Shakespeare Country

You get new insight into William Shakespeare when you visit the stretch of country where he was born and raised. The hills of sculpted farmland may look nothing like the forested countryside of the 16th century, but some sturdy Tudor houses that Shakespeare knew survive to this day. You can walk down streets he might have traveled up and cross streams where, as a child, he might have dangled his feet in the cool water. There's beauty in this—and also the possibility of tourist overkill. Stratford-upon-Avon, with its carefully preserved Shakespeare sites and the theaters of the famed Royal Shakespeare Company, veers toward becoming "Shakespeare World." Still, it's a fascinating place, and there's much more to see—castles, churches, and countryside—in this famously lovely part of Britain. More »