(CNN) — Beaches strewn with waste, wild campers destroying fragile habitats, warnings from an increasingly overstretched Coastguard, unaffordable accommodations. What was supposed to have been a Great British summer has, for many, become a staycation nightmare.
Cut off by quarantine regulations from cheap trips to popular overseas destinations, UK vacationers were encouraged by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to enjoy their own, sometimes overlooked, holiday hotspots when Covid-19 lockdown measures eased in July.
Brits have also been permitted to venture abroad, with those traveling to countries identified on a coronavirus "safe" list exempted from quarantine on their return.
But with Spain, which usually attracts 18 million British tourists each year, hastily withdrawn from the list because of a virus resurgence and France, another popular destination, being dropped from the list this weekend, the demand for UK holidays has skyrocketed.
Research by hotel group The Cairn Collection found there was a 532% growth in searches for trips to Scotland, with searches for trips to ever popular Cornwall up 325% year-on-year.
Johnson, who himself is said to be planning a two-week stay in Scotland, has advised people to visit "peerless, wonderful, superlative places in the UK," rather than heading abroad.
The result has been clogged roads, emergency incidents on the most popular stretches of coastline, a rise in travel scams and soaring prices for accommodation.
Leave no trace
A fire engine struggles through the crowds on the promenade at Bournemouth in June.
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Even before peak summer was underway, there were signs of trouble.
When the last weekend of June saw the UK swelter in a 30 C (86 F) heatwave, an estimated half a million people headed to Dorset, a coastal region in southern England, as lockdown restrictions frayed.
Emergency services in the Dorset resort town of Bournemouth declared a major incident. The local council issued a record 558 parking fines. A massive 33 tons of waste were collected along the Dorset coastline, including human excrement and soiled diapers.
Further east, in the popular coastal city of Brighton, a place similarly blighted by alarmingly sized crowds leaving behind piles of trash, concerned residents began taking matters into their own hands.
"I finally snapped watching the rubbish and bins overflow," says Coral Evans. She's founded a group, Leave No Trace Brighton, that engages with locals on Instagram to coordinate near-daily beach cleanup operations.
"Brighton has always had an issue with beach visitors leaving rubbish, but at the end of June, the seafront became a destination for people coming out of lockdown," she says. "As the masses descended, the rubbish being discarded on the beach increased exponentially."
Trash left on the beach at Bournemouth after a busy day.
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On June 27, the council's beach cleaners collected 11 tons of waste between the waterfront's two piers, a stretch of around
