If you’ve ever been to England’s tourist honeypots — the Lake District, the Cotswolds, north Norfolk and the north Cornish coast — the chances are you’ve had a guidebook in hand.

So did everyone else, and before you knew it, you were on the tourist trail, staying in the same hotels, seeing the same sights and eating in the same restaurants as all the other tourists.

You may have wondered, as you lay awake in the boutique hotel it took months to book because it had been in all the glossies, whether you were missing something — whether, beyond the celebrity hang-outs, the Michelin stars and the things to do before you die, there was anything authentic left to explore.

Help is at hand. The Sunday Times has recruited local volunteers to show you the places the glossies and guidebooks missed. These honeypots are still beautiful. You just need to know where to look.

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THE COTSWOLDS

The Cotswolds has its own magazine, a glossy monthly called Cotswold Life. Articles in September’s issue include “Tetbury: a town of impeccable taste...”, a back-to-school piece on Norland Nannies, and “Chipping Norton: the Oxfordshire town with a host of celebrity fans”.

If you don’t know the region, you might be getting the impression that it is populated by smug, overpaid members of the Groucho Club pretending to be farmers. And you’d be right.

“Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh are the top destinations,” says the Footprint Guide, “and it’s not hard to see why.” We beg to differ: they’re soulless, overcommercialised stations of the crass on the Kodak world tourist trail.

To put us on the right track, we have the naturalist and author Gordon Ottewell, the Cotswold warden and walking guide John Heathcott, and the morris dancer Paul Tremlin.

What to do

Walk Winchcombe: there’s a Japanese tearoom here — brilliantly referred to as the “Olde Bakaley” on its own website (juris-tearoom.co.uk) — and it’s hugely popular with the thousands of Japanese visitors who come to stumble around Sudeley Castle, described as “a delight” by Johansens guide, although not if you’re scared of crowds. Leave them to it and focus on the superb walks radiating from the town through landscapes unseen by most tourists.

Forced to pick the most uplifting, Gordon Ottewell recommends that you “follow the Cotswold Way from Winchcombe up to the ruins of Hailes Abbey, head along the old pilgrims’ trail to Farmcote, then down to Campden Lane and back to town”. For detailed routes, visit Winchcombe tourist office (01242 602925).

Explore the Stroud valleys: the Slad valley is a magnet for Laurie Lee fans, but for John Heathcott’s money, the Frome valley is even prettier. Starting in Brimpsfield, head south via Syde and Miserden Park to the Arts and Crafts village of Sapperton, then Painswick, aka “the queen of the Cotswolds”. “It’s far more attractive than Bourton-on-the-Water, and far less visited,” Heathcott says.

Go shopping: Patricia Schultz, author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, recommends Stow-on-the-Wold for the antiques, and Broadway for the antiques, but our insiders suggest leaving the antiques to gullible Americans and stocking up instead on comestibles at Stroud farmers’ market — reputedly Britain’s best, and open every Saturday from 9am.

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