Dead or Alive? Orlando Premium Outlets | International Drive, FL

Hey everyone this is Orlando Streets and this is my video tour of the Orlando Premium Outlets which is located about 21 minutes from Downtown Orlando on International Drive.

This outlet mall opened sometime around 2005 — has roughly 180 stores in nearly eight-hundred thousand square feet of total retail space.

It is the largest outlet shopping mall in Florida welcoming more than 17 million visitors every year.

There is limited parking here so it may take time to find a space. It may also be a long walk from your car to the mall so please keep that in mind. Valet parking is available.

Once you find parking shopping is easy here. Finding your way in and out of each store is seamless and window shopping can be fun.

It used to be that outlet malls were discount malls located in the hinterlands along some freeway.

Growing up in California we used to see them out in the desert in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes we would stop and buy something, like a t-shirt or cold beverage and look around a little. For me these outlet stores are more of a novelty.

That said this outlet mall is different. If you look really hard there are some heavily discounted items, but for the most part it really is just fancy stores mixed in with stores you’re already familiar with.

Notable stores include Armani, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nike Factory Store, Disney Outlet, Forever 21, New York & Company, Victoria’s Secret, and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Sound familiar? Well it should. Most of these stores can also be found at your local mall.

This outlet mall has 22 restaurants including Chicken Now, Five Guys, Sarku Japan, Panera Bread, Lobstah Trap, Sundial Café, Charley’s Steaks, Sbarro and Vinito Ristorante.

I told my wife this morning that I was putting this video together and she said, “oh yeah, that place is fun”. I think that sums this mall up pretty well. It is fun. Fun for people to shop and fun for people like me to window shop.

This is a Simon property, and my experience with Simon properties is that they tend to be busier or at least as busy AND popular as the best malls.

Simon owns and operates retail properties all over the world, and locally Simon property group owns and operates another busy mall, The Florida Mall.

I did a walkthrough of The Florida Mall recently and I’ll post a link to that video in the in the comment section below.

When I was a kid, maybe 10 or 11 years old, my grandmother would take me to the movies or the mall. The mall she would take me too was the Westminster Mall. At that time the mall was new and very modern looking. Space age I thought. It’s funny but I can only remember walking around that mall and maybe getting a small bite to eat, but not shopping for anything like clothes.

The first outdoor mall I can remember was Fashion Island in Newport Beach. It was about 20 minutes from my house.

I loved that mall, and once again thought it was futuristic for some reason. They had a very beautiful koi pond and incredible window shopping. Fashion Island is known for there shopping, restaraunts, farmers market and movie theaters. A wonderful place Fashion Island is.

Growing up my local mall was South Coast Plaza. I was surprised to find out recently that South Coast Plaza is the fourth largest mall in the U.S. and a top 10 best mall according to the Travel Channel.

South Coast — as I called it — was about 10 minute bike ride from my house. Lot’s of memories there. I wasn’t a mall rat but did have a job there for awhile at May Company.

So I’m curious, what is your favorite store here at the outlets? Let me know with a comment below.

It’s a pretty tough job showing you this whole outlet in a 10-minute video, but I hope that you enjoyed this tour.

Orlando Premium Outlets is open every day of the week from 10 AM to 11 PM.

If you have any questions please let me know with a comment below and thanks for watching.

See you next time.

Buh-bye.

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