US tourists haven't fallen in love with 'real' rural England – they've been seduced by a romanticised fiction

With speculation rife that Prince Harry and Meghan could be moving to the Cotswolds, the American love affair with the English countryside shows no sign of abating. When I hiked the Cotswolds Way, I encountered a number of US hikers on a slow plodding hunt for English pastoral idyll. But expectations must meet reality somewhere. It may as well be on the trail. Main image: Joe feasting on the views from Cam Long Down on the Cotswolds Way | Credit: James Forrest With speculation rife that Prince Harry and Meghan could be moving to the Cotswolds, the American love affair with the English countryside shows no sign of abating. Tourists from the USA are England's largest inbound market, accounting for 23% of all visitor spending in 2024 – and, like the Sussexes, the vast majority want to feel the English rural breeze ruffle their hair. View of Castle Combe, a village in the Cotswolds, Wiltshire, England. Credit: Shutterstock Indeed, a recent survey by VisitBritain revealed that it's no longer the cities of London, Edinburgh and Oxford in the ascendancy. Instead American tourists are commonly drawn to the quintessential Englishness of rural activities. The most popular are driving through the countryside (think Cameron Diaz in The Holiday driving a Mini Cooper down winding country lanes to her achingly-pretty Surrey cottage), afternoon tea in a charming village hotel, or going for a stroll in a national park. Many Americans venture further afield for their rural fix, drawn to the rugged beauty of the Yorkshire Dales, Scottish Highlands, Cornwall or the Lake District and Peak District. But, no matter how majestic, these places pale into insignificance compared to the destination which has a vice-like grip on the hearts of American tourists: the Cotswolds. The carpet of bluebells at Rannerdale in the Lake District. Credit: Mountain Treks / Shutterstock Americans just can't enough of this quaint corner of England, which spans six counties: Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Somerset. There's something about the villages built of lavish, creamy stone, with their perfectly-manicured greens, blooming gardens and thatched roofs that Americans find irresistible. Or maybe it's the rolling sheep-dotted hills, limestone escarpments and work-of-art dry stone walls that hit the American tourist sweet spot? Taking selfies in Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds. Credit: Shutterstock An A-list bolt hole Popular culture is of course playing its part. Taylor Swift based herself in the Cotswolds during the London stint of her Eras tour – and she's not the only American A-lister spotted amidst the honey-coloured cottages. Billionaire power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Trump administration hot-shot JD Vance, and socialite Kourtney Kardashian have all been spotted in the region, to name but a few. For Americans not lured by modern day icons, it's the history that seduces them to the countryside. Whether they have a Jane Austen novel, the aristocratic visual splendour of Bridgerton or the set of Downton Abbey in their minds, Americans love the rich heritage of England's rural places. For visitors from a country with a much shorter history, the 'storybook' antiquity of medieval churches, Tudor manors and Gothic follies is impossible to resist. Of course, you definitely can find places that live up to this fantasy. Castle Combe and Bibury, in the Cotswolds, are the very epitome of Instagrammable English quaintness; while Grasmere in the Lake District and Haworth in Yorkshire certainly can fulfil the respective William Wordsworth and Charlotte Brontë reveries in the minds of American tourists. St. James' Church and Banqueting House of Campden House, Chipping Campden, Cotswolds. Credit: Shutterstock The Cotswolds is not just a film set Yet the English countryside is not one big film set. Even in the most picturesque of landscapes, you're never that far away from something that will crush the romantic illusion: an overflowing council wheelie bin, a slurry tanker spreading muck, or a village car park with no mobile phone signal but an app-only payment system. Have Americans have fallen for a rose-tinted, dreamy, highly selective version of the English countryside? Can the 'real' rural England really live up to this fantasy? Or will their travels prove to be less cosy, magical Harry Potter land and more like a This Country dystopia, the BBC's hilariously dysfunctional comedy about modern-day rural Britain? Looking out over the distant Malvern Hills on the Cotswolds Way. Credit: James Forrest Reality bites Having met several Americans hiking the Cotswold Way – a stunning 102-mile journey across the heart of quintessential England – here's my satirical take on the expectations versus reality of your average American tourist visiting the British countryside. Our fictional American tourist – let's call him Chad, from California – arrives into the chocolate-box Cotswold village he saw on Instagram while planning this trip. He gawps in awe at the scene of bucolic Middle England: cricket match on the green, local residents sipping Pimm's, church bells chiming, a backdrop of pastoral idyll. How stunning is this? And then, out of nowhere, a battered courier van screeches around the corner, jumps a curb and parks diagonally in front of a thatched cottage. The stressed out driver leaps out and throws a parcel towards the front door before careering away – leaving only the faint scent of blue raspberry vape juice in the air. Talk about vision shattered. Over half-way – 47 miles to go to Chipping Campden. Credit: James Forrest Chad ventures into the local pub to re-set himself. He has a specific culture in his mind: roast dinners, oak beams, flickering fire, a sleepy Labrador called Churchill, local farmers (loud Jeremy Clarkson types) exchanging banter at the bar. He heads inside and orders a pint, handing over his platinum Amex. 'We don't accept those', says a bored, spotty-skinned teenager. 'No problem – can I order some food too?', enquires Chad. The adolescent just shrugs and nods towards a sign: 'Food Served 12-2.30 / 5.30-8.00'. It's 2.31pm. Maybe there's a cute village shop Chad can frequent instead? He wanders down a country lane. Except the local bus, several black Range Rovers, an army of lyrca-clad cyclists and a solitary tractor are also vying for dominance of the same 6ft of tarmac. Chad gets to know the road verge hedgerow very intimately. He finally arrives at the shop. Except it's no independent retailer. It's a tired chain supermarket with empty fridges, big queues and £5.99 for a soggy cheese sarnie. Yuk. A Chipping Campden fingerpost for the Heart of England Way and Cotswold Way. Credit: 365 Focus Photography / Shutterstock Beware the Bull Never mind. Our hungry hero sees a fingerpost sign and decides to go for a countryside stroll. That will blow away the cobwebs. He's envisaging golden light and a gentle breeze, meandering cobbled lanes and rolling hills, a church spire on the horizon and a pleasant chat with the old lady tending to the flowers in her garden. Instead it all turns into a nightmare. The '10% chance of drizzle' prediction has turned into near-apocalyptic, horizontal sleet slamming into his face. There's an alarming 'Beware the Bull' yellow warning sign; sheep excrement is everywhere; and the path appears to be nothing more than a muddy line through a farmer's field. Chad gives up. He retreats back to the village and dives into the only café open: something called Greggs. He sits down, sips a luke warm 'coffee' in a Styrofoam cup and loads up Netflix on his phone. Downton Abbey, series one. Finally, England looks exactly like it was supposed to.