This research investigates the relationship between website design and the website end--user experience of a vast number of English tourism destinations, both local and regional ones. Following recent research in the field, this paper evaluates destinations' online communication, based on the implemented website features and on the effectiveness of the communication itself, borrowing its research methodology from different domains. After content and functionality analysis, a user--experience, scenario--based investigation has been carried out, which demonstrated that complex websites do not always serve end--users' needs properly; in other words, website complexity is not directly related with good user experience. This research may help destination managers to foster their online communication if they have fewer content and functionalities but are better focused and clearly user--oriented.