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?

@exLtEveDallas

I’ve never been to Liverpool. She does like museums, well she did when she was younger!

I would love to take her to London, we went for a weekend when she was 5/6 but I’ve checked Trainline and the tickets from us would be around £120 each on a Saturday which is just too much.

Check London train tickets from a few different stations. Booked in advance Leicester to London is about £130, Rugby to London is about £30, it takes me 10 minutes extra to drive to the Rugby train station than the Leicester city one 🤷🏻‍♀️

Liverpool would fit the bill, great shops & restaurants, lots to do. Or how about Bristol?

Gosh so many answers. Thank you all!

Yes this is for after lockdown. She is 16 this month and I was thinking of making her a voucher for a ‘shopping trip and overnight stay of your choice’ going maybe in May? She had a horrible 14th, a lockdown 15th and has become ill this year, so I wanted to make it special if I could. It’s been really hard to think of a decent present for her (kinda went overboard at Xmas!) so this seemed like something she’d look forward to.

I’ll read the replies proper now.

I live in Portsmouth and Gunwharf Quays is pretty good if she's into brands. The actual shopping wouldn't keep you occupied for a weekend, but there's plenty of restaurants, cinema, bowling etc. There's the dockyard with the Victory and Mary Rose if she's into that sort of thing, and a fairly standard sea front and fair ground, all in walking distance. Portsmouth town centre is a bit naff, but you've got Southampton 30 minutes away, which has a decent town centre with an IKEA too.

@exLtEveDallas

Is there a mall in Leeds? I’ve been to the Metro in Newcastle and Meadowhall in Sheffield, I wonder if somewhere like that would be a good idea.

Not really but there is the Trinity Centre which is nice and kind of links up with the area where Harvey Nicks and the posh shops are, that then links up with the new John Lewis and the nice shops round there. We prefer Manchester though and the Trafford Centre is good too but if we have a choice of Leeds, Manchester or Trafford Centre it would be Manchester (proud owner of a teen here)

I'd either say Gunwharf in Portsmouth or Brighton. Brighton would be more fun

This is really helpful. The shopping would be places like Primark, H&M, New Look etc, she’s not really into brands. She loves quirky little shops as well - nick-nacks, decorations, stationery. ‘Pretty’ things for her room. Hamster toys!

She likes science, maths, natural history as well as the usual teen online/TV stuff. She’s never been to an art gallery.

She’d go bowling, cinema, skating, adventure stuff. She likes walking/exploring. She wants us to have a weekend in St Ives/Exmouth/Brighton in the summer (as we aren’t having a holiday) but that’s not for shopping.

I do like the idea of a 2 centre thing - like a mall one day, town centre next.

I’m such a bumpkin, I’ve never heard of London Westfield so looking into that now!

Another vote for either Liverpool or Bath. Both lovely cities with lots to do.

@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.

Depends when you're planning on visiting? Here in Liverpool atm, nothing is open in the City Centre except for some Click and Collect.. It's pretty deserted. Hopefully all our theatres, galleries, museums and shops will be open again soon. Liverpool is a vibrant city and you need to visit it when you can really enjoy it.

You could drive to an outer tube station like Redbridge which has parking (not sure which side of London is best for you) then get the tube in so you avoid inner city driving

York or liverpool. Leeds is good but not pretty.

I went to Chester a few years ago and was very underwhelmed. Maybe you need to know where to go.

Hotels in york can be particularly expensive but you might be able to get a small apartment.

Another vote for Liverpool- fantastic shopping and huge versions of the shops you say she likes.

It's all v compact so if you get a train and book a central hotel you can walk everywhere, no need even for taxis.

There's loads of other things to do apart from shopping too- world museum if she likes natural history, Albert dock, cool places to eat, cat cafe!! My teens love Liverpool.

Hotels are pretty cheap too compared to other cities.

All the malls are pretty generic. If you come to London for Westfield or Oxford Street how about visiting Spitalfields, having beigels in Brick Lane beigel bake, Shoreditch and Columbia Road
on the Sunday. All very quirky and all within walking distance of one another.

From what you have said she is into then forget the big shopping malls that focus on fashion. I wouldn't bother with the Westfield's. They are horrible stuffy places.
My favourite places to shop in London are the Tottenham Court Rd/Charing Cross Rd/Covent Garden/Leicester Square/Picadilly Circus area of London. There is a massive Paperchase and big branch of Flying Tiger on Tottenham Court Rd plus a giant Primark on the corner. Charing Cross Rd has Foyles Bookshop which is fantastic for books. Forbidden Planet is a fantastic shop (on Shaftesbury Avenue off Charing Cross). Covent Garden has loads of interesting shops (Moomin Shop !!). Leicester Square/Picadilly has lots of the cheesy tourist shops plus Lego Store and M+M store if you want something a bit different.
It then easy to hop on the bus up to Camden Market.

Bath!! High street and small quirky shops, easy to get around and some lovely places to stay and eat. It is beautiful and could be made very special depending on where you stay. There are spa hotels close to the centre too which may be a treat. You can also go to the spa in the centre where the roof top pool is amazing.

Chester and Cheshire Oaks would meet your ‘town one day, mall the next’ idea.

Cheshire oaks ALL brands and designer eg Adidas, ugg, Armani - there's no primark, H&M or anything like that so it might not be for her?

Liverpool just has such a lovely atmosphere and shopping areas compact and lots of good museums as well as being on the water and nice strolls about the refurbished docks. She can get into the cavern club in the daytime for a bit of live music also.

That's if all these things are open. We've stayed in the shankly hotel on some really good deals.

Maybe Manchester? If she likes indie clothes at all there is Afflecks, which my DC thought was heaven on earth in their early teens. But there's also mainstream shopping and you could have a day at the Trafford Centre too.

Oooh yes, my teen loves Afflecks and The Northern Quarter.

I would say Trafford Centre. It’s lovely. Chill factor next door too. Cinemas etc.

Edinburgh is great for a weekend away, but I would not come here for shopping, Glasgow is far better.

Leeds is great for teens, I took my daughter for her birthday and she loved it. Had a day shopping then a night at the malmaison, went for a nice meal then a film at the Everyman cinema- which is awesome!
Has all the teen favourites, new look, river island, primark etc did have a massive top shop but obviously that's gone now.

I would park at Westfield and spend one day shopping there, then the other day in central London. I’d stay in central London.

uk.westfield.com/london/access

Camden is awesome for teen shopping.