Weekend in Bicester

This weekend my dad took us all away for the night to a lovely hotel and for a shopping trip in Bicester Village. With all of the stresses that are going on with me at the moment, the endless hospital appointments, the constant pain and the lack of sleep are not helping! I'm not up to a long break away and not being able to fly at the moment is also annoying. So I said that just one night would be perfect, just to clear my head, spend some time with the family,relax, chill and hit the shops whilst hopefully not in too much pain.
We stayed in the Bicester Hotel, Golf and Spa which is in Chesterton, Bicester, Oxfordshire. It's situated in the countryside but with easy access to the M40. There is a local pub a few minutes away from the hotel but the closest shop is in the Bicester town centre. The hotel itself was beautiful, with friendly staff and a lovely room which overlooked the golf course. The beds were so comfy!

In the afternoon we went down to the Spa which had a swimming pool, hydro spa, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. We didn't book any but you can book up to have a range of spa treatments. In the evening we went into the sports bar for a few drinks and then off to the restaurant within the hotel for dinner. Both the service and food were very good.

So on Sunday morning after a yummy breakfast we checked out and made our way to Bicester Village which is only a short drive away. Bicester village is an outlet centre which has over 130 boutiques from top names such as Jimmy Choo, Cath Kidston, Versace and Vivienne Westwood. The best thing about it is that you get the outlet prices and can save up to 60% off of the RRP. From staying at the hotel we were also given a booklet which enabled us to get 10% off in most of the shops within the village which was nice added bonus.

I had never been to Bicester Village before but had been recommended to go there by some friends. When we first arrived I was a little put back as all of the top shop names are out of most peoples price ranges including my own, however after going into the shops I found that because of the outlet prices you can find some fantastic deals and discounts. We did have a really lovely day there and would love to go back again.

If you are planning on going there I would recommend getting there early. We got there about half an hour before most of the shops opened and got parked right near the shops without any trouble. However by about 11am it did become very busy within the village. As we was leaving the car park at around 2pm there was a very long queue to get to the car parks, the queue of cars was about a mile long. So unless you want to be queueing for quite a while just to get parked I'd recommend getting there earlier.

I'll be doing a post about my purchases from the village very soon!
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