If you want to see England at its most charming, you’d do worse than to head to one of its countless tiny cobbled villages. Cornwall, the Cotswolds, Northumberland, the Lake District – they’re all home to pretty postcard-worthy hamlets that give pastel dotted villages in Italy and gleaming white island settlements in Greece a run for their money.
It’s not just us that thinks so. With the help of Unforgettable Travel Company, Forbes has unveiled the 50 most beautiful villages in the world for 2025. And a small village here in England has been crowned the best looking of them all.
The Cotswolds village of Bibury is the most beautiful in the world, according to Forbes. The publication said: ‘Bibury unfurls like a watercolour dream—where honey-slicked cottages line Arlington Row; their mossy roofs whispering tales of 14th-century weavers. The River Coln murmurs gently here—weaving through golden buttercups and forget-me-nots, while plump ducks paddle lazily beneath canopies of willow.’
A lot of other people agree. In fact, Bibury’s 600 or so locals are now trying to grapple with overtourism. Nearly 50 coaches of people stop by to glimpse its beauty every day during peak season and up to 20,000 tourists often visit in a single weekend in the summer. This year, residents have been campaigning for coaches to stop going through the centre in order to ease traffic a little bit.
One resident told the Guardian back in March: ‘We have such a beautiful place that we want to share, but the level of tourism and the hordes of people that come has just made it entirely unpleasant, and the infrastructure doesn’t really cope with it.
‘All they want to do is come and take a photograph. They don’t stay in the village. They don’t linger enough to really ingest the beauty and historic value of the place. It’s literally, I think, to take a selfie.’
If you do plan to give Bibury a visit for more than just a selfie, stop by The Catherine Wheel for a pint, sample fresh locally caught trout at Bibury Trout Farm or wander inside the historic St Mary’s Church.
For somewhere quieter, check out the best villages in Britain ‘untouched by mass tourism’.
Plus: See which British region was named the best ‘slow travel’ destination in the world.
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