Summer 2025 broke records for tourist visitors around the world, but in places that have reported suffering from overtourism over the past few years, there was an increase in unrest among locals against the people arriving on vacation. Many of these places feature in Fodor’s annual ‘No List’ that highlights the places in the world with “the overtouristed sites, the fragile ecosystems, the communities struggling to stay afloat” and where you may want to rethink travel plans due to overtourism before booking a holiday in 2026.
Overcrowded Travel Destinations 2026 Europe—Fodor’s No List For This And Last Year
It’s an interesting paradox that as European summers get hotter, and the wildfires continue, and as reports of overcrowding in major European tourist spots increase, the visitor numbers keep climbing.
Fodor’s 2025 No List singled out five European places “where the locals don’t want you to go”. These were:
- Barcelona
- Mallorca
- The Canary Islands
- Venice
- Lisbon
Only one of these is still on Fodor’s No List 2026, although that doesn’t mean that the other four have been magically cured of existing issues. Fodor’s has instead decided to place the spotlight on other regions.
Many of these are cities and regions where locals have been more vociferous in their opposition to unchecked tourism, which they blame for rising house prices, a lack of short-term housing rentals for locals, amid a backdrop of a deteriorating environment and biodiversity.
It’s no surprise that three of these places were in Spain and that Spanish residents have been very vocal in their dissatisfaction with such high tourist numbers. This summer 2025, regions across Spain—already the second most visited country in the world in 2024, after France—witnessed record-breaking visitor numbers.
One of these places in Spain remains on Fodor’s No List for 2026—the Canary Islands. This rugged Spanish volcanic archipelago, 100km (60 miles) off the coast of Morocco, which includes Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, and the largest Tenerife, was the third most popular spot for visitors to Spain.
Canary Islands Tourism reports that these seven islands welcomed 1.23 million visitors in August 2025, 6% higher than last August and the highest number ever in any month, as per Euronews. Ten million foreigners visited the Canaries in the first half of the year. A large majority are from the U.K. and Germany, who visit all year round and contribute 35% to the islands’ GDP.
Euronews reports that 66.8 million people visited Spain from January to August 2025, which amounts to 3.5% more than last year. The government has taken several measures to reduce the impacts of overtourism. It discontinued its golden visa program, and in the case of the Canary Islands, it is now bringing in a new tourist charge to hike the trails in the Teide-Pico Viejo national park. The fee will begin in 2026 and likely be around €25, although there will be different prices for different trails.
There are three other areas in Europe that are on Fodor’s 2026 No list in Europe:
- The Jungfrau region in Switzerland
- Montmartre in Paris, France.
In the number one visited country in the world, in its capital, Parisian residents spent the summer complaining about the ‘Disneyfication’ of Montmartre, where food shops are rapidly giving way to souvenir and trinket stalls, and where family space is being given over to tourist cafes.
Isola Sacra is a quiet coastal district in the town of Fiumicino, just 20 miles from Rome, Italy, that is under threat from intended plans to allow the world’s largest cruise ships to dock there. It has a shallow seabed and would need to extract 105 million cubic feet of sand, threatening the marine diversity and exacerbating coastal erosion.
In the Bernese Oberland of central Switzerland, the Jungfrau Region is threatened by soaring visitor numbers, eager to visit peaks that are described as being at ‘the top of Europe’ but are straining the retreating glaciers, natural resources and the daily lives of residents.
In 2025, there were two other regions of Europe that were on Fodor’s No-List that didn’t make the 2026 list. These were Agrigento in Sicily, Italy, the Italian capital of culture in 2025, because it has been suffering from a severe water crisis. And also the North Coast 500 route through the North Highlands in Scotland, because of its lack of facilities, leading visitors to camp wildly, leaving behind “campfire scorch marks, trash, disposable grills and even human faeces in their wake.”
Overcrowded travel destinations 2026—Fodor’s No List for 2025
In 2025, Fodor’s No List cited three main travel destinations where there was an urgent need for adequate waste management for the literally millions of tourists:
- Bali, Indonesia, where only 7% of its 303,000 tonnes of annual plastic waste was recycled.
- Koh Samui in Thailand, where much of the 200 tons of daily trash sits in a landfill without a long-term solution. Tourism was expected to rapidly increase in 2025 because of its prominent feature in the third season of The White Lotus.
- Mount Everest, situated in the Himalaya mountains between Nepal and China, where tourism and unchecked climate permits generates nearly 2,000 pounds of poop and other rubbish, daily.
In 2026, Fodor’s No List includes four new places:
- Antarctica
- Glacier National Park
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Mombasa, Kenya
Mexico City saw sometimes violent eruptions against overtourism throughout the summer of 2025. The first protest began on 4 July, American Independence Day, to protest against the perceived endless influx of Americans and Europeans into trendy neighborhoods that, as reported by the BBC, were forcing out long-term residents because of exorbitant rent hikes and a lack of regulation over holiday lettings. There is also frustration over an increase in restaurant menus in English, or hot sauces at taco stands becoming milder because they need to cater to more sensitive foreign palates.
Le Monde reported in September 2025 that the number of tourists to Antarctica had skyrocketed over the past ten years and that the pristine continent is deteriorating. During the 2024-2025 season, which runs from October to March, about 118,000 people came to visit this place that has such a dramatic impact on the world’s ecosystems; 40% of them were from the U.S., and a skyrocketing increase from the 36,000 tourists that visited a decade beforehand.
Jessica O’Reilly, who is associate professor of anthropology at Indiana University and an advisor to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, says, “The environment is fragile, and it’s a rare environment. That’s why people want to go there, but it’s also why it can’t really sustain high numbers of tourism.”
Glacier National Park is in the north-west of the U.S. on the Canadian-American border. These are Montana’s Rocky Mountains, with over 700 miles of walking routes, Grizzly bears, and a hidden lake. But as Fodor’s No List highlights, “Glacier National Park (GNP) is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average. Of the estimated 150 glaciers ringing its peaks in the early 20th century, only 27 remain. Those, too, are expected to disappear by 2030.”
Mombasa in Kenya makes this year’s list because Kenya hit a record 2.4 million international arrivals last year, a 14.6% rise against 2023 numbers, and cruise travel, in particular has increased by 164% in coastal Mombasa and Lamu.
Overcrowded Travel Destinations 2026 Europe-Fodor’s Complete No List
Here is the complete this of the eight places or regions of the world that are on Fodor’s No List 2026:
- Antarctica
- The Canary Islands, Spain
- Glacier National Park
- Isola Sacra, Italy
- The Jungfrau Region, Switzerland
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Mombasa, Kenya
- Montmartre, Paris, France
These are the places where travellers looking to protect the environment and reduce overtourism and overcrowding in all its forms in 2026 would be mindful to have a rethink about travel plans over the coming year and beyond.
