Where would you take teen for special shopping trip?

[exLtEveDallas]

In UK, I don’t care how far I have to drive.

Trying to do something nice for DD for her 16th birthday. She suggested a shopping trip and I’d like to build on that.

Ideally an overnight in a hotel on a Sat/Sun. Somewhere I could drive (trains are so bloody expensive) so would need parking. Good shopping, central so wouldn’t need to drive again. Something to do in the evening.

Thinking London (but parking ££££ and driving in centre worries me a bit), Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham. We are Midlands, so can go anywhere really.

Is there somewhere you would recommend? Even if it’s a bit ‘out there‘. DH suggested Oxford, I’m wondering about somewhere on a coast?

One of the Westfields in London ?

Oxford has a newish shopping centre and the quirky open market and traditional High Street shopping .It is beautiful and ticks a lot of other boxes imho . Culture, walks, river, food etc .

London Westfield is really easy to get to to and negotiate around if you want to avoid the Oxford St chaos. Although there is something special about Oxford St!

Cardiff is brilliant for shopping - parking is plentiful and there’s plenty of city centre hotels. Nice restaurants around St David’s centre / St Mary’s St too.

Get a rail card and go to Selfridges! Swoon at the designer floor, buy Korean beauty masks for £2.50 (the shop has lots of price ranges) and go to Lola’s for cupcakes. There’s a cinema there as well when it’s allowed to open up again.

Chester or York. Both have outlet villages too.

the Cheshire oaks outlet near liverpool is amazing 😊 it is always a part of our liverpool weekends

Brighton-last time I was there I spent the whole day thinking dd (then 16) would love this! All those independent shops, plus Pull and Bear and a Pusheen shop! Loads of great stuff.

Do you folks have shops open? I'd recommend Liverpool personally. No point coming to Scotland, we have no idea when we will have shops open.

Might be worth checking the price if you had a friend's and family railcard. The card cost 30.00 for a year. We used it a lot when DD was that age as she loved going to London for the day.
Alternatively drive and park at Stanmore Station and tube from there.

@WaxOnFeckOff

Do you folks have shops open? I'd recommend Liverpool personally. No point coming to Scotland, we have no idea when we will have shops open.

I assume this is for after lockdown. All non essential shops still closed currently. 12/4 is the date things might reopen. (England)

Bluewater for more ‘normal’ shops - but plenty of them, loads of eating options and other stuff to do e.g. cinema.

Or Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays - more ‘designery’ but great shops for teens, plus you can go up the spinnaker tower for great views too. I took teen DD there last summer and stayed at the hotel on site, it was great. Loads of eating options there too, plus you can walk to southsea to the beach and pier too.

Leeds is great!

Wax, nope, only essential shops open currently. This will be forward planning for a future weekend.

I would second the suggestions of Chester (small city centre more than just shops) or perhaps Edinburgh (you can use the tram to get from a hotel, though now Jenners has shut there are less shopping options).

If you stayed city centre Manchester you could do one day in the city and then get the tram over to the Trafford centre and do a day there?
Manchester City centre has loads high street, self ridges and Harvey nicks also afflecks palace for more indie cool stuff....
Spinningfields is nice if you want an upmarket kind of lunch but plenty of excellent food places all over the city the northern quarter is cool and where my 16 year old likes to be with her mates.

Although I liked Gunwharf Quays Portsmouth I would struggle to spend more than an hour or two there. Plus Chester/York have nicer old town bits.

I think I'd go for Trafford Centre but like the suggestions of Chester and Edinburgh as well. Sounds lovely, I can't wait for a shopping trip!

Thanks Sparkling, I know you folks have a bit more info. Just worried that folks would head to Edinburgh or Glasgow and nothing open. No accommodation open either right enough. We don't really have a plan.

The Trafford centre is ideal for a 16 year old. As is Leeds.
Meadowhall is not big enough imo.
Chester and Edinburgh wouldn’t be my choice for a teen really.
Liverpool is very vibrant.

@WaxOnFeckOff

Thanks Sparkling, I know you folks have a bit more info. Just worried that folks would head to Edinburgh or Glasgow and nothing open. No accommodation open either right enough. We don't really have a plan.

Oh I didn’t know that. No plan for Scotland coming out of lockdown? You are usually ahead of us too.

If you did Leeds you could go to York the next day?

We stayed in York and got the train to Leeds it didn’t take that long IIRC.

Bath. Lovely city easy to navigate, brilliant shopping and lots of interesting hotels and restaurants. Plus fab touristy stuff too.

Portsmouth, Gunwharf Quay. Lovely shopping centre, on the water with lots of bars and restaurants for the evening. Good selection of hotels and the historic dockyards for a bit of education/culture. We live just outside london so pre covid we would shop in oxford st, carnaby st etc 3 to 4 times a year, but we have been to Portsmouth for shopping/weekend breaks twice now and my 14 year old loves it.
Last time we stayed at a premier inn, very good value walkable to shops and discounted parking with a nearby car park when booked through the hotel (£12 for 24 hours) x

The hints we have is that we'll return to tiers late April, there is talk of using WHO guidance on tier criteria but not using the WHO guidance on measuring, that would mean most of us would remain in tier 4. We still can't travel outside our council boundaries really so it's very limited. Election is early May so maybe we'll get let loose just before that as a vote winner. 🤷‍♀️

I took my teen DD for a personal shopping session at Top Shop in London several years ago. She lived it - they made such a fuss of her, and no pressure to buy stuff, although we did.
Alas Top Shop is no more, but I expect other shops do something similar.