Do you live in a tourist hot spot?
Discussion
I live in SW Florida, so yes - you could say it was a tourist hot spot 
We have comfortably less than 20,000 people live on our island year round. 6 miles x 4 miles approx. In the season I have seen numbers around 60,000 quoted.
It does become stupidly busy during parts of the season, however there are roads and restaurants that the tourists don't tend to hit often.
Trying to eat in some of the nicer restaurants is hard - we don't plan things so instead of booking a table for Friday in 3 weeks, at 6pm we'll decide to go and eat out. This limits us during the season.
The positives are of course we get to live year round in a lovely area, with access to amazing water sports on the Gulf Coast of FL and have access to lovely restaurants that our local and wider community don't really deserve based solely on the year round population numbers.
We have comfortably less than 20,000 people live on our island year round. 6 miles x 4 miles approx. In the season I have seen numbers around 60,000 quoted.
It does become stupidly busy during parts of the season, however there are roads and restaurants that the tourists don't tend to hit often.
Trying to eat in some of the nicer restaurants is hard - we don't plan things so instead of booking a table for Friday in 3 weeks, at 6pm we'll decide to go and eat out. This limits us during the season.
The positives are of course we get to live year round in a lovely area, with access to amazing water sports on the Gulf Coast of FL and have access to lovely restaurants that our local and wider community don't really deserve based solely on the year round population numbers.
Edited by The Moose on Tuesday 9th April 20:06
I am on the Isle of Skye, which has seen a massive increase in the level of tourism over the last few years, the number of people on the island can change from 10,000 in winter to 70,000 in the summer. The roads can be challenging and there is a scary video accompanying a campaign to get people to drive on the left.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-i...
It is difficult as many of us rely on tourism for much of our income, but I can understand how people get frustrated. The silly thing is Skye is over 600sq miles so if you want to get away from people you can.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-i...
It is difficult as many of us rely on tourism for much of our income, but I can understand how people get frustrated. The silly thing is Skye is over 600sq miles so if you want to get away from people you can.
I do like Cornwall but it takes a hell of a long time to get to especially if it’s busy. Last time was 13 hours drive from the Lake District, Barbados was quicker. Plus it’s a bit like the lakes in that once you get a bit of sun it’s bedlam, the roads become infested with men in VW vans with grey pony tails and blokes in gingham shirts towing their Crusader about
kowalski655 said:
I used to live in Blackpool and apart from the quality of tourists, it wasnt too bad if you stayed away from the front where most congregated to get pissed. Except during illumination season when half the roads in/out were at a standstill
I went to Venice a while back. While it wasn't absolute peak season, what struck me was that if you wander a block or two beyond the obvious thoroughfares the crowds and madness pretty much evaporated. Yep. Live between Glencoe and Fort William, and work in Kinlochleven which is on the West Highland Way. Thankfully when I'm going to/from work the tourists are off the road in general. It can get very busy but never insufferably so. I just adjust travel times when heading along the A82 so I avoid 10am-5pm when the chaos happens. Biggest nuisance is when they crash/there's fatalities and the road shuts for hours... one-road-problem!
Grew up in a village by Chesil Beach in Dorset and still visit at weekends.
It's got busier since ~2000 but the tourists have changed from bucket-and-spade families from up country to weekenders/second-homers from London. Known locally as the "Fearnley Whittingstall effect".
Usually, around March I'll be out in the front garden doing something and I'll hear the raised voices before I see them, then they come in to view: the first Townies of the season!
Signs include:
- shiny wellies in stupid colours, and a labrador that doesn't seem to recognise them as owners
- weird clothes that look like what someone in a colour supplement fashion shoot shot on a hillside would wear.
- All talking at once at approx 50% higher volume than everyone else
- walking in line abreast, only grudgingly moving out of the middle of the road for traffic.
- Making no attempt to speak to people they pass by. This last one cracks me up as they will sometimes talk about my family home in front of me without speaking to me: "Oh look at that lovely house Giles, I wonder how old it is?"
Finally, rather than simply gentrifying the area they are Townifying it. One or two nice, albeit traditional, restaurants have been replaced by places specialising in fancy burgers in brioche buns, and 'relaxed brunches'; that apparently being what people down for the weekend want.
I assume a "relaxed brunch" means "sit round eating some godawful avocado concoction washed down with flat whites, while your seemingly inumerable kids run round between tables screaming in a sort of falsetto Joyce Grenfell, in the faint hope they'll sleep in the back of the Discovery at least as far as Basingstoke."
It's got busier since ~2000 but the tourists have changed from bucket-and-spade families from up country to weekenders/second-homers from London. Known locally as the "Fearnley Whittingstall effect".
Usually, around March I'll be out in the front garden doing something and I'll hear the raised voices before I see them, then they come in to view: the first Townies of the season!
Signs include:
- shiny wellies in stupid colours, and a labrador that doesn't seem to recognise them as owners
- weird clothes that look like what someone in a colour supplement fashion shoot shot on a hillside would wear.
- All talking at once at approx 50% higher volume than everyone else
- walking in line abreast, only grudgingly moving out of the middle of the road for traffic.
- Making no attempt to speak to people they pass by. This last one cracks me up as they will sometimes talk about my family home in front of me without speaking to me: "Oh look at that lovely house Giles, I wonder how old it is?"
Finally, rather than simply gentrifying the area they are Townifying it. One or two nice, albeit traditional, restaurants have been replaced by places specialising in fancy burgers in brioche buns, and 'relaxed brunches'; that apparently being what people down for the weekend want.
I assume a "relaxed brunch" means "sit round eating some godawful avocado concoction washed down with flat whites, while your seemingly inumerable kids run round between tables screaming in a sort of falsetto Joyce Grenfell, in the faint hope they'll sleep in the back of the Discovery at least as far as Basingstoke."
foxbody-87 said:
I do like Cornwall but it takes a hell of a long time to get to especially if it’s busy. Last time was 13 hours drive from the Lake District, Barbados was quicker. Plus it’s a bit like the lakes in that once you get a bit of sun it’s bedlam, the roads become infested with men in VW vans with grey pony tails and blokes in gingham shirts towing their Crusader about
If im going to cornwall in summer, just go overnight. I leave at 2 ish in the morning. One stop on the way and in cornwall for breakfast. Nice and easy, no traffic, zero stress.sjabrown said:
Yep. Live between Glencoe and Fort William, and work in Kinlochleven which is on the West Highland Way. Thankfully when I'm going to/from work the tourists are off the road in general. It can get very busy but never insufferably so. I just adjust travel times when heading along the A82 so I avoid 10am-5pm when the chaos happens. Biggest nuisance is when they crash/there's fatalities and the road shuts for hours... one-road-problem!
I'll wave on my way past in 4 weeks 
Mothersruin said:
Yes - Brecon Beacons.
Brecon can get busy so we make sure we do the shopping early doors etc... otherwise it doesn't bother us that much.
What I find weird is that all the people seem to walk very few routes and clag them up, with most of the place empty.
You're not Welsh unless you've "climbed" Pen-y-Fan up the motorway path and had a triumphant photo at the top of Corn Du.Brecon can get busy so we make sure we do the shopping early doors etc... otherwise it doesn't bother us that much.
What I find weird is that all the people seem to walk very few routes and clag them up, with most of the place empty.
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