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Welcome to our UK travel forum where you can get advice on everything from holidays to exotic destinations, to tips on London travel.

Original poster

Everywhere is England is rammed

221 replies

Hyperfish101 · 31/08/2020 08:09

Maybe different elsewhere in UK but Covid has certainly wiped out options for a peaceful day out anywhere. Or so it seems.

Went to a local beauty spot for a walk yesterday. At 10 am cars queuing for the car park. All the NationL Trust type places swarming. Even little walks by our local river are overrun with people.

Had a week in a usually quiet place in the Scottish Borders. Nope. Jammed. The usual quiet beach was overrun. Car park rammed. Rubbish everywhere.

It’s horrible. I realise I was there too so limited grounds to complain but I’ve been going to these places for years and suddenly I can’t even park.

That’s even before mentioning the ‘wild camping’ we saw in the Lakes. Tents abandoned, rubbish everywhere.

I’m hoping when people can stop ‘staycationing’ and go abroad, things will settle down. I feel as if there are no unspoilt areas left now.

OP posts:
Pickles89 · 31/08/2020 09:23

Everywhere is overcrowed because the UK is overpopulated. Look at the difference in life expectancy these days compared to even 50/60 years ago. We can't keep living longer and having as many children or we will run out of room!

Kaiserin · 31/08/2020 09:24

We just staycationed in our own town, and it was fine. It's got lovely green space all around town. The park in the center was overcrowded as usual, but as long as you walked away a bit, everything was nice and quiet.
Lovely green hills. But I bet I would have hated the (usually nice and quiet) nearby beach, as the coast was rammed, from what I've heard.

Springersrock · 31/08/2020 09:25

I live in a holiday area and it is extremely busy here this year.

Even with all our big events being cancelled (music festival, etc) it feels a lot busier than in previous years.

We tend to stay away from the popular tourist areas, but even the quieter out of the way places are packed. I usually walk the dog on a quiet, fairly remote beach in the evenings, but even then it’s still busy

Traffic is horrendous so I’ve given up

It’s really nice to see the area busy and buzzing, our economy relies on tourism so we definitely need it, but we don’t need bad behaviour, abuse to shop/pub/hotel staff, rubbish everywhere, people starting fires and dumping the contents of portapotties everywhere when wild camping, roads being blocked because people don’t want to pay for car parking, etc - locals as well as tourists!

Ariela · 31/08/2020 09:26

@Abraid2

I don’t think we realised how much we owe the spanish for taking some people off our hands in the holiday period.
This^
Ifailed · 31/08/2020 09:27

there are 140,000 miles of footpaths in England, and bar those near to houses they are still practically deserted. If live in the "crowded SE", yet I can guarantee I could go for a walk and not meet a soul for hours.

Theelderscrolls · 31/08/2020 09:27

Is rammed in our bit of Scotland too, and some of the tourists are absolutely horrible. Why visit a place if you just want to destroy it, leave a mess and be rude to the locals?

Usually we get lovely holidaymakers here, but not this year!

RincewindsHat · 31/08/2020 09:27

@Hyperfish101

I’ve been to Peak District, Scottish Borders. , Northumberland and Lake District this summer. All full. The Lakes is always busy but Northumberland is generally quiet. Not this year.
Maybe everywhere's rammed because there are people like you going multiple places miles apart very frequently.
PigletJohn · 31/08/2020 09:27

You said "everywhere" but that is not true.

Popular places are popular.

This year many people have been cooped up, and if they all want to go out on the same day, popular places will be busy.

Especially on a bank holiday weekend.

Whenwillthisbeover · 31/08/2020 09:28

we were in the Yorkshire Dales yesterday, yes there were people about but we were there and parked up for 9:15, out on the hills by half past. we came back to the car at 3.30 and walked straight into the local pub, lunch time rush over and had a fabulous meal on the table within a very short time.

You need to plan your location and timing better.

Have to agree that litter is my number one bug bear anywhere coupled with dog shit. no litter or dog shit yesterday, lots of sheep poo though Grin

Tomatoesneedtoripen · 31/08/2020 09:28

even the towns are busy.

BlackberrySky · 31/08/2020 09:29

YAB massively U to moan about the number of people when you were there too. Regardless of whether you think you have more right to be there because you have been in previous years (you don't), this is an anomalous year, where people have stayed in the UK to holiday and our infrastructure is not designed to cope with visitors in these numbers. You are, however, not at all unreasonable to complain about the rubbish and anti social behaviour. There is no excuse for leaving a mess behind or being rude/noisy.

Tomatoesneedtoripen · 31/08/2020 09:29

it is a bank holiday weekend.
it is always busy.
stop complaining.

Tomatoesneedtoripen · 31/08/2020 09:31

honestly,
people moan about holiday makers,
if they go abroad they are criticized, if they go elsewhere they are criticized.

IrmaFayLear · 31/08/2020 09:31

I agree it’s lack of imagination in part. People go to places they have heard of, and generally that isn’t many. And then add in Tripadvisor etc which tell people about previously hidden gems, so everywhere is crowded.

A lot of people don’t understand how to do a British holiday, and stomp around looking mournful and aggrieved.

If you look at old film/photos of the 1950s and before, seasides and beaches were more than rammed. But I think people behaved better. No “wild” camping or boozing. People wore suits on the beach and had a cup of tea!

We are not exempt: i was reading that French resorts had had an influx of home-grown undesirables who were behaving badly. They were sad at the loss of beetroot-red Brits!

topofthewardrobe · 31/08/2020 09:34

@IrmaFayLear

I agree it’s lack of imagination in part. People go to places they have heard of, and generally that isn’t many. And then add in Tripadvisor etc which tell people about previously hidden gems, so everywhere is crowded.

A lot of people don’t understand how to do a British holiday, and stomp around looking mournful and aggrieved.

If you look at old film/photos of the 1950s and before, seasides and beaches were more than rammed. But I think people behaved better. No “wild” camping or boozing. People wore suits on the beach and had a cup of tea!

We are not exempt: i was reading that French resorts had had an influx of home-grown undesirables who were behaving badly. They were sad at the loss of beetroot-red Brits!

That's why I don't mention anywhere on trip advisor Grin
Livelovebehappy · 31/08/2020 09:34

I’ve been to the Lake District a couple of times lately, as live pretty close, and I can’t say it’s been much busier than normal. I don’t think all the rubbish is created by visitors tbh. Not all residents are paragons of virtue in their own towns.

chomalungma · 31/08/2020 09:35

I don't understand people who litter.
Who goes wild camping and leaves their rubbish on the ground, their disposable BBQs etc
I love the Lakes but I am waiting until September to head up there.

I'm going kayaking today - and I know that's going to be quiet!

MyPersona · 31/08/2020 09:36

@lljkk

Not where I live (Norfolk, can comment lots on beaches)... & not where I'm on hols right now (Cotswolds). I mean, the odd place is busy, but mostly its pretty easy to avoid people. I'm not interested in NT properties, can't you go elsewhere, OP?.... the Roman temple at Chedworth was fully booked but they kept numbers down so the people-density looked low to me. (we were only interested in cafe anyway, which had no Q when we arrived. The pub at Stanton was a bit busy -- you have a choice not to go to pub, we only wanted to find the path behind it. There are groups out walking, riding horses, cycling, picknicking - GOOD for them. Funny thing about Stanton: most tourists seemed to be foreign. Spanish, Dutch, German, unidentified furrin (I am furrin too).

The road & narrow pavements of central Bibury were crazy busy (more obvious furreiners) but Snowshill is just as pretty and had lots of room for pedestrians. Broadway Tower stood out for having lots of (I presume British) ethnic Asian families on a very rainy day, enjoying the mud. But still lots of room for people and no obvious rubbish about. I see a lot of flytipping in Norfolk but not seen any obvious flytipping in Cotswolds, yet. Some red roof tiles yesterday I suppose. Not heaving with Staycationers ime.

I live where you are holidaying and it’s a lot busier than usual. I went to pick my son up from the train and the roads around the lavender farm were utterly unbelievable, I have never seen anything like it. Nose to tail traffic at a standstill blocking the lanes, most of which are single track with passing places. We don’t normally get ‘holiday traffic’ round here, other than around Stow and Broadway etc. but it was insane.
Marchitectmummy · 31/08/2020 09:37

So you yourself have been to 4 popular beauty spots in how many weeks that we have been allowed to travel 8? And you are upset at others going? Can you not see how much of the problem you are yourself, why not understand most people are needing a break alao and perhaps go to one place this summer?

This year is an exceptional year after all.

RedRiverShore · 31/08/2020 09:37

It's always busy this time of year, it the last hurrah before schools go back, we always avoid August bank holiday because of this. This year will be worse because of not many holidays abroad, people on furlough or out of work, not much childcare so days out instead, boredom because lots of indoor stuff shut

FredaFrogspawn · 31/08/2020 09:37

We have been walking in the Chilterns every weekend this summer during our genuine staycation in our North London home and it has been amazing. Hardly any litter, huge skies, gorgeous footpaths through woods, by streams, on ridges with amazing views. Wild flowers and spectacular trees, parkland, Well trod footpaths through the middle of fields of wheat and barley like oceans ...

And hardly a soul. Half an hour from London. I thoroughly recommend a good book of walks for this area which spreads across a fair distance (nice problem solving activity navigating the masses of paths for us and would be for kids too).

Some of the walks are from train station to train station - easy from London - so having a car isn’t essential.

2andahalfpints · 31/08/2020 09:39

Surely if you are there to see it (unless it is where you live) you are part of the problem? 🙄

katienana · 31/08/2020 09:39

I haven't found Northumberland too busy at all. We've also been to the Yorkshire coast and it was no different to other times we've been. There is always competition for parking spots.
Councils should have opened toilets way sooner, it was ridiculous that they didn't have any facilities. I held it in but I know plenty didn't!

TeenPlusTwenties · 31/08/2020 09:39

Another issue which I haven't seen spotted yet, is the fact that places like theme parks are on much more limited availability. So the thousands each day who would be at Thorpe Park, Chessington etc are going elsewhere.

Rosehip10 · 31/08/2020 09:39

@Hyperfish101 So you have been to multiple places for holidays across the UK this summer and complain about others doing the same? Selfish and unrealistic attitude, or do you expect places to be exclusively for you or others who have "been there for years"? Grow up.

Littering and bad parking of course unacceptable - however as someone who lives in one of the areas you mention, plenty of such behaviour done by locals and gasp people who have come for "years" too.