide. It was a fine size for my tall, almost-3-year-old to sit in, but bigger kids won't fit into this. I also didn't realize on my trip that I could extend the height of the back of the seat. He's nearly 40 inches tall with a particularly tall torso, and his head and shoulders tower above the TernX's lowest setting. Mom-fail for not spotting I could raise that for him (but if that's the worst I did on my trip, I'll take it!).

Still, being tall didn't seem to leave my toddler uncomfortable. He happily sat in the stroller both in the airport and while we walked around Sonoma and San Francisco. The wheels are small and can't handle rough terrain, so I recommend sticking to the smooth airport floors and well-paved sidewalks.

The luggage portion of the TernX sticks out the back between the two wheels while it's in stroller mode. I was surprised that it wasn't in my way at all—in comparison, the Uppbaby Vista V2 has an underseat basket that sticks out towards the parent, and even at 5'4", I'd find myself kicking it. No such issue with the TernX, though, for either my husband or me. The luggage backing was actually super handy: We turned it into our baby bag while we were on the go, easily packing all of my son's essentials and backup outfits for the day ahead of us without needing a separate bag.

You won't get the same range of motion with this luggage stroller compared to regular travel strollers. It swerved if you were on an incline, specifically if the left and right sides of the stroller were at different inclines on a driveway. I also didn't love the brake at the center of the stroller, but I got used to it quickly. We also basically abandoned the canopy in my husband's luggage for the entirety of the trip, since you have to remove it every time you break down the stroller. The canopy does fit into the luggage if you want to bring it along, and it was easy to click on and off, but we really didn't need it for the amount of time we were walking around.

Luggage Mode

Courtesy of TernX

Since the TernX is a hard-shell carry-on suitcase, it was no problem rolling it through the airport and onto the plane. It's shorter and smaller than my Beis carry-on, but it was a good size to fit four days of my son's 5T outfits (plus backup items), his jacket, and a handful of overnight diapers for the trip ahead of us.

You can only pull this luggage in one direction, because the stroller brake is in your way in the other direction. It's not the way you'd expect to pull it based on where the handle is positioned, either. It's, again, something I could get used to, but it was a little annoying. It doesn't really roll on the four wheels while standing, which in some ways is nice, but mostly means you need to make sure you're intentionally pulling it the right way if you need to move around.

Since it's a smaller suitcase, it didn't feel too heavy or obtrusive to lift up and stick into a car trunk or the overhead compartments on the airplane. We didn't run into any issues or questions with this suitcase coming onto the plane, though we always broke it down into luggage mode before starting to board so that the flight attendants wouldn't suggest we gate check it like a stroller.

I'd say it's easy to get from luggage mode into stroller mode, but when converting from stroller into luggage mode, it takes some serious effort to click it back into place. My best method to reunite the two halves—the luggage half and now-folded stroller half—together was by intentionally slamming them into the ground or into the trunk of the car. Sometimes I was able to pull it off with just my arm strength, but that was the biggest frustration when converting the stroller. My other complaint is that the handle does have a few heights, but it's not easy to get the handle to lock into place beyond the topmost height. It is possible, you just have to be careful and intentional to pull it off.

Along for the Ride

Photograph: Nena Farrell

So, who is the TernX for? If I were planning to take a ton of short trips with a 1- or 2-year-old, this luggage stroller would be perfect to use again and again. It really is incredibly convenient for a long weekend trip that includes a flight, and is best for kiddos who can sit up and face forward but aren't at preschool age yet. (Or if your kiddo is on the shorter side, they could use it for longer—my son is tall, but I was a 10th-percentile kind of kid.) The bag size is great for both a weekend's worth of kid clothes and your day-to-day essentials, and it could be nice on a longer trip too, though you'll likely need another bag for everything your little one will need.

Overall, I'd use this stroller again. We haven't reached for it since being at home, but I'm certainly going to wish my kiddo were shorter for my next flight. I guess it'll be time to get one of these. The TernX has sold out a few times already, but this handy suitcase is currently available for preorder to ship in August.