The Location
Wicken, Buckinghamshire.
Close enough to leave after work on Friday. Far enough that you'd never know you had.
12 min
Milton Keynes
55 min
London Euston
35 min
Bicester
50 min
Oxford
Why here
One of the great corners of the country — and almost nobody knows it.
Wicken sits at the meeting point of three of England's most magnetic weekend ingredients: motorsport at Silverstone, the world's most-visited designer outlet at Bicester Village, and the wide, walkable parklands and waterways around Milton Keynes. Stay a Friday-to-Sunday and you can do all three — or none of them, and just watch the horses.
Motorsport & retail
- — Silverstone Circuit — F1, MotoGP, track days, 25 min
- — Bicester Village — designer outlet, 35 min
- — Bicester Heritage — vintage motoring quarter
- — Mercedes-Benz World & Whittlebury Hall spa nearby
Culture & heritage
- — Bletchley Park — codebreakers' country, 18 min
- — Stowe Gardens & its ancient avenues, 20 min
- — Milton Keynes Theatre & MK Gallery
- — The National Bowl — open-air concerts and festivals
- — Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney
Outdoors & water
- — Willen Lake — paddleboard, sail, walk the loop
- — Grand Union Canal towpath from the door
- — Salcey Forest treetop walk, 25 min
- — Hundreds of miles of MK Redways for cycling
Eat, drink, stay slow
- — The Old Thatched Inn at Adstock — proper Sunday lunch
- — The Crooked Billet, Newton Longville — wine list, slow
- — Olney's Thursday market & independent cafés
- — Breakfast hampers delivered to your deck on request
Getting here
- — By car: 12 min from MK, free on-site parking
- — By train: London Euston → MK Central in 35 min
- — Transfers from MK Central on request
- — EV chargers on site at launch
Good for
- — Couples after a proper switch-off weekend
- — Race-weekend stays without race-weekend prices
- — A Bicester Village trip with somewhere lovely to land
- — Small corporate retreats — privately bookable