Just Back From…Bicester Village

The first time I heard about this place, I was in one of my favorite stores in the world, Mouki Mou on Chiltern Street in London, talking to Apostolos, our very in-the-know friend who works there. He had on this super chic jacket, and I asked him where he got it. “Bicester! It’s where I get everything!” he said. I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained that it’s a shopping village with incredible brands at really great prices—less than an hour’s train ride into the countryside. 

Not long after, some friends of mine started working with Bicester Village and invited me to experience it. Kismet! So on my recent trip to London, we decided to make a day of it. Clara and I were excited for the adventure, Matt less so.

We got on the train in Marylebone—a station I didn’t even know existed; it feels more village-y than any other station in London. In no time we arrived at the sweet little Bicester Village station, where a chauffeur-driven car picked us up. (My friends wanted me to experience the VIP treatment, though you can just walk a few minutes from the station to the boutiques.) It happened to be a record-breaking heat wave on the day we were there, so we didn’t mind missing the steps. 

We were quickly whisked into The Apartment. Technically it’s a lounge for Bicester’s most loyal shoppers, but it feels like a private club.

The Apartment is two stories with a concierge desk, and many different rooms to hang out in, all of them designed very smartly. I’m so rarely impressed by the art in hotels or lounges, but this felt different. David Thomas, a great friend of the house, designed the space and has been a key collaborator on all of them. (The Bicester Collection comprises 12 villages throughout Europe, North America and China. Each one is within an hour of a major city. New Yorkers: they just opened one on Long Island called Belmont Park Village.) 

While we were getting a tour, I could feel Matt growing antsy—he could see the Ralph Lauren boutique from The Apartment, and he was jonesing hard. An interesting turn by the skeptic. After fueling up on coffee, checking in anything we didn’t want to carry, and downloading the Bicester Village app to get our QR code for hands-free shopping, we were off.

We joined Matt at Ralph Lauren, or rather, we tried to—he was like a crazy person with his excitement for all of these pieces he’d seen in the shows or online, but had never found in his size until now. You’d think we lived in the middle of nowhere when in fact we live down the street from Ralph Lauren in NYC! But the edit here is completely different. We checked out and walked away with nothing in our hands—they offer the most brilliant shopping service ever, which is to send your goods back to The Apartment until you’re ready to leave, so you can shop unencumbered. After that, we discovered the original Tod’s driving loafer that we haven’t been able to find in their stores, for a third of the usual price. Then it was time for lunch. Since we were in the countryside, we opted for The Double Red Duke, an outpost of the original, about 45 minutes away in Clanfield. (There’s also an Ottolenghi, but we’d eaten there recently.) Lunch was delicious—one always has a level of skepticism around food offerings in a shopping village, but this was perfect. Lovely elevated “pub grub” of the shrimp cocktail, burger, and fish & chip variety—exacty what you want in the English countryside.

After lunch we got iced coffees at Ralph’s, our favorite back in NYC, before Clara treated herself to her first pair of Manolos (under 300 pounds!) and Matt picked up a replacement Dopp kit at Prada. He has been loyal to the same one since I met him almost 30 years ago and is on his second one, which was overdue for a replacement but is more than 1,200 euros in duty free. Here it was 300 GBP.

At this point, I received a notification from my Bicester Village app that I had shopped my way—with the help of Matt and Clara—into the highest tier of their loyalty program (which works like an airline mileage program: loyalty + spend = access). At this point I wouldn’t even need my friends to get me into The Apartment; I could now do it myself. For the record, you need to spend 3,000 GBP during a calendar year to hit this threshold, but good old Hranek did it in a day.  

We could have spent much longer here, as I missed so many things—Daylesford, Missoni, etc.—but we had to get back to London. And where were our bags? At the station! We were driven back and checked into guest services, which stored our haul for us—a true luxury but also a little dangerous, because you don’t realize how much you’ve accumulated as you go. Nevermind, they were all great staples for my travel uniform! 

Bicester Village was an easy, day-long field trip from London—we left on a 9am train and were back at our hotel unloading our haul by 5pm. It scratched our shopping itch completely, and couldn’t have been more seamless. Next time, though, I’d definitely visit at the beginning or the end of a London trip, because there is so much to do nearby, given that it’s about 30 minutes to the heart of the Cotswolds and roughly the same distance to Oxford. 

Next time, here are the places on my list I’d build a whole Bicester Village itinerary around:

Estelle Manor, where I’ve always wanted to stay, is just 30 minutes by car from Bicester Village. I’m imagining a charming weekend of driving around the Cotswolds, using Estelle as my home base. Blenheim Palace, the 300-year-old grand countryhouse with an incredible English garden, is near the manor and 20 minutes from the shopping village. It’s also not far from the Chilterns National Landscape, a massive park that’s a perfect detour for a countryside walk. (We’ve got plenty more ideas in our Cotswolds Black Book.)

Also in Oxfordshire, The Bull at Charlbury is a very cool and popular pub (also an inn), which dates to the 17th century, and The Lamb Inn is just 13 minutes from The Bull and 20 from Estelle, with (I hear) fish and chips to die for. 

Alternatively, if I wanted to make Bicester Village my first stop after arriving in London (or last before flying out), I’d head to Heckfield Place—one of my favorite hotels in the world and very close to Heathrow—then head up to the Cotswolds after a day or two of delicious meals and treatments in their spa, The Bothy—great jet lag recovery. It’s about an hour from Heckfield to Bicester Village.