A Spanish village has pointed out the reality of rural holidays – we should do the same in the UK

As more people take staycations this year, writes Janet Street-Porter, they will have to deal with country life

Ribadesella is encouraging visitors to embrace rural living (Getty/iStock)

Fed up with holidaymakers complaining about being woken at dawn by cockerels and church bells, the mayor of Ribadesella, a village in northern Spain, decided to launch a poster campaign warning visitors about the realities of rural life – from braying donkeys to cow dung on the streets.

It points out the roads are winding and are used by tractors, driven by farmers who are growing your food, and that milk doesn’t come in cartons, but from cows. The campaign gently mocks feeble townies with the retort – “if you can’t handle all this, you may not be in the right place”.

A similar campaign might be highly appropriate in this country too.

More Brits than ever have opted for staycations this summer, choosing rural campsites and lodges over their usual luxury hotels situated near a beach in the Mediterranean. One owner of holiday lodges situated deep in the Suffolk countryside reveals that this year’s guests are particularly demanding: Visitors complain about any cobwebs, they are freaked out by the sound of mice under their cabin (even though the tiny mammals are outside!), they are upset by the smell of cows and frightened of spiders, dragonflies and any flying bugs.

Not surprising perhaps, when the humble holiday deckchair is now being treated as a potentially dangerous object.

When the resort of Scarborough allowed private operators to rent out deck chairs, bidders were told to ensure it would be “at the users’ own risk”. I dread to think what damage a deckchair can do to people who are scared of a cobweb.