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?

Having just booked the ferry today @florenceandthemac I completely agree. Price of another night accommodation!

I live in Cornwall, born here and it's my home, I love it but I probably wouldn't holiday in Cornwall if I didn't live here - not during peak time anyway. It's so damn busy, I don't enjoy the craziness at all. I much prefer quieter times. I avoid anywhere busy.

it is beautiful, as a local I take it it for granted.

I have seen a lot of comments about locals hating tourists, we really don't hate you, if anything like me we get a little stressed about it how busy it is, it takes 3 times as long to get anywhere, prices are hiked for everything, we often can't just pop out, our whole lives are here, we work and we live and our kids go to school but some (not all) tourists treat it as one big holiday destination forgetting we live here, often those working in the tourism and hospitality industries will have to deal with many awkward customers on a daily basis, it's exhausting. Most tourists are fab but some are disrespectful leaving rubbish etc around. I do think we are friendly bunch considering our lives are so heavily disrupted during the school holidays.

As well as us being angry at second homes when many local families cannot find anywhere to live. Many of us have had family live here for generations and it doesn't always feel the same anymore.

I would like to love Cornwall because pictures of it look so good and idyllic.

But, it takes us about 9 hours or more to get there, the traffic is horrendous

Beaches are almost impossible to get to on foot

There is a touch of hostility to visitors

The landscape is quite harsh, more so because you drive through Devon to get there which is lovely and soft and gentle

Everywhere down there is quite a long way from everywhere else even in Cornwall.

Did I mention the traffic

OH says that he prefers Devon

I am, but thank you.

The thing with not living in your home country is that you’re always an ‘outsider’ to some people so these comments are nothing new to me. They don’t know me or how I ended up with a house in Cornwall but needing to live elsewhere. I’ll continue to think Cornwall is beautiful and say it’s ‘locals’ have been very welcoming. I’m lucky to call some of them friends. Maybe I don’t attract the bitter people. 😆

I might even fuck off back to America one day. I’ve been told that before now, I wonder if it was from a mumsnetter. 😂

That ‘thank you’ was to @blackpearwhitelilies 😊

Talking of where people who live in Cornwall go on holiday, I grew up in Cornwall and we would go to Luton for two weeks every October to visit relatives 😀

Devon is just as beautiful 😍

My Mum’s Cornish and I grew up in that neck of the woods. This summer I was visiting her and she said “ if only they’d cut down the Tamar bridge then the emmets couldn’t get here”. I pointed out that I ( and my children and husband) am considered by locals to be emmets. It would mean I couldn’t get there, to see her and my Dad and visit my brother’s grave, etc. She paused for a second and suggested that I might get across via ‘the other road’ 😀

It's nice, we have holidayed there a fair bit as my ILs lived in St.Mawes. However we don't bother now as we can't be arsed to drive all that way through traffic when we live on the Isle of Wight and have beaches galore.

If we were going to drive now, we would go to Wales, Norfolk, Suffolk etc.

I've been once and it was brilliant.
I'll admit the drive down is awful and I'll admit that the fantastic weather helped.
But it's a wonderful county. Very compact so it doesn't take long to get there. Loads of beaches so you can take your pick. Dramatic coastal scenery and lovely coastal and rural villages. Plus a few really good attractions.

I do think Cornwall is lovely and very beautiful. But it does get a bit too busy for my taste.

We tend to go to Pembrokeshire a lot.

We were in Norfolk just after Easter 2021 (whenever the restrictions lifted a bit and loved that too)

For me the memory of the Cornish telling people to 'fuck off' when lockdown restrictions eased and people could visit will forever remind me that tourists are a necessary evil to them.

meateatingveggie a ‘necessary evil’ is about right I think 😀

I like Cornwall and have been quite a few times but there are lots of lovely beaches in the west of the UK. We've just come back from the Llyn Peninsula where there were gorgeous beaches as well as mountain views. Pembrokeshire and the Gower also have lovely beaches which are often much quieter than Cornwall even in the middle of summer. I also love north west Scotland - fantastic beaches and very few people.

I've never heard of an 'emmet' before. We have wessies and comforts. Wessies from the West Riding of Yorkshire, and 'comforts' either come for t'day or come for t'week!

A lovely Cornish woman told us it was a term used by the ‘born and bred’ type that didn’t like change and actually didn’t like much at all. 🤣 She told us to just smile and pretend we found it endearing if it was ever used. I’ve only ever overheard it being used in a shop, possibly about me, and on here. And I always think of that lovely Cornish woman and smile.

My son said he heard someone use it when he was at a festival recently but it was all in good humor, just banter apparently. He wouldn’t care if it wasn’t anyway. Silly people use silly terms.

I’ve heard this used a lot by certain extended family members in a very ‘tongue in cheek’ not really tongue in cheek way. They would definitely constitute the ‘born and bred’ type. It’s not just banter with them, there’s a real underlying hostility. (I’m glad that hasn’t been your experience though)

The Famous Five makes me feel nostalgic about it

Big fans of cornwall - no where like it in the world Devon meh .....

I've been to Cornwall 4 times (twice as a kid and twice as an adult) we went to Padstow the first time (adults) snd it was absolutely heaving, queues for everything, and not especially enjoyable although admittedly very pretty. Last time we went to some villages near Falmouth which were equally lovely but much quieter and enjoyed it a lot more.
We've also been to Devon, Dorset, Norfolk and Pembrokeshire in the UK.

We love Cornwall. DH and I have been going for many years and now take DDs. Always feels like a little haven for us and if we get the weather, could easily be abroad. We also love Norfolk.

Full of the french

I know people who go to all the places you list, and more. And Cornwall. It's just you hearing Cornwall a lot

I've seen a lot of stuff on social media in the last few years from people going on holiday to Cornwall. All in the vein of, "Going to my happy place",. "Here in my spiritual home", "This is our favourite place in the world, feels like home" and undoubtedly repeated on many Facebook pages across the 4 million other annual visitors.

Anywhere that people get keen on, they spoil.

I first went to Cornwall in the late 80's and it was a very different place. It is beautiful down there but I wouldn't go often if I didn't have family down there, it's expensive and I could have 9 days in Greece with guaranteed nice weather for the same price as a few nights in Cornwall.

As to the question of why more people don't go to France, isn't that because of all the delays on Eurostar and issues at Calais?

We love Brittany but it's a longer drive than Cornwall (although with less traffic!) The beaches were far less crowded and often free to park too.