Bicester Village
A designer outlet of more than 150 luxury and lifestyle boutiques offering year-round savings, one of the UK's best-known shopping destinations.
A designer outlet of more than 150 luxury and lifestyle boutiques offering year-round savings, one of the UK's best-known shopping destinations.
Bicester Village is the designer outlet on the edge of Bicester that draws visitors from across the world to its open-air streets of more than 150 boutiques. We think of it as the guests' page for anyone who fancies a proper shopping day rather than a quick errand, and it is one of the few things around here that works just as well when the weather does not. Luxury and premium labels sit side by side, all discounting off their recommended retail prices right through the year, so there is never a particular sale to wait for.
The whole place is built to make an afternoon of it. Cafés and restaurants are dotted along the street, and the extra services are the kind you would expect from somewhere this polished. When we send guests here we tell them to treat it as an outing, not a dash, and to leave enough time to sit down for lunch somewhere along the way.
The village is arranged along a single pedestrianised street, which keeps everything pleasantly unhurried even when it is busy. You will find a broad sweep of names here, from established luxury houses to the more contemporary premium labels, covering fashion, accessories, footwear, homeware and beauty. Because the discounting runs all year, there is no need to time a visit around a specific event, though the streets are noticeably quieter midweek than at weekends. If you would like a hand planning a route through the boutiques, the personal shopping service is worth arranging ahead. Here is roughly how we suggest guests frame the day.
Well Cottage sits about 30 minutes from Bicester Village by car, mostly on the A4260 through Deddington and then across into Bicester. Parking at the village is straightforward and there is plenty of it, which makes driving the simplest option for most of our guests. It is an easy there-and-back with time to spare, whether you go for the whole day or just the morning.
Bicester Village has its own station, a short walk from the boutiques, with direct Chiltern Railways trains to and from London Marylebone in under an hour and roughly every half hour through the day. That direct line is a big part of why the village is so popular with visitors coming out from London and from further afield, and it means guests arriving by rail can reach the cottage this way too. If you would rather not drive on the day, a taxi from Ledwell into Bicester connects easily from there.
Bicester pairs well with Blenheim Palace on the same outing, as the two are about 20 minutes apart and both roughly half an hour from the cottage. Blenheim in the morning and Bicester in the afternoon makes for a full but easy day. For a gentler contrast, the Oxford Covered Market offers a very different kind of shopping about half an hour away.
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.