Interesting article about overtourism in the Cotswolds

I guess I must be naive or sheltered or something. I am just really struggling to believe this kind of behavior.

It's just insanity- there are so many beautiful towns and villages in the UK, I really don't understand the obsession with the Cotswolds.

I know what you mean. I was horrified by some of the things I read in that article. I read that one woman, when confronted with a car that refused to move out of the middle of the road, blocking traffic, stuck her hose through the window and sprayed them. That actually made me laugh. And I really don't blame her. And tourists then wanted to see the inside of a house, so they stuck their phone in through the mail slot in the hopes of getting some pictures of the inside. Can you imagine someone being that rude? I can't but I guess it happens.

Simon, I can't say I have an obsession with the Cotswolds, but it is beautiful. My husband and I experienced it in August, walking all 100+ miles of the Cotswold Way. We also were annoyed by the flocks of tourists--in our case at Broadway. It remains our least favorite locality along the trail, specifically because of the entitled tourists. We are so happy we took the slower (and harder) route of walking. We met so many kind locals, including one elderly lady who urged us to snack on her newly ripe grapes, and the elderly group in Wotton Under Edge who invited us to tea.

Distressing article. I feel sorry for the locals.

But note: Archive.is is essentially pirating this story. It is from Oct 23rd of this year and it’s copying a story (they call it preserving) without paying the newspaper. They don’t disclose their funding.

Happy travels

I am convinced none of us on this forum are tourists, part of the horde, as the article says. Definitely not the Japanese taking selfies or the 'Indians' in the photo sitting on chairs in the water. I'll go meta and paraphrase myself from the Spain forum: 'Everyone seems to want to keep the coach-riding riffraff out. Perhaps they should do what tiny, obscure Bhutan does. Pursue a 'high value, low volume' policy - charge every tourist a $100 toll at the perimeter, and those unwashed masses would disappear overnight. Price 'em out, I say.'

"I really don't understand the obsession with the Cotswold." – It's close to where most people fly into, it's easy to get to by car or day trips, it's been written about for years (not just by Rick Steves), and with planning you can see a fair bit of it by public transport. The popular, extinct Slow Travel forum was a strong champion of the Cotswolds.

Hi Gunderson, yes I see what you mean, but I still don't understand the significant draw given how busy the most popular villages are. There are so many other nice places that are easy to get to for a day trip. Personally I like the South Downs - Lewes is easy to get to, ditto Petworth. Outside of that, Rye is beautiful and is an easy day trip from London by public transport.

Carol, sounds like you had a great time though!

The popular, extinct Slow Travel forum was a strong champion of the Cotswolds.

Gundersen, Slow Travel is indeed extinct, but it's been reincarnated a bit into the Slow Europe website and was founded by Pauline, the same person who started Slow Travel in the beginning. I go there occasionally and like reading the articles. There's some really well-written stuff in there and good info on the forums. https://www.sloweurope.com/community/pages/home/

I love the Cotwolds. Just like I love so many parts of the UK. I loved walking the Cotswolds Way in 2019. But I probably won't be going back there. I have gone in the off season and it's wasn't too bad with unruly crowds but I don't think there is an off season anymore.

The Cotswolds has more tourist infrastructure than many other rural areas. It’s been a magnet for wealthy Londoners and others for a long time and so has a good range of hotels and quality places to eat. If you want country glamour there’s nowhere like the Cotswolds.

When I planned and went on my first trip to England in 1985, the Cotswolds were a very popular destination in all the research I did and we spent some days there. It was busy then!

I too, went to the Cotswolds, but not recently. We were driving ourselves, so we only spent enough time to see a couple of the National Trust Properties. We moved on as we realized most of the restaurants and accomodations were much higher than other just as scenic areas not on Bucket Lists. I imagine that it is only much more pricey now. By the way, be cautious about signing in on not a robot check boxes on sites you don't know, as some are hacks.

Tourist coaches can have the same effect on a small inland village as mega-cruise ships are having in some port cities and nearby towns. And some passengers, while bright enough to book a tour, don’t have the capacity to respect the place they’re visiting. Or, per the article, appreciate exactly where they’ve arrived. Maybe there’s some of an “if it’s 11:30 on Tuesday, this must be Bilbury” aspect to some tours. At least no one’s taking a literal “Back Door” travel approach in the Cotswolds, wandering into people’s homes via a rear entrance!

Setting up folding chairs in the middle of a stream?!? Who provided the chairs, or were they checked in their baggage, coming over? And then, borrowing a dog as a prop?!?!?

Imagine what would happen if these visitors suddenly had hoards of selfie-taking, trespassing people taking over their homes. They might object, unless it’s what they somehow expect and welcome, and so, act accordingly.

Amusement park rides often have a sign with a bar or arrow saying you have to be “this” tall to go on a particular ride. Too bad Cotswold (and other) places can’t put up an assessment station to measure courtesy, saying somebody has to meet that minimum standard to get in.

It seems like nothing has changed, it reminded me of this story from 2015 when tourists complained about a resident's yellow car.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-31037446

Something to keep in mind about the Cotswolds is that it is very large area, so it is possible to visit without the crowds. When we walked the Thames Path, which ends in the Cotswolds, the parts we we walked through were beautiful but basically empty. But there are so many nice areas of the UK and it is interesting to me how this became the most well known- perhaps due to the tourist infrastructure that Helen references.

I also wonder how widespread this behaviour is- it's very easy to find some anecdotal evidence of people acting badly and proclaim it a trend. The article even says, "And while the vast majority are well behaved..." It's also important to consider the source of the reporting and the ideological bent of this particular newspaper.

Setting up folding chairs in the middle of a stream?!? Who provided the chairs, or were they checked in their baggage, coming over? And then, borrowing a dog as a prop?!?!?

I suspect those people were British and drove to the location from home. Those chairs would have come with them.

The only information I can find on where the tourists come from suggests the majority are from the UK. So, JC that does hold.

Since the only group called out and complained specifically on their country of origin are the “Japanese,” I did find out that pre COVID the number of Japanese tourist was 25.000 per year. So, let’s say it has doubled and 50.000 of the tourists are Japanese. That would be 50.000 out of 30 million.

While the total numbers are insane for the location and the behavior across the board is unforgivable; given the focus on what are thought to be Japanese … not the sort of story I am comfortable with.

Do the citizens not have any local governmental control? Like banning the buses? Banning all vehicles not registered in the region or putting a high toll on the road like London City.

This article was originally published by the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph used to be a respected newspaper but now has become little more than a right wing slightly sensationalist rag.
The headline of this article is ridiculous and demonstrates an ongoing ‘feud’’ with the National Trust which for some reason many on the political right have decided has gone too ‘woke’.

Having lived most of my life in tourist towns I can confirm tourists are annoying, even the well behaved ones, but they have as much right to be there as I do. While I have some sympathy for the residents of Bilbury dealing with these examples of particularly bad behaviour, you do have to ask, what did you expect?!
You have chosen to live in a world famous street with a long history of admiring visitors! Hordes of tourists outside your house can’t be that much of a surprise.

If anyone wants to see another side to the Cotswolds I recommend the BBC comedy series ‘This Country’. I’m not sure the humour will travel but a friend I used to work with said it was a fair, if exaggerated, representation of the locals who don’t live in the posh, expensive houses.

There is an undertone to these articles that an overseas reader may not pick up on.

Britain has experienced a huge amount of migration from outside Europe since Covid and many people feel uncomfortable about this. If you look at the pictures in these problematic tourist stories they will usually show people who appear to be recent migrants doing ‘non-British’ things, like sitting in a stream or open cooking in beauty spots.

Whatever the truth of the situation, the point of the article is often to play into anxiety around immigration.

And yes, the vast majority of tourism in Britain is domestic. Figures I could find state 84% of all overnight stays in the Cotswolds are by domestic tourists.

Simon, I agree with you about other, equally or even more attractive areas. I lived a numer of years in England, on and off, as a youth and young man. Didn't see the Lake District or anything much down south, apart from London. I love the Peak District and parts of Wales. Even spent a bit of time in the flat as a pancake countryside outside Norwich, which had its charms; the mornings were always dewy and misty.

But the Cotswolds is well marketed and written about, and has a cluster of pretty villages and gardens close to each other. I was there in June of 24 and the only really packed village was Bourton (didn't make it to Bibury).

Allan, that yellow car is still in a couple of the photo spheres on Google Maps.

Emma and Helen are both spot on.

Feel very sorry for the locals. Must be hellish. And so very, very glad we were able to visit in the late 1990s when practically no one was there. And those few that were there were very respectful.

Our experience was a recent one, having just spent about a week in the Cotswolds in mid September. There are quite a few beautiful places in England still on our “list”, but we chose to go here next because it was convenient to LHR, and we wanted a type of slow travel experience.

We loved this area of England. Just loved it. Maybe we got really lucky because we were there in fall, middle of the week, not weekends, but we didn’t experience any negative effects of over tourism. I had heard about Bourton, and when we visited that village you could see signs of the masses that move through there, but we found it easy (and we used mostly public transportation so didn’t get too far off the beaten path) to find places that were serene and quiet.

We have close friends who live in Williamsburg. Virginia. They speak of similar intrusions into their daily lives during the warm vacation months when so many buses, school groups and sometimes less than respectful tourists descend on their space. But, they wouldn’t live anywhere else because it’s the uniqueness of the area and they recognize the draw.

I don’t know if this article had an intention other than to highlight the effects of over tourism or not, but I truly hope that anyone considering going to this area will still feel it’s a place worth seeing, because it is. We found it to be just delightful.

it is not unknown on this side of the Pond that the Telegraph (the source) has an axe to grind and is the mouthpiece of a particular ideology

Lots of people opining that the telegraph is somehow grinding a right wing anti immigrant axe

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/30/the-most-beautiful-village-in-england-how-bibury-became-a-victim-of-its-charm

Well our esteemed left wing press seem to agree.

I just don't get the Cotswolds hype. It's useful as a Brit that the Cotswolds seems to be the sacrificial anode that leaves places like Northumberland, Suffolk, the South Downs and Somerset completely free of tourists. But I still feel sorry for the residents whose lives are blighted

Thanks for posting the Guardian story too. (The pictures in this one don't mainly show non-whites!)

If I were a local, I'd be tired of it.

Happy travels

At the bottom of the Guardian story was a link to another Guardian Cotswolds report from 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/26/cotswolds-jd-vance-summer-holiday .

Apparently, current U.S. Vice president JD Vance was going to “holiday” in Stow-on-the-Wold last year, undoubtedly with a dozen Secret Service security vehicles in tow. Sitting on a folding chair in a stream might pale by comparison.

24 years ago I made a small visit for tea to Bibury with my parents, just a short drive from their house.

Walked along the river, watched small children looking for trout, watched the swans and other water birds, and had an excellent tea on the terrace of The Swan, as it was. Sad and happy memories - my mother was not yet completely ravaged by her Alzheimer's and my father was apparently reasonably healthy. Two years later he was dead and she in a Care Home generously provided by Gloucestershire County Council.

Bittersweet. It was our last real meal together where we could talk.

But that is my maudlin reminiscing. Sorry. Brings tears.

My point is, I think on that midweek afternoon in late spring 24 years ago I happened to notice three or four coaches parked, plenty of tourists gawping, but it was still very beautiful and a lovely place for us to gather. This was well before the Robin Reliant being parked on Arlington Row - Bibury has been a popular tourist spot for many many years.

This is nothing new, maybe the high numbers are, but tourists visiting isn't.

After all the beauty is why our little party went there, driving past many other gorgeous Cotswold villages on the way.

A lovely memory Nigel even if bittersweet.

Cyn, I think the locals would have been grateful for a dozen vehicles when J D Vance visited. Some of his cavalcades reached nearly thirty vehicles.

Happy to oblige . And I am sorry if my comment wasn’t obvious enough that it was poking fun of the political anti-immigrant slant of the telegraph. Two things can be true: There is a problem with tourism levels in the Cotswolds and some folks are happy to blame or highlight blame on non-whites for it.

Happy travels.

that leaves places like Northumberland, Suffolk, the South Downs and Somerset completely free of tourists.

shh, don't tell the tourists.... they will then descend in their hordes!

Too late!! Two of us pesky tourists will be in Northumbria in April.

Enjoy Northumberland :)

I've spent quite a lot of time in that area of England over the last 35 years. I find that it's only crowded in a few specific villages. The rest of it is fairly quiet. Last time I went I stayed in Blockley - there were hardly any tourists at all and it was a very beautiful village that I found to be very welcoming. I also went to a number of the busier villages and felt badly for those who live there - super crowded and many of the shops had been turned into things only aimed at tourists. It's getting worse over time in those places.

Anita,

one of my favourite paintings of my mother was painted by my father in Blockley in 1997. One of his best, IMHO. A lovely village at which they spent a lot of happy time.

It hasn't changed. (ssshhh - our secret)