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 a designer shopping destination on the edge of Bicester, drawing visitors from across the world to its curated mile of more than 150 boutiques. Big-name fashion and lifestyle brands, from Gucci and Mulberry to Jimmy Choo and Jo Malone, sit in open-air streets offering discounts off recommended retail prices all year round. The experience is geared to make a day of it, with cafés and restaurants, valet parking, hands-free shopping, personal stylists and tax-refund services on hand. Roughly half an hour from Well Cottage, it is an easy outing for a rainy day or a treat, and convenient too for anyone arriving by train via its own station from London Marylebone.
The village is arranged along a single pedestrianised street, which keeps the experience pleasantly unhurried even when it's busy. The fashion edit runs from Mulberry and Gucci to Barbour and Reiss, with footwear well covered by Jimmy Choo, Tod's and Kurt Geiger. Beauty lovers tend to linger at Jo Malone and L'Occitane, where testers are plentiful and the staff genuinely helpful. Discounts run year-round (typically 30 to 60 per cent off full retail), so there's no need to time a visit around a specific sale. If you'd like a hand planning your route through the boutiques, the complimentary personal shopping service is worth booking in advance. Stop for lunch at one of the terrace cafés along the main street, or pick up coffee and a pastry from the Carluccio's-style deli near the entrance and eat as you go.
Well Cottage sits about 35 minutes from Bicester Village by car, mostly on the A4260 through Deddington and then the A4095 into Bicester. Parking at the village is free and plentiful, which makes driving the simplest option on most days. If you'd rather leave the car behind, Bicester Village station (a short walk from the boutiques) is served by direct trains from London Marylebone in under an hour, and a taxi from the cottage to Bicester town centre connects easily from there. Weekends draw bigger crowds, so arriving when the village opens at 10am gives you the calmest hour of the day. Bicester pairs well with Blenheim Palace on the same day — about 20 minutes apart, and both roughly half an hour from the cottage. Blenheim in the morning, Bicester in the afternoon.
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.