Rick Steves Says This Historic, Car-Free Fishing Port In England Is Now A Total Tourist Trap

After globetrotting for the past few decades, Rick Steves has offered countless travel tips to his fans and future prospective travelers. This is especially true in Europe, as the continent is the subject matter of his many guidebooks and tours. Steves usually sings the praises of each corner of this land. There are even plenty of so-called "tourist traps" in Europe that Steves loves. Despite this, he does not shy away from being honest, even if it means telling people where not to go.

The long peninsula in South West England offers experiences vastly different from the island's huge cities like London and Liverpool. While you'll find varying coastlines and small towns with winding roads, there are perhaps some things to avoid there, too. On his blog, Steves says this English region is "a minefield of tourist traps." Among the places he specifically says to skip is Clovelly, a privately-owned fishing village on a cliff with no cars and a history of noble inhabitants. It is a popular tourist hotspot, and while Steves does not shy away from such places, sometimes history and culture can be overshadowed if the destination is too curated for tourists.

The former king of England William the Conqueror, and then his wife Matilda of Flanders (England's first official queen), owned Clovelly as an estate in the mid-1000s. Since the mid-1200s, Clovelly has been owned and inhabited by non-royal families, but high society nonetheless. Think noblemen with the title of "Sir," like Sir William Cary, a member of the gentry whose family lived in Clovelly for well over a century. Clovelly did not become a tourist destination until after the writer Charles Kingsley used Clovelly as the setting for his 1855 novel "Westward Ho!"

The atmosphere of narrow, hilly streets lined by quaint, centuries-old cottages still makes Clovelly look like the perfect setting for a classic novel — which is perhaps why part of the 2008 miniseries of "Sense & Sensibility" was filmed there. You can leisurely wander among the shops, check out the historic fishing scene down by the beach, and visit the town's history museums, Fisherman's Cottage and Kingsley Museum and shop. However, Rick Steves found the "cloying" Clovelly to be simply "a one-street knickknack town selling useless goodies." This is rather on-brand for Steves, as he is always on the hunt for authentic experiences and doesn't like to see places so obviously overrun by tourists and souvenir shops.

Some Tripadvisor reviewers were not too enthusiastic about Clovelly either. It is fairly small, and reviewers found the entrance fee especially irksome — yes, there's a fee just to enter the village. Such a fee set off warning signs to visitors that Clovelly could be a tourist trap. There is a reason for Clovelly's fee, however. The Honourable John Rous, Clovelly's 21st-century owner, told the BBC that the family has used the money from tourism to renovate and preserve the town's buildings, some of which date back to the 1400s. The fee also includes parking lot access and admission to the museums and gardens. Even still, not every visitor thought it was worth £9.50 ($12) per person.

Although Rick Steves is incredibly knowledgeable, it's important to remember that tourist destinations are often subjective. Rick Steves himself is quick to remind travelers to think twice before trusting travel review sites, concluding his blog post by urging readers to "go ahead and disagree" with his best and worst list. Plenty of Tripadvisor reviewers loved their experience in Clovelly, enjoying its old-timey charm, history, and even the shops that Steves seemed not too keen on visiting. One person's kitschy knickknack might be someone else's treasured souvenir.