World of Shakespeare | Small Group Tour
This small group tour for mature couples and solo travellers visits Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon and Anne Hathaway's cottage all form part of this small group tour escorted by a tour director and local guides sharing their knowledge on this guided tour. Included are performances in London at the Globe & RSC in Shakespeare's Stratford upon Avon.
From £4,334GBP
Highlights
- 1. Experience exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of Shakespeare’s Globe in London and the Memorial Theatre in Stratford upon Avon.
- 2. Join post-performance discussions with experts in Stratford.
- 3. Enjoy illustrated lectures by renowned academics and theatre professionals.
- 4. Enjoy a Q&A session with a member of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
Departure Dates
Departure Date | Price |
---|---|
15 May 2025 Ends 24 May 2025 • 10 days £4,334 Twin £5,069 Single Available | Selected |
13 April 2026 Ends 23 April 2026 • 11 days £4,334 Twin £5,069 Single Available |
World of Shakespeare Small Group Tour
Odyssey offers easy, convenient, and relaxed escorted small group tours across the British isles, including England and beyond. We explore Englands natural beauty, its heritage around Shakespeare, its World Heritage Sites, and the world famous places associated with the bard, all with some truly spectacular scenery along the way. This and more is all waiting to be explored on one of Odyssey’s small group tours of England, designed for the senior traveller, and led by experienced, and enthusiastic like minded people.
If you are a lover of the world's greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, then this small group tour is for you. On this unique travel experience, we will attend six Shakespearean performances in both Stratford and London while learning more about the dramatist's most famous plays and how his life shaped his work. Another highlight of the tour will be exclusive illustrated lectures by world-renowned academics.
As part of the tour we will be attending plays put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company, a theatre based in Shakespeare's birthplace that is dedicated to bringing Shakespeare and his work to as many audiences as possible.
About the Shakespeare Tour
We begin our tour in Stratford upon Avon, a Tudor market town with more than 800 years of history. Home to quaint cottages, thatched roofs and lovely gardens, it is renowned worldwide for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare in 1564, as well as where he died in 1616. As well as watching plays and participating in post-performance discussions with your peers, we will visit Shakespeare's birthplace and see how his story began and the places he lived. After our three performances here, we make our way to London. In London, we have the opportunity to spend the day at the Globe theatre, where we will have a tour that is not available to the general public. We will have a lecture about the formidable theatre, originally built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men before seeing a performance there in the evening.
About Shakespeare
An English poet, playwright and actor, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. He lived with his family in Stratford-upon-Avon until he was eighteen, at which point he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior and already pregnant with their first child. Not all of Shakespeare's life is well-documented but by 1592 he had established a reputation in London. During this time he became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors, later known as the King's Men. He produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613, writing some of his most well-known plays like Macbeth and King Lear while in London. He died in 1616, at the age of 52 and is buried in the Holy Trinity church in his hometown.
This link takes you to the Folger Shakespeare library for more information.
For more details, click the ‘Top 5’ or ‘Itinerary’ buttons above! If you’re keen to experience this tour, please call or send an email. Or, to book, simply fill in the form on the right hand side of this page.
Gallery
Itinerary
10 days
Day 1: London
Accommodation: 1 night at London Lodge Kensington Hotel or similar.
Upon arrival in London we will come to the hotel individually. There will be some free time before we join our Tour Leader for our tour orientation followed by our welcome dinner.
Day 2-3-4: Stratford
Accommodation: 3 nights at The Falcon Hotel or similar.
We will transfer by coach to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Along the way, we will enjoy lunch at a local restaurant en route before checking into our hotel. At the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust we will attend a Welcome & Introduction to our course. Highlights will be illustrated lectures by renowned academics and a Q&A Session with a member of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
During our time in Stratford we will visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. We will see the Trust treasures which include a display of documents relating to Shakespeare’s life and times, and other treasures from the archive of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In Stratford we will attend 3 performances and post performance discussions, details still to be finalised.*
* We are awaiting final confirmation on course content and lectures in Stratford.
Day 5: Stratford to London
Accommodation: 4 nights at London Lodge Kensington Hotel or similar.
This morning will be at leisure before our post-performance discussion (TBC). In the afternoon we will transfer to London.
Day 6: London
Accommodation: London Lodge Kensington Hotel or similar.
We have a free day to explore on individually, and a performance in the evening.
Day 7: London
Accommodation: London Lodge Kensington Hotel or similar.
After breakfast we visit the Victoria & Albert Museum, the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. There will be a performance scheduled for this evening, details still to be confirmed.
Day 8: London
Accommodation: London Lodge Kensington Hotel or similar.
We will have time to enjoy breakfast at the hotel before our visit to the Globe Theatre. Our classes today commence with a tour of the theatre with a Globe Education Practitioner. This is an exclusive tour which is not available to the general public. We will visit Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition, enjoy a guided tour around the Rose archaeological remains, and attend a lecture and demonstration before attending an evening performance at the Globe Theatre.
***Note – have a good breakfast, no break from 11:30-17:30!**
Day 9: London
Our tour concludes today after breakfast.
Includes / Excludes
What’s included in our Tour
- Services of a Tour Leader for the duration of tour.
- Transport in comfortable and modern coaches.
- All lectures, excursions, entrance fees, and local guides.
- 8 nights of hotel accommodation.
- Breakfasts daily, 1 lunch, and 2 Dinners.
What’s not included in our Tour
- Items of a personal nature such as telephone calls and laundry.
- International airfares and departure taxes.
- Comprehensive travel insurance.
Participants must be able to carry their own luggage, climb and descend stairs, moderate walking on uneven surfaces between 3 - 5 kilometers per day. Suitable for most fitness levels
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Make it a private tour
Easing your journey
Crossing international borders with restrictions
The list of requirements to travel internationally has changed and will continue to change for several years. Odyssey is here to assist you in managing your way through these requirements:
For more information see our Crossing international borders with restrictions page.
Book With Confidence
If less than 30 days before your tour starts you are unable to travel as a result of Government travel restrictions, Odyssey Traveller will assist you with a date change, provide you with a credit or process a refund for your booking less any non-recoverable costs.
See Terms and conditions for details.
Peace of Mind Travel
The safety of our travellers, tour leader, local guide and support staff has always been our top priority and with the new guidelines for public health and safety for keeping safe for destinations around the world, we’ve developed our plan to give you peace of mind when travelling with us.
See Peace of Mind Travel for details.
Reading List Download PDF
This Is Shakespeare
Emma Smith
A THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019
'The best introduction to the plays I've read, perhaps the best book on Shakespeare, full stop' Alex Preston, Observer
'It makes you impatient to see or re-read the plays at once' Hilary Mantel
A genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no others. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality and literary mastery. Who wrote like an angel, putting it all so much better than anyone else.
Is this Shakespeare? Well, sort of.
But it doesn't really tell us the whole truth. So much of what we say about Shakespeare is either not true, or just not relevant, deflecting us from investigating the challenges of his inconsistencies and flaws. This electrifying new book thrives on revealing, not resolving, the ambiguities of Shakespeare's plays and their changing topicality. It introduces an intellectually, theatrically and ethically exciting writer who engages with intersectionality as much as with Ovid, with economics as much as poetry: who writes in strikingly modern ways about individual agency, privacy, politics, celebrity and sex. It takes us into a world of politicking and copy-catting, as we watch him emulating the blockbusters of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd, the Spielberg and Tarantino of their day; flirting with and skirting round the cut-throat issues of succession politics, religious upheaval and technological change. The Shakespeare in this book poses awkward questions rather than offering bland answers, always implicating us in working out what it might mean.
This is Shakespeare. And he needs your attention.
Shakespeare: A Book of Quotations
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare is without doubt the most quoted writer in English. His plays and poems comprise an inexhaustible source of memorable and often profound thoughts beautifully and concisely expressed. This remarkably affordable volume presents over 400 quotations conveniently arranged by topic: love, marriage, conduct and morality, truth, beauty, time, death, music, and more.
Included are such timeless observations as: "All that glitters is not gold," "Brevity is the soul of wit," "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is/ To have a thankless child"; "While you live, tell truth and shame the devil!"; "The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream," and many more. Romantic thoughts receive a particularly rich treatment; extensive selections on the subject of love include quotes from the plays ("The course of true love never did run smooth"; "Speak low if you speak love") and sonnets ("For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings,/ That then I scorn to change my state with kings"). Each quote bears a complete citation.
Ideal for writers, speakers, students of literature, and any lover of Shakespeare's works, this inexpensive treasury lends itself admirably to a virtually endless number of uses, from casual browsing to designing personal greeting cards.
In Search Of Shakespeare
Michael Wood
Almost 400 years after his death, William Shakespeare is still acclaimed as the world's greatest writer, and yet the man himself remains shrouded in mystery. In this absorbing historical detective story, the acclaimed broadcaster and historian Michael Wood takes a fresh approach to Shakespeare's life, brilliantly recreating the turbulent times through which the poet lived: the age of the Reformation, the Spanish Armada, the Gunpowder Plot and the colonization of the Americas.
Drawing on an extensive range of sources, Michael Wood takes us back into Elizabethan England to reveal a man who is the product of his time - a period of tremendous upheaval that straddled the medieval and modern worlds. Using a wealth of unexplored archive evidence the author vividly conjures up the neighbourhoods of the Elizabethan London where Shakespeare lived and worked during his glittering career. Full of fresh insights and fascinating new discoveries, this book presents us with a Shakespeare for the twenty-first century: a man of the theatre, a thinking artist, playful and cunning who held up a mirror to his age, but who was also, as his friend Ben Jonson said, 'not of an age, but for all time'.
World of Shakespeare | Small Group Tour