Orlando Premium Outlets: A Shopper's Guide to Both Locations

Orlando has two Premium Outlets centres, they are twenty minutes apart at opposite ends of the tourist corridor, and almost nothing written about them says plainly which one you should go to. That is the question this guide answers, because for most visitors it is a choice of one — each centre is large enough to absorb a half day on its own.

The short version: Vineland for luxury and for the shorter drive from the Disney-side villas, International Drive for sheer range. And whichever you pick, know before you set out that both are open-air.

The two centres, side by side

Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets — the luxury one

Vineland is regarded as one of the country's most upscale outlet centres and is the only luxury outlet in the Orlando market, with more than 160 designer and name-brand outlet stores. If you are hunting discounted designer labels specifically, this is the centre that has them.

It sits off Interstate 4 at exit 68 on State Road 535, near Lake Buena Vista — the Disney side of the corridor. From the Kissimmee, ChampionsGate and Reunion vacation home communities it is comfortably the quicker of the two trips.

Orlando International Premium Outlets — the big one

The International Drive centre is Florida's largest outlet shopping destination, spanning over 773,586 square feet and welcoming more than 17 million visitors a year. It is at the very north end of International Drive, off I-4 exit 75A, towards the Universal side of town.

Those visitor numbers are worth reading twice. Seventeen million a year is theme-park traffic arriving at a shopping centre, and it is why the parking and the crowds build so fast at weekends.

Both are open-air. Plan for it.

Neither centre is an enclosed mall. You are outside walking between stores, even where sections are covered, and in Central Florida that cuts two ways.

• The heat. Summer afternoons are genuinely hot and humid, and an outlet centre involves a lot of walking. Mornings are far more comfortable.
• The rain. From May to October, Central Florida's wet season brings daily sea-breeze thunderstorms that build through the afternoon. A downpour at an open-air centre means sheltering, not shopping.

If the weather has already turned, or the forecast is poor and you cannot move the day, go to an enclosed centre instead — The Florida Mall is fully indoors and air-conditioned, and our wet-weather guide to Orlando covers what else works when the sky opens.

What outlet shopping actually is

Worth understanding before you commit half a day to it, because the reality is more mixed than the word "outlet" suggests. Outlet stock generally falls into three categories, and only one of them is the bargain people imagine.

• Genuine past-season stock. Last year's ranges from the full-price stores, discounted to clear. This is the real thing, and it is where the best value sits.
• Made-for-outlet lines. Produced specifically for outlet centres, at a lower price and often a lower specification than the mainline product. Not a con, but not the same garment either.
• Current-season overflow. Small quantities of this season's stock at a modest discount, usually in sizes that did not sell.

None of that means you should skip the outlets — the discounts are real and Orlando's centres are unusually good ones. It means going in knowing what you are looking at, and checking a garment on its own merits rather than on the size of the percentage on the ticket.

Timing the trip

The single biggest variable at both centres is when you arrive, and it matters more here than at an enclosed mall because you are queueing, parking and walking outdoors.

Weekday mornings are comfortably the best. Weekend late mornings are the worst — the crowds and the heat peak together, and the car parks at both centres fill in a way that adds twenty minutes to the start of the day. Public holidays are worse still, and the week between Christmas and New Year is the busiest shopping period in Central Florida by a distance.

If a summer afternoon is your only option, plan around the storms rather than hoping: arrive early, take a long lunch when the sky darkens, and shop again afterwards. Wet-season thunderstorms build in the afternoon and usually pass within the hour.

Getting there without a car

This is the most useful fact about the outlets and it is barely mentioned anywhere. A daily shuttle service runs to the Vineland Avenue centre from all International Drive hotels, calling every fifteen minutes. Vineland is also a stop on the I-Ride Trolley, as stop 42; the International Drive centre is stop 1.

If you are staying in a vacation home you will still be driving — the shuttle serves hotels, not the villa communities. But it is worth knowing for a day when one car is doing a park run and somebody else wants to shop.

How to shop them properly

1. 1Pick one. Doing both in a day means two half-visits and forty minutes of driving between them, and the brand line-ups overlap enough that the second adds little.
2. 2Go early, especially at weekends and on holidays. Parking and crowds build fast by late morning at both centres.
3. 3Find guest services first. Both centres have Simon Guest Services desks — the International Drive site has two, at the management office and the food court — and they hold the current offers.
4. 4Ask about wheelchair rentals at the desk if anyone in the group will struggle with the distances. These centres are large and entirely on foot.
5. 5Budget for lunch on site. Vineland's food court runs to Shake Shack and similar; leaving to eat and coming back costs you the parking space.

A realistic half-day

Most people badly underestimate how long an outlet centre takes, then rush the last hour. A workable shape for either centre, assuming a morning start:

• First half hour. Park, find guest services, pick up whatever current offers are running, and agree a meeting point and a time. These centres are large and phone signal in a busy one is not guaranteed.
• Two hours. The actual shopping. Split up if the group wants different things — this is the format where that works, because everybody is walking anyway.
• An hour. Lunch on site, sitting down, out of the sun. Skipping this is the most common mistake and it is why people leave irritable.
• Last hour. Second pass at anything you were undecided about. You will have seen the whole centre by now and will know whether the first thing was really the best price.

That is four hours, which is a genuine half day, and it is why doing both centres in one go does neither of them properly.

The smaller alternatives

If the Premium Outlets sound like more effort than you want, two quieter options sit closer to the villa communities. Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores is a compact open-air outlet centre minutes from Disney that trades range for a much easier trip, and The Loop in Kissimmee mixes big-box retailers with dining and a cinema for an evening rather than a shopping expedition.

Our full comparison of shopping around Orlando puts all of them side by side, including the luxury option, if you would rather see the whole picture before committing a day to any of it.