Review: Bicester Village, UK

Have you heard of Bicester Village? If you live somewhere north of London or South of Birmingham the likelihood is you probably have. Put simply Bicester Village is a collection of around 150 stores offering designer fashion brands open 7 days a week and till 8pm most weekday evenings.

To check out the full list of stores here.

The village is accessible by train from London in 46 minutes, Birmingham or Oxford. Or you can take a coach from London. There is also a bus service from Oxford or if you drive it is just off the M40 and there is a fair amount of parking.

Our visit to Bicester Village was not because we fancied a new shopping location, in fact if we did 'designer village' would not be top of our list, it was because I had a Virgin voucher to spend. On Virgin Experience days you can exchange you voucher for varying amounts of gift cards and lunch vouchers at Bicester Village so that's what we did.

On arrival we collected our gift card and lunch voucher from guest services and agreed a strategy. Start at the furthermost end and work back. The only challenge would be committing to buy items when in a store to save walking back and forth. At almost 8 months pregnant tons of walking is out of the question right now.

It's been a while since we shopped for ourselves, recent budget has all gone on baby related items, but we started strong with a trip to Calvin Klein for some underwear. It seemed unnecessary as only Laura ever sees my undies but I have always wanted a matching pair and now seemed like an appropriate time to get them. I got sizes I can wear post-baby so I have a reason to get back in shape.

From there we headed to Ralph Lauren and within 5 minutes realised how much we really didn't belong in these types of stores. While there were pretty clothes the amount of shoppers already modelling the clothing made it feel weirdly cult-ish and when I picked up a dress for £225 I almost dropped it in shock. Who has that kind of money?! Gift voucher or not I can't imagine any dress being worth that amount. It would have to be self-washing and self-ironing and be able to re-hang itself.

We promptly left and after a confusing pop in to Ted Baker - confusing because we couldn't really figure out what they were selling except obnoxiously loud and colourful things. After the colour overload we decided lunch was the best plan. The noodles we opted for were delicious and filling but at £8 something we'd take sandwiches if we came back! Or visit, what used to be, Europe's largest Pret.

Fueled by lunch the next stop was Hunters, Laura had always wanted a pair and as the store was fairly quiet it was a great opportunity to try on the selection. As this was an outlet store we struggled to find a variety of sizes in each colour but as they say it only takes one and our one was a classic black, calf boot in the right size. Laura almost cried with happiness. We also managed to get boot socks to complete the look.

White Company came next but we were disappointed by the selection, I don't often wander into the store and based on this I wouldn't hurry back. The main things there seemed like overpriced bedding and towels and the children range, where we thought we might be tempted, ended up as nothing special. Laura opted for the large candle as it was reduced from £50 something to £33 and I was told that was a good deal.

We stopped by Pandora and were pleasantly surprised at how reasonably priced the jewellery was but not tempted into buying anything. We walked past the queues for Gucci, Mulberry and a few other designer brands and briefly looked into Havaianias, sadly my fav design didn't have my size so we moved on.

My personal success of the day was in Cath Kidston. The store was packed to the rafters with great deals and we had to do a count-up of the items to ensure we didn't go over our gift card amount. I ended up with 2 dresses, a jumper and a bag that I plan to take to the hospital when baby makes her arrival.

By the time we had finished we had spent 3 hours and we were both ready to head home. The experience was an interesting one. The way Bicester Village is designed makes it a great shopping destination - beautiful flowers fill the pedestrian areas and it's like a shopping Disneyland. There are plenty of employees walking the area ready to help, the toilets are maintained and there are plenty of them, the station looks like you arriving at a destination and the guest services is like a hotel.

There are plenty of seats for weary shoppers to rest on and enough food options to offer a choice so if you want a day or afternoon of shopping in a pleasant environment you can't go wrong.

With all that said you really have to love a brand, we struggled as it's hard to justify the 'value' in some of the stores. We aren't into designer anything though so we appreciate that is our challenge. There are plenty of 'deals' on the designer brands if that is your thing. Time it right (like we did) and they also do 20% off weekends so it's extra discount.

The highlight of the day wasn't the village for me, though I am glad to say we've done it, it was having the opportunity to spend time with Laura. We haven't spent a day with the sole focus being one another for a while and I really enjoyed it.

I'm not sure if we will be back, unless we have a specific request from a family or friend for a designer item and we are feeling generous :) We definitely belong on the high-street when it comes to shopping!

Have you been? What are your thoughts?