I used to love Shakespeare but after a bad experience with Macbeth a few years ago I decided the Bard was a bore.

Fortunately that lasted only briefly; within a year I had failed to heed my own advice and saw a stunning performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company and then I couldn’t get enough.

So a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon has been on the cards for a long time.

The reality of Stratford was far beyond what I expected. Around every corner there is something special that has cameras clicking, whether it’s a Tudor building, a monument, a cobbled car-free street or a wandering minstrel. Add to these the helpful and friendly people and you really do feel welcome.

We stayed in a junior suite at the centrally located Mercure Shakespeare Hotel in Chapel Street, which serves amazing food and is just around the corner from many of the important historic sites. A ten-minute slow walk and we were at the Bard’s birthplace and a one-minute walk in the opposite direction found us outside John Nash’s house.

Nash was married to Shakespeare’s granddaughter Elizabeth and their home was typically upper class of the time, with amazing dark wood beams, huge and numerous fireplaces, creaky floorboards and some of the most uncomfortable looking furniture you will ever see.

Barely 100 yards around the corner stands the Royal Shakespeare Company theatres, and no visit to Stratford is complete without seeing at least one play.

With a choice of As You Like It in the main theatre, or the Jacobean romp Mad World My Masters in the smaller Swan, it wasn’t an easy decision.

We decided to visit the Swan and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening in this smaller, more intimate theatre, which is like the theatres would have been back in the 16th century, but more comfortable. Here the audience is much closer to the action. All I can say is it was amazing; wonderfully bawdy, brilliantly acted and worth the trip to Stratford on its own.

The next day we took the ubiquitous tour bus around the various Shakespeare attractions, including Anne Hathaway’s Cottage and gardens at nearby Shottery and Mary Arden’s (Shakespeare’s mother’s) farm at Wilmcote.

Back in Stratford we paid a visit to Shakespeare’s birthplace. The family house was quite grand for the time and included three bedrooms, a parlour, dining room and a glover’s workshop (his father was a glover).

Anyone who thinks four-poster beds were invented to keep the cold out and the occupants snug will be surprised to hear they were designed to stop all the bird, bat and rat droppings falling on the sleepers from the unhealthy thatched roof.

Outside in the garden of his boyhood home a trio of strolling players entertained the tourists.

“Name any play,” they said.

“I’ll catch them out,” I thought, and chose The Taming Of The Shrew.

Quick as a flash I found myself incorporated into a scene from the play, although I think the actor playing Petruchio embellished the Bard’s prose a bit when he described me as decrepit, old and wizened – with many other ageist adjectives thrown in for good measure. Nevertheless it was great fun.

A five-minute walk along the riverbank from the theatres will take you to Holy Trinity Church, where the Bard’s bones now repose, protected by an ancient curse: “Good friend for Jesus’ sake forebear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Bleste be that man that spare these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones.”

The Bard died aged just 52 and you have to wonder what amazing works would have come from his pen had he lived into old age.

Stratford certainly makes the most of its famous son, and with just cause. We stayed for three days and really it was nowhere near long enough.

We’ve already prepared a list of what to do on our next visit.

  • For information on the Mercure Shakespeare Hotel call 02477 092802 or visit www.mercure.com
  • To find out what is on at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s theatres, visit www.rsc.org.uk
  • Many of the historic houses in Stratford are part of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Visit www.shakespeare.org.uk for opening times and prices
  • The hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus runs every 20 minutes throughout August and September, visit www.citysightseeing-stratford.com