Jottings
revealed that the UK’s top tourist
attractions are not to everyone’s taste. In
London, Big Ben (the Elizabeth Tower)
was described by one tourist as “not so
Big Ben,” adding that she would return,
“if they build it higher.”
The UK’s highest peak, Ben Nevis in
Scotland, was described as a big hill,
rather than a mountain, and climbers
were disappointed that there is no café at
the summit. Oh, and it was cloudy too.
One even added, “There is snow at the
top. I don’t like snow.”
bluebird during his visit to the White
Cliffs of Dover. “I have yet to receive a
reply,” he added.
Mount Snowdon was not immune. The
hike to the summit is “a bit steep” with
one visitor describing it as “the most
terrifying experience of my life.”
Another said his chosen path to the top
was, “relentless and starts straight away
going uphill.” Did he expect it go
downhill?
Stonehenge was rapidly dismissed as
“just a bunch of rocks sited by a busy
highway.” Another added, “'I was
surprised they opened it to visitors
before finishing it. Will give it another
go once it’s finished.” As well as changeable weather on
Snowdon, it was cold temperatures, lack
of toilets, poor mobile phone reception
and “abysmal” wheelchair access which
also proved irritants, as did “terrible” car
parking facilities. Someone actually
complained about the absence of a
MacDonalds on the slopes.
Kew Gardens, meanwhile, was ridiculed
as nothing more than “overpriced trees,”
Hadrian’s Wall in Cumbria was
described as “a pile of stones,” and the
failure of HM The Queen to lean out of
a window and return their waves at
Buckingham Palace was apparently a
great disappointment. The Visit Snowdonia website, however,
warns the terrain is “challenging at the
best of times” and the weather can be
“unpredictable.” And to be fair, of the
2,500 reviews on Trip Advisor, 82 per
cent of visitors proved themselves not to
be snowflakes and rated the experience
as “excellent.”
Another contributor even claimed to
have complained directly to Dame Vera
Lynn that he had failed to spot a single Meanwhile, all is not well at another of
the UK’s national parks. The Lake
District attracted over 19 million visitors
25
last year and local residents continue to
complain about traffic congestion whey
they say is “horrendous and getting
worse.” However, the Lake District
National Park Authority has decided that
what it really needs in order to resolve
this headache is ... er ... more visitors.
Comments by Chief Executive Richard
Leafe last month follow a report
published in the autumn which stated
that the park is “an exclusive, mainly
white, mainly middle-class club.”
Mr Leafe says that visitors are “deficient”
in young people, black and minority
ethnic communities, and those who have
mobility problems. He wants to attract a
greater diversity of visitors amid
concerns that swathes of the population
feel “excluded.”
His comments followed the decision by
the Park Authority to drive a four-mile
tarmac path through woodland at
Keswick to improve access for
snowflakes who finding walking too
arduous.
OK, your Jottings team admits adding
the last bit, but luckily the proposals
have been strongly challenged on social
media by visitors who said the last thing
Continued overleaf