BOURNEMOUTH'S famous seaside has been named one of the busiest beaches in Europe, coming second only to Crete in Greece.

Dorset appears twice in the top ten list of beaches, with Lulworth Cove and Door and Bournemouth beach featuring.

The popular attractions were two out of four locations in England, alongside Fistral Beach in Cornwall and Woolacombe Beach in Devon.

Travel website The Thinking Traveller analysed Tripadvisor reviews, filtering by keywords and phrases linked to overcrowding, such as “too busy”.

Each location was filtered for mentions of the words ‘busy’ and ‘crowded,’ and were combined to determine which spots had the most mentions.

Bournemouth beach rated 796, following Crete’s Elafonissi beach at 940 mentions.

Here are Europe’s top ten busiest beaches, according to The Thinking Traveller analysis:

  1. Elafonissi Beach Crete, Greece 940
  2. Bournemouth Beach Bournemouth, England 764
  3. Fig Tree Bay Protaros, Cyprus 696
  4. Playa de la Barceloneta Barcelona, Spain 667
  5. Navagio Beach (shipwreck beach) Zakynthos, Greece 640
  6. Playa de Levante Alicante, Spain 576
  7. Fistral Beach Cornwall, England 403
  8. Woolacombe Beach Devon, England 386
  9. Red Beach Santorini, Italy 385  
  10. Lulworth Cove and Door Dorset, England 379