09 May 2025

Where in Europe has the most tourists?

The worst places for overtourism - and the places in Spain, Italy, France and beyond you should visit instead

In 2023, almost 12.5 million people descended upon Mallorca, an island around a fifth the size of Wales. Almost 40% of them were there in July and August.

Still, we were surprised when our analysis of European Commission tourism numbers showed that Mallorca is, by overnight stays, the most-visited place in Europe. It recorded more than 51 million overnight stays by tourists in 2023 – more than London, Paris and Rome. The island’s population is just 966,000.

It’s this imbalance between the number of tourists and residents that’s the best gauge of just how overrun with tourists a destination has become. The EC now has a measure for this, known as ‘tourism pressure’. It calculates how many nights tourists spend in a region, compared with the number of residents. Imagine, for example, that 100 tourists spend five nights in a town with 100 residents. The ‘tourist pressure’ figure would be five overnight stays to every resident.

This article first appeared in Which? Travel.

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The worst places for tourists

By the tourist pressure measure, Zakynthos in Greece is the capital of overtourism in Europe. It had almost 150 overnight stays for every person who lives there.

The same measure also suggests you should ignore clickbait travel articles that persist in describing Istria in Croatia as the country’s ‘best-kept secret’. Some secret – it was second only to Zakynthos, with 133 overnight tourist stays for each resident. Many regions of Austria also appear dark blue on the map. It doesn’t have the most visitors in absolute terms, but compared to residents, there are a lot of tourists.

The results of this level of tourism vary, but broadly it means your holiday is mainly spent in the company of other tourists while shops, restaurants and cultural experiences will be aimed (and priced) at tourists rather than locals.

Most tourists per square kilometre

For cities, the EC’s tourist nights per square km is a better measure. It records just how many tourists are squeezed into city streets. Paris, unsurprisingly, has by far the most tourists per square km, followed by Athens and Copenhagen.

Many cities and regions have recently introduced tourist taxes and controls on short-term rentals. In Amsterdam, which also appears near the top of the list, you’ll pay around €22 a night per room on top of the standard hotel rate (12.5%).

But what the data also reveals is where few tourists tread. We've highlighted the best - and the worst - places to visit this summer, if you want to avoid other tourists.

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The worst places for tourism - by three different measures

Mallorca, Spain

The 51m overnight stays in Mallorca in 2023 show that overtourism has become a problem, not just in hotspots such as Magaluf but across the island. There were 14,064 overnight stays per square km in 2023 – on average throughout the year – and 54 overnight stays per resident.

In response, the local government is introducing a new tourist tax of between €1 and €6 per night (depending on season and type of accommodation). It has also proposed a tax of up to €80 per rental on car hire. Some towns, such as the popular Soller, are restricting hire cars access to the centre. The simplest response is to skip holidays here entirely, certainly in July and August.

Zakynthos, Greece

Only around 40,000 people actually live on Zakynthos – also known as Zante. On an island that’s just a bit bigger than the Isle of Wight, but with rather better weather, that should leave acres of space for everybody. However, it had a staggering six million overnight stays in 2023, most in the sprawling, raucous resorts along the south coast. If you want a more peaceful Greek island holiday, choose Kefalonia or Lefkada. Both islands get plenty of tourists, too, but in our most recent Greek islands survey they got five and four stars respectively for peace and quiet.

Paris, France

Paris had around 44 million overnight stays in 2023. That’s a huge 418,280 overnight stays per square km. You’ll notice this everywhere – from the huge crowds at the Mona Lisa and Eiffel Tower to simply getting a dinner reservation somewhere nice. The city’s strategy has been to try to reduce demand by raising prices. Paris hiked tourist taxes by almost 200% in 2024. A couple staying in a four-star hotel would now pay a €33.80 tax for two nights (€8.45 per person per night).

Where to go to escape the tourists

Lille, France

If you think about what you want from Paris – romantic strolls, beautiful architecture, patisseries and boulangeries on every corner – you might well be better off going to Lille. The cobbled streets of the medieval old town are just as charming, but much less busy. The famous Wazemmes food market and its surrounding bistros make it easier to eat well for less than in the capital. Its art museum, the Palais des Beaux Arts, has the second-largest collection of artworks outside the Louvre, including works by Manet, Picasso, Rubens and Van Dyck. There are around two overnight stays for every resident in the Nord region that it administers, compared with around 20 in Paris. Even better, you can get there on the train in less than 1 hour 30 minutes from London.

Murcia, Spain

Spain is the destination of choice for many people, but Murcia is the least-visited part of its Mediterranean coast by overseas visitors, both per square km and relative to the resident population. There are around 486 overnight stays per square km, compared with 5,501 in Alicante, the province next door. It has 3,631 overnight stays per 1,000 residents, compared with 16,883 in Alicante and 17,493 in the Malaga region. This is despite the fact that it has two attractive, sun-drenched cities: Murcia itself, and Cartagena – one of Spain’s great centres for Roman ruins. Many of the visitors are concentrated in the narrow strip of La Manga, meaning beaches such as the ‘four calas’ just outside the capital, and the protected Calblanque national park, have been left wild and unspoilt.

Alentejo, Portugal

Taking up almost a third of the entire country, the Alentejo region between Lisbon and the Algarve nevertheless gets fewer visitors than either. Its headline attraction is Comporta, newly fashionable, with its long stretch of beaches sheltered from the road by rolling sand dunes. But if you really want to get away from it all, head to the interior, through the cork oak woods and past hilltop villages in white stone, to some of the country’s most impressive towns. Évora is a Unesco World Heritage Site, with one of the best-preserved Roman temples in the whole of the peninsula. In the remote interior, there were just four overnight stays for every resident in 2022.

Calabria, Italy

If this stretch of coast and mountains were anywhere else in Europe, it would be a huge tourist favourite. Because it’s in Italy, where there are so many other options, and because it’s a region that’s historically suffered extreme poverty, not to mention the mafia, it’s been overlooked. Even in the most-visited village, Tropea, a Mediterranean fantasy town of piazzas, narrow lanes and views over the sea, you’ll hardly hear English spoken. This is despite it being set on top of a cliff above some of Italy’s best beaches. Each year, this large region – Italy’s toe – gets around half a million visitors, but most are Italian. From London, you can fly into Lamezia Terme airport, about an hour’s drive from Tropea.

Wolin, Poland

Sandy beaches that run for miles, set against forested cliffs rising almost 100 metres above the sea, make Wolin National Park a particularly pretty place for a seaside holiday. It’s easily reached by direct flight from the UK to Szczecin, and outside of school summer holidays in July and August, you’ll find many beaches all but empty. Most visitors will stay in Miedzyzdroje, a resort famous for having even warmer temperatures than most of the coast, and where a good fish dinner and a pint can still be had for just over £10.

Haapsalu, Estonia

This seaside resort on Estonia’s tranquil Baltic Coast, only 1 hour 20 minutes from Tallinn airport, was developed as a spa town in the early 19th century. Today, its handsome clapboard houses and a well-preserved castle still have an air of easy gentility and good health, especially the famous mud treatments. Temperatures might not rise high enough to justify the claim that it’s ‘the new Med’, but in July and August, they can be similar to southern England, and rain is rare. Beaches, though, will not be as crowded. It has around 120 overnight stays by tourists per square km.

Teleorman, Romania

If you’re determined to visit somewhere with little chance of bumping in to British tourists – or any tourists – this region, a two-hour drive west of Bucharest, is your best bet. There were only 20 overnight stays per 1,000 residents in 2023; it’s the least-visited place in Europe, by this measure. Enjoy mămăligă (cornmeal porridge) with sour cream in county town Alexandria, take a stroll along the sandy Briza Dunarii (Danube Breeze) beach or visit Saint Ioan Valahul Monastery – once ruined but now inhabited by a new generation of monks. Here you’ll find a warm welcome from people who won’t be protesting about overtourism any time soon.