Stratford & a Shakespearean New Year

Make your own way to our hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon, where you’ll meet our Tour Manager and enjoy a relaxing evening.

This morning we will visit two key properties in Shakespeare’s history. We’ll travel to Anne Hathaway’s pretty little cottage where you can explore the history of the house and the gardens. We’ll then go on to Shakespeare’s birthplace, a small cottage tucked away amongst the high street of Stratford. Here you can walk in Shakespeare’s footsteps and explore the house where he was born. He spent the first five years of his marriage to Anne Hathaway living in this house, surrounded by his parents and siblings. We’ll have some free time for lunch before we head to the Swan theatre for an afternoon performance of one of Shakespeare’s own plays; War of the Roses: Part 1.

Today we enjoy a roundtrip on the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway, a heritage railway operated by volunteers which runs along the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire border. It uses part of the route of the former Great Western Railway’s main line from Birmingham to Cheltenham and now operates steam and heritage diesel trains between Cheltenham Racecourse and Broadway through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Cotswolds. We board our steam train at Toddington and travel along part of the route to Cheltenham. We return and alight back at Toddington where we’ll transfer by coach to Broadway, where you’ll have some free time to explore this quaint picture postcard village. Later we return to our hotel for our New Year’s Eve gala dinner. We’ll enjoy champagne and canapés upon arrival followed by a delicious five course dinner, before seeing in the New Year with fabulous entertainment, featuring a live band and DJ.

Today is yours to spend at leisure, doing as much or as little as you like. Relax in the hotel or explore Stratford-upon-Avon and take a walk along the river, taking in the pretty half-timbered buildings of this medieval market town. Dinner is served at the hotel this evening.