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Bicester Holiday Inn Express Review. An excellent hotel

The Bicester Holiday Inn Express is a terrific little hotel! It’s my go to hotel in Bicester Village. The best thing about the hotel is the convenience! It’s just a 10 minute walk from the Bicester Village Outlet Mall. It’s also great value – I paid £46.

The Bicester Holiday inn is a simple and modern hotel, with free breakfast. I’ve now stayed there on 3 separate occasions, and I can definitely recommend it. This review contains full details about what to expect. All of the photos can be clicked and pop out to a slideshow.

Bicester Village is a luxury outlet mall, located near Oxford. About 1 hour from London. You can get massive discounts on luxury clothes and accessories. Brands include Moncler, Burberry, Prada, Dior and so many more. It’s the biggest outlet mall in the UK. Indeed, it’s the 2nd most popular destination for Chinese visitors to the UK (behind Buckingham Palace!).

 

What I Liked

  • Modern and well decorated hotel
  • Breakfast is free and good
  • 10 minutes walk from Bicester Village Outlet Mall
  • Excellent Price

What could be improved

I had no complaints!

The Hotel

The Bicester Holiday Inn is an excellent base, to visit the outlet mall. It’s a 10 minute walk. It’s also the only major hotel in Bicester Village. We stayed the night, before heading to the mall in the morning. The mall gets very busy, and the queues get long. So the morning is an excellent time to visit.

I paid £46 ($55) to stay at the hotel for one night, which is terrific value. The hotel is smart and modern. Arranged over 4 floors. I’ve stayed at the hotel multiple times, but this review will cover my most recent stay.

As an IHG Platinum, I was assigned a room on the 4th floor and given a free drinks voucher. Good for beer, house wine or a soft drink.

The hotel has a restaurant on the ground floor. It serves comfort foods - think pizzas, chicken wings and “dirty burgers”. I ate at the restaurant with my family and found it to be decent. The above slideshow contains the menu.

If you want to find out more about Bicester Village, the below video provides a nice guide.


The Room

I was given room 414. The room had the following features

  • Basic tea and coffee facilities
  • Double bed
  • Sofabed with small desk
  • Bathroom with a shower


I appreciated that the room had a separate sofa and a small desk to work on.

The design of the room is very similar to the Holiday Inn Express, CDG, Paris. It’s good to see that IHG are consistent in their branding – so you know what to expect. The Paris hotel was also excellent – I was pleasantly surprised! It’s on the site of the airport, in CDG, Paris. They also provide free breakfast to all guests.

I really like Holiday Inn Express as a brand. I’ve stayed at their hotels a few times now, and always been impressed. Clean, well located and good value. This trip is a perfect example of why I love travel hacking. For £46, I got a room (for 3 people), free breakfast and two drinks vouchers. I also earned IHG points, which I use to stay at amazing hotels like the Intercontinental Boston. For context, £46 would barely get lunch in a London café.

The Breakfast

The breakfast was served at the restaurant, and they had an impressive spread. The following options were available

  • Sausage bap (meat and veg)
  • Bacon bap
  • Cereals
  • Bananas and apples
  • Orange juice
  • Croissants
  • Tea and coffee

I had two veggie sausage baps, some muesli and a cup of tea. It was an actual breakfast, rather than just a snack. The Veggie baps were cooked to order – which is often the case at hotels. It’s one of the (few) advantages of being vegetarian.

Breakfasts at 4* hotels can be hit and miss. I still have nightmares about the food at the Novotel Tunis. The meatballs looked like they were cooked some time in the 1990s! However, if you visit Tunis it’s the only major international hotel in the city. Full details are in this review.

Conclusion

The Bicester Holiday Inn Express is a really good hotel, and excellent value for money. It’s my favourite hotel in Bicester Village. If you plan to visit the Outlet Mall, then there’s no reason to stay anywhere else.

I would give one caveat. If you want a Spa break, with your shopping, then this isn’t the hotel for you. You’ll need to travel further away, and stay somewhere else.

I wrote an article about the 13 best hotels in Bicester Village. If you need a hotel in Bicester, then the article is a must read. Prices start at £50/night.

My blog has loads of beautiful trip reports. I recently visited the Eurostar Lounge in London. The lounge and the bar were lovely. However, the food was really poor. Unlike the hotel in Bicester Village, you won’t get a full breakfast. Just some pastries.

Staying with IHG, I got to stay at the Intercontinental Danang. A stunning resort in Vietnam. I used IHG points to stay at the hotel – which can be earned from staying at any IHG Hotel. That includes the Bicester Holiday Inn Express.


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