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.