First off, for anyone visiting San Francisco it's a bit of a trek and really you need to car to get there. We took an Uber which cost about $65 each way and takes about an hour, it about a 40 mile journey. If you drive yourself parking is free and there's lots of it. We were warned it gets pretty packed although it wasn't the case when we visited. The mall opens at 10am, we arrived around 10.30am on a Sunday morning and it was pretty quiet. We did discover some of the premium stores like Vince, Givenchy, Armani don't actually open until 11am but there's plenty to check out if you happen to arrive early.

Making The Most Of Your Visit

I would suggest planning ahead and deciding which stores you want to visit a head of time. It's a pretty vast place for first timers and a little overwhelming, especially if you are only interested in specific brands or looking for something specific. It's probably worth looking at the brand list before you go and also find the stores you like on the map ahead of time. We'd looked at the brand list but didn't do this so finding what we wanted to see wasn't the easiest and we did end up doing more walking than necessary if we'd had a better plan.

Are the discounts and savings worth the trip?

It's expensive for sure, especially in the designer stores. I was looking for a hoodie, I saw a few I liked, one in Zadig and Voltaire, around $200 and one in Givenchy for an eye watering $460, which didn't feel like a designer discount so I'd say you need to budget around $500 if you want to have a decent shop. I went in the Theory store, a brand I love and found a very cute jacket, not sure what the original price was but $300 was too much for me.

We spent 20 minutes in the Off Saks Outlet, a favourite store of mine at the Beverley Center where I live in LA. This was really disappointing.  There was hardly any stock and what they did have looked really dated, lots of occasion wear, ready to wear, very little athleisure, comfortable, every day clothing and hardly any shoes or boots, we didn't buy anything in there.

There's a lot to look at, it's very big and could be overwhelming. Planning ahead before you visit is smart as some stores we found had extra discounts on top of the normal discounted prices. We shopped in the Vince store as we got lucky. They were offering an additional 25% off the already 40% off which made their staple T shirts much more affordable around $45, we stocked up.

The lululemon store was packed full of stock if you are a fan but you'd need to allocate time, the store was very busy and going through the rails to find your size and style was a job not for the faint hearted. If you want to try things on I'd suggest wearing something easy to whip on and off as even in the winter months, we went in the fall, it was still very warm and sunny and all that walking, we did end up a little bit hot and sticky.

Getting the most out of your visit to San Francisco Premium Outlet 

Planning ahead will save you a lot off time and make sure you don't miss out visiting your favourite stores, or spending your whole budget in one store and then realising there are others with stock you'd have preferred. Don't make any snap purchase decisions, especially when you first arrive. The retail assistants are well trained to close sales and not everyone offers returns, in many of the stores, sales are final so you don't want to make a mistake. 
 

It's a fun day out, but wear comfortable shoes and be prepared for a lot of walking. We did plan for have a shop and then a nice restaurant for lunch, forget that. There is one food court in the centre which is expensive, not fancy, not healthy and where you'll struggle to get a table, even when the mall doesn't feel packed. Our Uber driver warned us ahead of time the food options at San Francisco Premium Outlet are limited and showed us a mall close by where the restaurants she said were a lot better, even though we ended up not eating at all in the neighbourhood, there are better options 5 minutes drive away.

Would I go back?

Definitely. I loved the Vuori store. This was my favourite, where I spent the most money and I didn't get to the Lacoste store, another brand I love because I blew my budget in Vuori. I also missed the Adidas outlet which would have been good for a new pair of Samba's or Gazelles. If you are looking for sneakers All Birds looked good,  I didn't see a Nike although there was a pretty big Puma store. I also didn't make it into the Sandro store or the Maje store, two brands I love for ready to wear, clothes to wear for work, even though working for a record company I don't dress up massively, this kinda stuff was not something I was shopping for on this trip, but definitely on my radar for another visit, budget permitting.

There's also a big Sephora for make up and beauty lovers but if you are used to shopping Sephora the savings were insignificant in here and this was probably the busiest store of all the ones we visited. We did shop but the service was shocking and we had to stand in line for 15-20 minutes to pay. 

The other shops we didn't make it into were Ralph Lauren which looked pretty big and North Face or Moncler if you are heading to Big Bear or the slops and looking for a winter jacket.

The San Francisco premium outlet is not as fancy as I was expecting and the savings aren't as fantastic as I'd hoped for but there's certainly loads of choice and you can find something lovely if you take your take your time and don't shop on impulse.