Dreamer Design Rebound or Manhattan? or something else...

Hello,

I am in the market for an outdoor stroller that I can use for fitness walking. I would prefer to stay in the $250 or less price range. I live in Tucson where the sun is relentless, the pavement bumpy, and sidewalks are few and far between. I also live within 20 minutes of several state parks so I will probably be offroading it a bit (though we have a Kelty backpack that we use for hikes with the dogs, so not going that far off road.)

I really wanted to ditch our regular stroller (the Aria, hate it!) so was considering the Manhattan because I thought with the swivel wheel it might do double duty for our very infrequent trips to the mall. But I got to try out the Rebound recently at a local store and liked the ride the 16" wheels had to offer. I was also quite impressed with the Dreamer Design canopy. My son is a redhead, combine that with the Tucson sun, and the canopy feature is one of my top priorities (I have questions about sunshades too but that is another post.) The price seems to be right as the Rebounds and Manhattans are available online for $175-225 including shipping.

My son is almost 9 months old, over 23lbs. and quite strong and sturdy. He seems to like the bumpy ride he gets in the Aria, but I don't want to jar him unnecessarily.

I have condsidered the Tike Tech for its crossbar as my son loves to hang on to the front crossbar in his current stroller but it doesn't seem to offer a comparable canopy. We like the idea of the Chariot Cougar as my husband is from Wisconsin and we are planning on a few biking vacations in his home state when the baby is a little older, but for the forseeable future I don't see us using a bike trailer as we mostly mountain bike and the road biking in Tucson, though scenic, is too dangerous for child trailer. Plus, the Chariot price is something we would have to seriously consider.

We have a Subaru Forester, so car storage is not a huge issue.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Kerry