Although grazing at pasture is assumed to be welfare friendly, it may not allow high yielding cows to fulfil their nutritional requirements. An exploratory study was conducted to determine whether high genetic merit Holstein dairy cows (n = 32) in mid to late lactation had a preference to be indoors or on pasture. Twice a day after milking, cows were given the choice of going out to pasture (0.56 ha) or in to a cubicle house. They were then free to move between the two until the next milking. Indoors, a total mixed ration was available ad libitum and at pasture, sward dry matter (DM) was maintained between 1800 and 3000 kg DM/ha. The study had four experimental periods, during each of which eight cows received an eight day training period followed by an eight day study period. Cows had at least two weeks prior experience of each location. Two measures of choice were recorded: the decision taken at the choice point and then the time spent indoors and at pasture. Weather data were recorded but are not presented here. One sample t-tests were used to analyse decision from the choice point and time spent. From the choice point cows chose to go indoors almost twice as often as to pasture (66.2% ± 5.02 choice for indoors) which differed from 100% (P<0.001), 0% (P<0.001) (i.e. total preference to be either indoors or at pasture respectively) and 50% (P=0.004) (i.e. random choice), and spent more time indoors compared to time spent at pasture (91.9% ± 2.33 time spent indoors) which differed from 100% (P=0.001), 0% (P<0.001) and 50% (P<0.001). The results indicate that cows have a partial preference to be indoors. Further studies will investigate the factors influencing this partial preference and the implications for the welfare of dairy cows.