Why is everyone obsessed with Cornwall?

[thefoggiest]

Disclaimer: I've never actually been!

But why traditionally cornwall and not say the isle of wight, or sussex, or east Anglia?

I guess I can understand flocking to the southernmost tip back in the 60s when there would be washout summers but (thanks global warming!) isn't it time to branch out a bit now?

Overpriced and overhyped.

@Fizbosshoes I'm just back from my first trip to Brittany and I'm in love. Perfect perfect place. Hell of a drive for us from Scotland though!

It is beautiful but oh my god it’s so so busy. Too many people, too many cars and too many stressed out, rude people. There are no ‘secret’ spots now thanks to Instagram and Facebook exposing them all. So much building going on, cafes plonked everywhere, tacky shops. We lived there years ago and it is unrecognisable now, we moved up to Scotland and I have to say we love the much smaller population density and the beaches are out of this world and usually empty. And we have epic mountains. Its heartbreaking what’s happened to Cornwall, we still visit as my sister lives there but I am always happy to leave!

Its alright. Hampshire and dorset are much nicer.

My mother was born in Redruth in Cornwall we went to Cornwall as a family when myself and my sister was younger and loved it but living in the nw not having a car and even if we did it would be too long a drive we rarely do staycations though as its sometimes cheaper or same price to go abroad ai for a week as it is to stay in the UK plus you've got the guaranteed weather abroad.

I’ve been to Cornwall a few times - it is very beautiful but the 5 hour drive for me (from Staffordshire) is just a total drag! And everywhere always so busy
North Wales for us - I adore the place and it was weirdly so quiet over the bank holiday!
I get to walk five minutes and sit on the gorgeous 3 mile beach and watch this stunning sunset (photo is not filtered by the way)!
weirdly my Cornwall loving friends really turn their nose up at north wales . 🤷🏼‍♀️ Doesn’t bother me - just means there are less people 🤣

We love Cornwall, we have a camper and have travelled around many parts of the UK. I’ve never found it to be that busy to be honest and I generally hate crowds and people. I guess we don’t go to the busy places E.g. avoid Newquay and St Ives. We also tend to travel at different times to other people so don’t get stuck in traffic either. We love a good journey.

I think it’s hard to comment on something unless you’ve been there and experienced it.

We loved Cornwall in the late 90s and early 00s, but the journey down just seemed to take longer and longer every year (from central Scotland), we tried overnight a couple of times to miss traffic, then did North Devon for a couple of years to miss the bottleneck into Cornwall and that was ok, but it got to the point it was just too long a journey for a UK break.

Emmets = Cornish for ants.

My Nan worked at Heligan between the wars in the "lost" years. I always avoid going to the tourist hot spots in school holidays, sticking to the places like Caerhays and Portholland where tourists are too scared to venture in their oversized Range Rovers down the lanes.

It's so difficult for locals to buy or rent in the prettier parts of the county, as wages are so low and anything with a glimpse of the sea is snapped up by people moving down with cash to spare. Cornwall's appeal would quickly fade if the second home owners were only allowed to buy inland in Redruth, Camborne, St Austell or Bodmin!

We always used to go to Bournemouth & the New Forest on holiday.

Red Funnel are charging around £100 for unreliable ferries to the IoW now which will be putting that trip out out of many people's price range.

Never been (and I travel a lot) because it always came across as a place where masses of people travel to. Give me the west coast of Scotland or N Norfolk any day.

Pembrokeshire is horrible don’t go there, beaches are crap, scenery is nothing great, it’s too far! Not recommended at all 😉

It’s not a question of which area of UK is loveliest. Cornwall is a class signifier and that’s why people are so keen to tell you they are going or just come back from there. It’s a form of name-dropping. IN THE 90s and 00s public school teenagers started meeting up and hanging out over summer holidays in places like Rock, pretending to be surfers and enjoying what we could call ‘rites of passage’ on the beach. Those teenagers are now well-connected Home Counties parents meeting up with their old school friends in extended tribal groups with their own children. It’s a place where you can be on holiday but still meet lots of people you know, and the tourism industry is increasingly catering to their preferences rather than mass-market holiday makers.
I agree with the comment up thread that there is middle class FOMO drawing people to Cornwall. It’s become a smart place to go, so people who want to be smart head there, name drop it, and reinforce their sense of being ‘in’. Amongst my DSs’ schoolmates and families we are seen as almost eccentric for opting out and heading away from the crowds. But all this is a bubble, and I suspect the immediate post-pandemic years will be ‘peak Cornwall’. It’s not a well kept secret anymore and we hear increasing complaints about crowds, parking and the difficulties of getting a table for supper. A lot of the smartest people I know went to Greece this summer and I predict a mass movement in that direction over the next couple of years.

South Wales (Pembrokeshire) is like Cornwall without the people.

North Norfolk is like Cornwall without the rain.

We go every year as a family member has a caravan on a site down there so we are lucky to be able to use that. The DC adore the beaches, the sea is so different on the north coast compared to the south.

When the weather is good it’s amazing, it is unpredictable. We had a couple of weeks there over the summer and had brilliant sunshine. The fishing villages are beautiful and we love going crabbing. The DC never want to come home. My SIL is also Cornish so that’s another reason to visit.

The downside is it’s so far away!

I've never been to Cornwall either.

I think people already know about Norfolk (where I live) as whole communities have been ruined by second homers (young people can't buy houses in communities they have grown up in, countless primary schools have closed because of this). It's horrendous. Even the traditionally undesirable parts of Norfolk are being 'developed' and soon there'll be no affordable housing there either.

Agree pembrokeshire and Anglesey million times better

Also, we (people from Norfolk) judge you when you holiday in Wells 🤣 Especially as it really used to stink of fish when I was a kid. And Burnham Market is truly my idea of Hell on Earth (I'm not being funny to try to make you not go - you're welcome to it, if you like hanging out with Amanda Holden)

Because it’s the acceptable face of colonialism. Drive out the natives or have them working in low-paid service jobs. Because you deserve it darling because you work VERY hard.

Last year we went to Barbados because we couldn’t afford Cornwall. That sounds like a joke but it’s actually the truth. So overpriced! And, being in the west, wet!

Absolutely this.

Exactly 😂

I live in Cornwall and I love it but I don’t understand why people pay some of the prices to visit it’s crazy. To stay in certain areas you could go abroad and pretty much guarantee the sunshine. Also yes some locals don’t like tourists but that’s because tourists either come down and treat us like dirty as we must all be stupid and are just there to serve them or they have their massive second homes which are empty a lot of the year and drive up the cost of everything for locals as well as stopping many locals from buying their own home 😢

@Hameldown is right. Cornwall is fashionable so for now the world flocks there. I live not far from the A303 so am looking forward to the day the world decides Cornwall is SO LAST YEAR and anyway their friends are all heading to Lamu (or wherever) because they love the Zanzibar vibe (or whatever). You’ll know it’s happening when you notice Yummies trying to peel the Kernow stickers off their Volvos

I have also never been and sometimes wonder if I should to see what all the fuss is about. But I hate traffic and crowds and it would take me the same amount of time to get to the Highlands of Scotland than it would Cornwall so I would rather go there!