UK Travel Planning

Stratford-upon-Avon Travel Guide: What to Do, Where to Stay & Eat + Easy Cotswolds Day Trips

• Tracy Collins • Episode 175

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In this episode, host Tracy Collins is once again joined by Lisa Benjamin from Go Cotswolds to dive deep into Stratford-upon-Avon - the world-renowned birthplace of William Shakespeare and a destination that deserves more than just a day trip.

Together they share why Stratford is the perfect place to slow down and stay longer, from scenic riverside walks, rowing and cruises to hidden Royal Shakespeare Company gems like the free tower and museum. Discover how to make the most of your visit with insider tips on:

 • Starting with the Stratford Town Walk
 • Best areas to stay – from cosy B&Bs to central hotels
 • Cafes, bakeries, pubs and standout local restaurants
 • Getting around on foot, by bus or hop-on hop-off
 • Avoiding traffic and timing your visit for markets, Mop Fair and festivals
 • Quick wins for smart booking, passes and reservations

Lisa also explains why Stratford makes an ideal base for exploring the Cotswolds, with easy access to award-winning Go Cotswolds tours and routes.

🎧 Tune in for practical planning advice, local stories, and tips that help you experience the real Stratford-upon-Avon - plus get 5% off Go Cotswolds tours when you book direct at gocotswolds.co.uk
using the discount code UKTravPlan.

💬 Have a question for Lisa? Leave us a voice message via the Speakpipe link below!

⭐️ Guest - Lisa Benjamin from GoCotswolds
📝 Show Notes - Episode 175

🎧 Listen to next:

  • Episode #136 – Unveiling the Cotswolds: Top Experiences and Insider Tips with Expert Lisa Benjamin
  • Episode #115 – Essential Tips for Planning Your Perfect Cotswolds Adventure with Lisa Benjamin of GoCotswolds
  • Episode #107 – Exploring the Cotswolds with Lisa Benjamin from GoCotswolds Tours

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SPEAKER_00:

Are you planning a trip to Stratford upon Avon? In this episode, I'm joined by Lisa from Go Cops Worlds, who shares her insider tips on what to do, where to stay and the best local spots to eat and drink. We also chat about why Stratford makes the perfect base for exploring the Cops World.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK travel planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's edition of the UK Travel Planner Podcast. Today I'm joined by a very familiar guest, Lisa from Go Cot's Wolves. This is actually Lisa's fourth time on the podcast, and as always, such a treat to have her back. Now in this episode, we're focusing on Stratford upon Avon. Of course, it's known the world over as Shakespeare's birthplace, but Lisa is here to share her insider tips that go far beyond the obvious, from hidden corners and favourite local food spots to where to stay and how to make the most of your visit. We'll also talk about why Stratford makes such a brilliant base for exploring the cutswolds. And don't forget, if you're inspired to book one of Lisa's tours, we have an exclusive discount for listeners. I'll share that at the end of the episode. So let's get started and welcome Lisa back. Hi Lisa, welcome back to the podcast. Hello, nice to see you again. It's always fantastic to have you on, and you've been on the podcast, I think, three times already. I think this is your fourth time, Lisa. I think you're the person that's been on the most on our podcast. But for those listeners who haven't listened to Lisa yet, and I don't know why you haven't, because they're great episodes. But if you haven't heard from Lisa before, Lisa is about to give you a little introduction about who she is and about her fantastic business, Go Cotswolds.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, hi, um, I'm Lisa Benjamin. Um, I am one of the owners of Go Cotswolds, along with my husband Tom. Uh Go Cotswolds, we is a guided tour company, so we provide fun, friendly, small group tours of the Cotswolds. We're based in Stratford upon Avon, which is the subject of our podcast today. Um, and we also um pick up people for our tours in Stratford upon Avon and also from Morton and Marsh, which is a small town in the Cotswolds. Um, we have several different tour itineraries to show people all around the beautiful Cotswolds, different parts of the Cotswolds, different places, uh, different sort of uh themes, walking tours and um secret cotswolds. Um, so yeah, we have lots of different tours and um yeah, we love showing people around this part of the world that we call home.

SPEAKER_00:

And you certainly do a wonderful job of it. I've been on quite a few of your tours and they are fantastic. And um, I will be linking to your uh tours in the show notes. So if you're listening and thinking I really want to go on one of these tours with Go Cotswolds, don't worry, there will be a link in the show notes. But this episode we're gonna be focusing on Stratford upon Avon. So my mum doesn't live that far from Stratford, so that's also quite exciting to talk about that. But um, tell us why Stratford is such a fabulous place to visit.

SPEAKER_02:

I absolutely love Stratford. Um I have to confess I'm not native to Stratford. I was born in Kent in the southeast of England, but I moved up here um with my then boyfriend, my now husband Tom, um, about 15 years ago. So I've lived here a fair long time. Um, we actually live in a little town called Ulster, which is just 10 minutes, 10 or 15 minutes drive from Stratford upon Avon. But yeah, visit Stratford upon Avon, you know, almost uh every other day, and with our tours, we go there every single day. Um, so uh yeah, we know it very well. It's a beautiful um riverside town in Middle England. Um, it's very different vibe to London or big cities, it's got a very sort of small town feel to it, kind of a busy little town. It's um the economy is well, basically it's a tourist town. Um, it the tourism economy here is very strong because uh Stratford-upon-Avon, if you didn't know, um, is the birthplace of William Shakespeare, the famous playwright. So um there's lots of connection to Stratford. We have the Royal Shakespeare Theatre here, um, Shakespeare's um home, well, several of his homes actually. There's the church where he was baptised and buried as well. So it's a big draw for tourists from all over the world to come and explore Stratford upon Avon and find out more about Shakespeare.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, and yeah, it is if you are a Shakespeare fan, honestly, Stratford should be on your itinerary. It is definitely worth going to. And Anne Hathaway's house as well, which is also with his his wife, it's also worth visiting. And there's just so much, you can have a whole Shakespeare itinerary for when you visit Stratford. Um, but what else is there to do and see in Stratford if you're gonna go and visit?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, obviously the the Shakespeare attractions are the biggest draw. That's probably the reason many people make a pilgrimage to Stratford. But if you're not interested in Shakespeare, let's be honest, we all probably had enough of it when we were at school of learning about all his plays and stuff. Um, there is loads of other stuff to do. Um, my uh favourite things to do in Stratford, um, well, my recommendations for visitors to Stratford, um, number one on my list would be do a Stratford Town Walk. Um, this is a local guided tour company, they do uh sort of tours that take about one and a half to two hours. Um, their guides are absolutely fantastic. There is not a thing about Stratford that these guys don't know. In fact, we as uh a Cotswolds tour company, we our specialist subject is the Cotswolds. We don't generally do tours of Stratford because we just can't do tours of Stratford any better than Stratford Town Walk. They are absolutely brilliant folk. Um, so it's a really good tip for visitors uh to come and do a Stratford Town Walk. Um, you get to know the layout of the town, it's it's a very small town, you can easily walk around it. You get to learn about their history, the the Tudor architecture, obviously about Shakespeare as well, and all the other bits and pieces of Shakespeare's of Stratford's history as well. So that's brilliant. Um as a riverside town, it's got a beautiful riverside area and called the Water Side. Um, so that's a lovely place to have a stroll and feed the ducks, feed the swans. Um, you can take a little rowing boat out on the river, or you can take a cruise boat down the river as well, which is a lovely thing to do. Um, I wanted to mention parkrun because I know that your daughter did parkrun when she came to Stratford last time. Uh, so for those that don't know about parkrun, it's this uh global phenomenon now, where every Saturday morning at 9am in towns, villages, parks, all around the world, um, there's this thing called parkrun, which is a 5k run or walk if you prefer. Um, so Stratford has a really good parkrun. It's nice and flat. If you are a runner, or you know, maybe you're not a great runner, it's a nice flat park run, so there's no hills. Um, and it's beautiful because you get to run along the side of the river, you get to see the the you run past the Shakespeare Theatre, you run past the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is born, uh, was uh was baptized and buried. Um so yeah, it's a really lovely park run to do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think I think Dominique did do it when she I think she that was the one that she did when she was over last month, actually. You're right, yeah. That's a good that's a good call. I've I completely forgot about that. Um yeah, so there's lots to go, you can I would say, and a lot of people kind of say to us um for Stratford, they're just gonna go up for a day and then that's it. But I've tried to encourage people to to stay in Stratford. It's such there's such a lot to see and do, and it's a and it's got a really nice feel to it. Do you have any kind of hidden gems or or kind of areas that you could recommend that aren't necessarily like obvious to people?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, uh so when people come to Stratford, yeah, uh I'll go back a step. Pre-COVID, um, most of the visitors to Stratford, like the millions of visitors that come to Stratford every year, would just come for a couple of hours on a on a coach trip from London, which would also have taken them to Oxford and Windsor Castle and Stonehenge, and you know, tried to cram everything in in a day, and you'd spend maybe an hour or two in Stratford upon Avon. Um, and on a tour like that, I mean that's fine if that's what you want to do. Um on a tour like that, you're not gonna see an awful lot um and get the real vibe that Stratford has. Um, so there's Henley Street is the main kind of touristy street, that's where the Shakespeare's birthplace is. You've got your Christmas decoration shop and the Beatrix Potter shop. Beatrix Potter's got nothing to do with Stratford. You've got a Harry Potter shop, again, Harry Potter, nothing to do with Stratford. Um, it's very tourist, a bit touristy trappy. Um, and then you've got the Waterside area, which I mentioned is a lovely area to go to. Um, but there's more to it than that. There's lots of little um courtyards with little independent shops that you can explore. Um, there's the old town area, it's just beautiful streets you can walk around with lots of um really interesting buildings and architecture. Um, there's uh lots of Tudor buildings. If you if you're a fan of Tudor architecture, then Stratford is uh definitely a must. Um, my top tip for a lesser-known hidden gem in Stratford-upon-Avon is funny enough, it's the RSC, so the Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre. That in itself is not a hidden gem, that's world famous. But a hidden gem within the Shakespeare Theatre is they have a little museum, which is brilliant, and they also have um a tower that you can go up and get a great view of the town. And both of those things, the museum and the tower, are free, um, which I think not a lot of people realise. So, yeah, if you want a great view of Stratford from a you know, like a bird's eye view, go up the tower. Um, and there's the um museum at the back, which at the moment I don't know if the museum, if the exhibition changes, but at the moment um it's um based around the costumes that they use in the um Shakespeare plays at the RSC. So um and it's fascinating. Like I took my daughter there in the summer holidays and she loved it. Um so it's a really, really nice little museum and it's free.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's perfect. And I yeah, I've been I've been up the tower as well. You do get great views over Stratford, so that that's a perfect one. Now, if anybody's planning to um to to go into Stratford and and stay over, which is what we're encouraging people to do, so as well as taking your tours, which they can do from Stratford, um which is it so that's another reason to stay in Stratford. Um, where would you recommend the stay? Because I know there's quite a lot of good accommodation options in Stratford, aren't there?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Stratford has got loads of accommodation, um, which is great. There and it's got a good choice of accommodation as well. There's lots of different, you've got everything from a youth hostel up to a fancy five-star hotels. Um, as we're a small family business, we like to sort of champion other small family independent businesses as well. So I always think that you get a really good authentic experience if you use the local bed and breakfasts, the BBs. Um, you get you know an authentic welcome, you get warm welcome from the hosts, um, home cooked food, really good breakfasts, um, you and you're getting an interaction with local people as well, which you don't always get in chain hotels where you know you just there's sometimes there's not even anyone on the reception desk. It's all kind of automatic and and uh very sterile, I think, sometimes. Um, so yeah, there's some really great BBs in Stratford. Um, probably our favourite is Avonley, that's the one we usually recommend. It's owned by a couple called Rob and Claire, who are just the most warm, friendly, fantastic hosts. Um, there's also another one called Green Haven and Ashgrave House as well. That there are several, but those are the ones that we typically recommend to our guests, to our tour guests. Um, there's a whole range of big chain hotels. So we've got a Crown Plaza, we have a Hotel Indigo, um, what else is there? There's um the Arden Hotel is a big hotel or biggish hotel. It is part of a chain, but it's actually quite a small local chain, so there's only a few of the hotels in that chain in the local area. That's a really good one. Um they have a lovely restaurant there as well. One top tip I would say when you're choosing your hotel in Stratford is just beware of the actual location, especially if you haven't got a car, because there are some very lovely hotels, but they're what they're kind of outlying hotels, they're kind of maybe a mile or two or three miles outside of Stratford upon Avon. So if you don't have a car, you might find yourself relying on taxis quite a lot if you um yeah, if you stay in one of those hotels.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm gonna say as well, the traffic getting into Stratford, especially if you're going in for a tour when they when it's a school run time, can be can be quite busy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, Stratford is yeah, one thing that is not so great about Stratford by Open is the traffic. Um, yeah, it's it's a very busy little town. It's a bit of a through route as well for people people who work on commuting to Birmingham and um sort of other other places around. So yeah, it does get very busy. So if you are going to drive into Stratford, then yeah, leave plenty of time for your journey, leave plenty of time to find a parking space, um, and yeah, get used to sitting at red traffic lights because it's lots of them.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true, that's true. Now let's talk about food. We always like to talk about food. And I was thinking about this where where uh we we always kind of go the same place when we go to Stratford, and it for the life of me, I I swear this is my age, so apologies. But um I'm trying to think of the name of it. Doug will be I can hear Doug now going, Tracy, no, it's this, but it's the 1940s themed cafe we've got at Stratford, and I really look it's just so nice, it's just so lovely.

SPEAKER_02:

It's called the 40s, so it's uh yeah, it does what it says on the tin. Yeah, it's um yeah, that's a really uh nice little cafe, 1940s themed. All the staff wear like 1940s dress and it's all 1940s decor. So that's a nice place for an afternoon tea or something like that. Yeah, definitely. Um in terms of other sort of afternoon tea places, sadly, there was a really great Stratford Institution tea room, uh, but that's since closed down, unfortunately. I think it's now a vape shop, which is a bit sad. But um, the other places you could go, um, Boston Tea Party, it is a chain, um, but I like it, it's it does really good food, um, and it is a local chain, it's quite a nice ethical chain as well. They're all about sustainability and and things like that. So, I do like I do recommend Boston Tea Party, even though it is a chain, but I quite like it. Um, it's also got a really good location right at the top of Henley Street, which again is that main tourist street, but because it is a chain, it doesn't have the tourist trap prices, so it's uh it's not so bad. Um, there's also I would say the teas and the the food is probably on the average side, um, but there's a bakery called Hobson's Bakery. I say it's kind of average, but a good thing about this particular bakery is that around about three o'clock, four o'clock in the afternoon, they put a stall out the front and sell off all their cake for really cheap. So that's really nice. If you're wandering up and down Henley Street around uh sort of mid-afternoon and you fancy a bit of cake, then uh you can get a cheap slice of cake from outside Hobson's bakery. So that's a good one. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00:

What about pubs? Because I know we're gonna ask asked about what pubs to go to.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there's there's quite a few pubs in Stratford, some are better than others. Um, again, there's a few chain pubs. Um, you've got your ubiquitous weather spoons if you want a cheap pint. Not necessarily recommended. It is actually a beautiful building. There's strap the the weather spoon's in Stratford, it's called the Golden Bee, and it is in a gorgeous old Tudor building. So even if you only look at it from the outside, yeah. Yeah, on the wall. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend necessarily going in, but yeah, it's nice to look at.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they always seem to be in lovely buildings. That's the thing about weather spoons.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I suppose that's one thing they do quite well. Um, other pubs to recommend. Um, there's one called the One Elm, which is really nice, and they do a great Sunday roast as well if you're looking for a Sunday race. Um, again, not necessarily in terms of vibe, but more in terms of location. There's a pub called Cox's Yard, which in the summer has um it's got a terrace that is directly on the river, so that's a really nice place to go. Um there's um there's a fairly new ish, or I don't know, it's been maybe been there a couple of years, um, a bar called Cafe Cocktail, which is great for anyone that loves cocktails, but also they do a nice selection of craft beer and things like that. Um, and there is a little micro pub called Yabard, which is um of course, yeah, which is uh yeah, which is good for the craft beer lovers as well. Um, in terms of sort of where you'd go for an evening meal, that you're absolutely spoiled for choice. There are some chains, you know, your bog standard average chains. I don't even know some of they they seem to um go bust quite regularly and open under new names, but you know, you've got places like uh I don't know, I can't even remember which ones are still open, Bella Ritalia, it might not might have closed now, but it's places like that which are chained. But um the more independent restaurants um there's a a road called Sheep Street in Stratford, which um has really good restaurants. We had our uh staff Christmas party actually at um one called the Vintner, which was absolutely brilliant, it was really lovely food. Um, also along that street, you've got Loxleys, the opposition. Um it's um there's another one called The Woodsman, it's actually the restaurant inside um the hotel indigo, but if you are a meat lover, it's excellent. It's called um they do they have a focus on sort of locally locally sourced um game, a lot of game and sort of uh wild court food and things like that. Um so the woodsman is excellent.

SPEAKER_00:

I have heard that. I will say, Lisa, I have heard that. So if you're at the hotel indigo in Stratford, um Lisa and I would love to love an invite to come and try some of your food.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, absolutely. Um, I have eaten there once a long time ago, but yeah, it was it was excellent. Um, the other one that I was gonna mention was um there's a restaurant called the Boat House for two reasons. Again, it's got a nice garden on the river where you can sit and watch the river go by, watch the marina and the boats go by, but it's also um a very good restaurant as well, and it's owned by a guy called um Nick Roberry, who's the owner and head chef. And if you're a fan of Clarkson's Farm, which I know many people are, the TV show, um you'll recognise Nick because he was the guy who was brought in by Jeremy Clarkson to help set up the kitchen at the farmer's dog pub. Um so he actually owns the Stratford Boat House restaurant in Stratford.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, so Anna, do you need to book a head for for I'm guessing for Sunday lunch? I always say recommend that because uh we Brits love going out for Sunday lunch. But um then other restaurants would you recommend booking?

SPEAKER_02:

Um yes, I mean it doesn't hurt to make reservations. Um if you're not fussy about where to go, you'll always find somewhere to eat. Um, a lot of the um restaurants, particularly the ones on Sheep Street, will do like pre-theatre menus as well. So you you can always usually get in for early dinner if you want to go to a show at the theatre. Um, yeah, it's always a good idea to book, but yeah, if you're not fussy, you you'll find somewhere to eat without a reservation.

SPEAKER_00:

Perfect. Now, just thinking about how to get around. Now I remember this is how I was thinking about this the other day. I can remember the time before the main street in Stratford wasn't uh pedestrianised, which it is now. Um and I I remember years ago taking some friends who'd come over from Botswana actually on the hop-on hop off bus around Stratford because of places like um get into um Anne Hathaway's cottage a little bit further out of uh out of Stratford. But um, how would you say is the best way to get around Stratford itself?

SPEAKER_02:

And then if you want to go and see some of those places that are a little bit further afield, yeah, um you definitely don't need a car in Stratford itself. Um, as I said, traffic is a nightmare, and so you definitely don't really want to be driving around to see different things around the town, and you don't need to because it's a very small town, and uh the the main Henley Street is pedestrianised, and the there's the whole waterside area which is lovely to walk around. Um, and yeah, you don't you just you can yeah, explore on foot is definitely the best way to get around. Um, yeah, as you said, the a couple of the attractions that people like to see are a little bit further out of town, so there is the city sight thing, hop on, hoff bus, you know, the big red buses that you get in pretty much every tourist city in the world. There is one of those. There are local buses as well. Um, there is a train station, so you can get to other uh other nearby places like Warwick very easily, Lemmington Spa, um Coventry if you want to go to Coventry. I don't know why you'd want to go to Coventry, but I actually like Coventry. I lived there for a little while at university. Um it's very interesting. But um, yeah, so there's a train station, so you can you can get to Birmingham very easily if you want to visit Birmingham, which I recommend as well. Um, but yeah, in in Stratford itself, yeah, walking is always always the best.

SPEAKER_00:

So that that that's a lovely segue, Elisa, into into your tours because obviously Stratford is a great place to base yourself if you're gonna go further afield, i.e., into the cotwolds. So so tell us a little bit about your tours. Um I and I know that you have we we've in our Facebook group we're always getting people saying how amazing how much they loved going on your tours. So so tell us what makes your tour so special before we'll go into a bit more detail about the different tours that you offer. But but what is so special about going out with you guys?

SPEAKER_02:

Um well I think the main thing for us is that we are local. Um we are based in Stratford upon Avon. Um my husband Tom, who founded the company, was born you know in a village just outside Stratford. He went to um King King Edward VI, I can't remember what it's called now. He went to the uh the same school that Shakespeare went to. Um and um not at the same time as Shakespeare, he was uh so you know we're local people, we live live and breathe uh Stratford upon Avon, and all of our guides that we use as well are local to Stratford and the Cotswolds. So that is a big USP unique selling point for us. We're not um generic tour guides that have just learnt a script you know on a on a tour bus up from London. We're local people, we know this area, we've lived here, we've worked here. In my husband's case, uh he's played cricket here for his whole life, and that's kind of how he got to know the Cotswolds as well. So um, one thing that people I think it's not really that well known that Stratford upon Avon is really really close to the Cotswolds. I think a lot of people use uh Bath or Oxford or Cheltenham even as a base to uh to access the Cotswolds. Um, but Stratford is is very very close. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get from Stratford to the official kind of uh part of the Cotswolds. Um so it's a great base. If you want to stay in Stratford-upon-Avon, you can have your Stratford experience, you can have all the Shakespeare that you can you can and um yeah, you can uh also visit the Cotswolds as well uh in one short break. So that was really the the whole idea behind the business that that my husband Tom set up. He wanted to connect the tourist visitors to Stratford with tourist visitors in the Cotswolds, and there was no easy way for anybody to get between the two. Um there is a bus from Stratford to Morton and Marsh, but it goes about three times a day. It's not very regular, there's no direct train line between the two. But now there is, well there has been for the last 11 years, a uh fun, friendly, guided tour company that can take place together.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And um so what are your sort of favourite tours that people take? I know you you're offer quite a few, but what what are the kind of the the best sellers, the favourites for people?

SPEAKER_02:

So by far and away, our most popular tour is our Cotswolds in a day tour, um, which is kind of like well, we we we developed this tour to give people a flavour of what the Cotsworld is all about. If you're short on time, if you've only got one day to spend in the Kotsworth, then this tour will give you it will check off some of the most popular places like buy a breedborn on the water, still on the world, and we also throw in some sort of hidden gems, some smaller villages, some beautiful viewpoints, and take the scenic routes through the cotswolds. So, on the whole, taking that quotes on a day tour, you'll by the end of the day, you'll have a really great idea of what the cotswolds is all about and how gorgeous it is. Um, so that is by far and away our most popular tour. I'm just gonna throw in there a little uh a little brag. We uh recently that particular tour has recently been awarded um the best of the best award by TripAdvisor. Um, so that particular tour is among the top 1% of all TripAdvisor listings in the world. So we're pretty chaffed about that. Yeah, um, and it's also on a top 20 list of the best tours in Britain as well. So yeah, really chaffed about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh well deserved, well deserved, Lisa, honestly. Yeah, no, well deserved. That's that's fantastic. And we'll do a secret Cotswolds tour as well. So if you've done the Cotswolds on a day, and I would highly recommend following it up with the secret Cotswolds tour.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, yeah. So we um decided to launch a new tour. We we kind of didn't want to put all our eggs in one basket. Um, so a few years ago we just started doing the secret Cotswolds tour. Um, and the idea behind this one was to show people a sort of a slightly different side of the Cotswolds that you wouldn't necessarily see. On the Cotswolds in a day tour that I mentioned earlier, some of the popular villages, particularly Biberry Bought and on the water, are now so incredibly popular that sometimes some people find them a little bit marmite, they either love it or hate it. Um, places like Biberry Boughton on the Water are getting very, very busy, um, which kind of takes a little bit away sometimes from the vibe that you expect to get in a rural countryside area, which is that it's quiet and peaceful, not hordes of tourists everywhere. So we decided to launch a secret cot sauce tour, which takes people off the beaten track a little bit. Um, it's a bit of a tough sell to be honest, because people don't necessarily want to go to places that they've never heard of. But um, if you're willing to take the risk, um then I'd highly recommend it because the villages that we go to on this tour are just as beautiful as some of the ones that are more well known, but they're just less well known. Um, so you'll you'll have the place to yourselves, you can get photographs of these gorgeous cottages and beautiful streets with no other tourists in them. Um, and all of the villages in the Quotswalds have such amazing history and great communities and wonderful independent shops and restaurants and cafes that you can visit, but in those sort of lesser-known villages, it's much more peaceful and quiet, and it is more the vibe that I think people expect from the rural countryside area of the Cotswolds. So, yeah, um, and we also on the Secret Cotswolds tour visit a stone circle. Now, obviously, we don't go down all the way down to Stonehenge, but um, this Stone Circle is a little Cotswold Stone Circle, which is thought to be actually older than Stonehenge, which is kind of cool. Um, and that's got some really fun myths and legends associated with it as well. So, our guests find that um quite interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely now. Um, and are you still doing? I know last year I did a I did the tour from Stratford down to to Bath to the Christmas market. Will you be doing that again this year?

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, absolutely. We have got our Bath and Southern Cotswolds tour as well. Um, so on this one, uh yeah, we're connecting up Stratford and Morton and Marsh, our pickup points with the city of Bath, which is um it's a longer drive. There's there's a bit more travelling involved in this tour because the distances are a bit greater. Um, but it's it's wonderful. And if you want to check off the Cotswolds, if you really want to like conquer the Cotswolds and see the whole region, because it is a big area, um, it's at 800 square miles, 2,000 square kilometres of the Cotswolds. So the Cotswolds and a Day Tour, the Secret Quotswolds Tour, they both kind of focus on the northern part of the Cotswolds. But if you really want to see the whole Cotswolds, you've got to visit the south as well. Um, and the city of Bath is a must-see anyway, it's just beautiful. Um, so yeah, our Bath and Southern Cotswolds Tour goes to Castle Coombe, which is again one of those really popular villages that does get quite busy, but it is lovely, it's it's absolutely gorgeous. Um, and we also go to Tepri, which is um it was kind of new to me this when we when we launched this tour. I'd never been to Tepri before, uh, but now I've been, I absolutely love it, it's fabulous. Um, so many independent shops. It's known as the Antiques Capital of the Cotswolds. So um there's loads and loads of antique shops, gift um thrift shops, um, gift shops. Uh there's also the Highgrove shop, which is the shop of the royal residence of King Charles. So you can go and buy some produce from King Charles's garden if you wish.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, very nice, very nice. And um now, is there uh what sort of times of year do your tours run? Are they just about every day except Christmas Day and Boxing Day? Or pretty much?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm sure you don't run on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but no, we do we do give ourselves some time off. Um we're closed uh Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but apart from That we have tours pretty much every day of the week. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's amazing. That's amazing. Now thinking about Stratford again, kind of just kind of swinging back to Stratford. Is there is there a time of year that you would kind of recommend people go to Stratford or other particular events? Now I'm thinking Christmas Market. That's the first thing that came to my mind. But are there kind of particular events or times of year you'd say that are great to go to Stratford or other times you go actually maybe maybe maybe a little bit too busy?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think like any touristy town, um it gets really, really busy in the summer in July and August when the schools off. Um so if you want to avoid crowds, then that's probably the time to avoid. Um, but otherwise, because it's a it's a small town rather than a countryside region, it's just a really nice place to go for like a city break. It's not a city, it's not as big as a city, but it is a nice place to go for like a weekend break at any time of year, and there's always stuff going on. Um even if there's no sort of organized events happening, there's always you there's always attractions to visit, you can go to the theatre and things like that. But there are definitely times of the year which are really fun, Christmas being one of them, as you said. Um, so uh Stratford upon Avon has some of the best Christmas lights in the country, and that that doesn't come from me as a as a as a local, that came from um we we actually spoke to uh one of the guys who organises the Christmas lights um quite recently, and it is just a fact that Stratford upon Avon has some of the best Christmas lights in the country, so um it's definitely worth visiting around Christmas time. Um, there's also a really good Christmas market which takes place on a couple of weekends um in December. Um, there's food festivals. In fact, we had the Stratford Food Festival just last weekend, so that was brilliant. That's always really good fun. Um they have a motor festival, motoring festival, there's all sorts of classic cars up and down the streets, there's a beer festival at Stratford Race Course nearby. Um, for a good one for the kids is we have this thing called the Mop Fair. Um, so it's some sort of old ancient tradition where back in the day um if you were a if you were an employer and you needed staff for your estate, then you would go to the mop fair to uh to find your staff. Um, and the people that wanted work would hold a tool to represent their profession. So if you're a builder, you might hold a trowel, um, but if you were unskilled, you would hold a mop. Um, so if you just needed some general labour for your your country estate or for your family household, then you would go and pick people that wielding mops to come and work for you. Um and that kind of became an annual tradition, it was like an annual fair where you would go and choose your staff. Um, and now it's a fun fair. So it still happens that we kind of preserve that date, preserve that occasion, but it's yeah, it's it's a fun fair. Um, and then two weeks after the mop fair, there's the runaway mop fair. So back in the day, if your staff decided that they didn't want to work for you after you employed them, then you would go to the runaway mop fair to go and pick some more stuff. So we have uh a fanfare, and then two weeks later another fun fair comes back again. So that's quite funny.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's that's really fun, and that's just how um it British traditions continue, doesn't it? I mean, we still have the the the name continues. Obviously, people aren't going necessarily look for staff anymore, but the fact that that still lives on is is absolutely fantastic. Um now if anybody's planning to visit Stratford for the first time, what would be the the the number one tip that you would share with them, Lisa?

SPEAKER_02:

Um I've already talked about it really, but the Stratford Town Walk is I think if you've just arrived in Stratford, you've never been before, join the Stratford Town Walk. It's an hour and a half to two hours long with fantastic, really friendly, amazingly knowledgeable guides, um, and you get to walk around the town. So you get you get a feel for how the town is laid out, um, find your way around, you learn a little bit about history, and then you can go off and explore further if you wanted to. Um, so that's a really good tip. Um, there are some uh there's a Shakespeare Explorer pass. So if you do want to go to some of the Shakespeare themed attractions, there is a Shakespeare Explorer pass where you can get sort of um discounted entry or free entry to certain places, so that's worth looking into. Um yeah, so that there'll be my two top tips. Sorry, you'll have to for one. I gave you two.

SPEAKER_00:

It's right, people quite often can't stick to one, so it's not a problem. Now, um, where can our listeners find you to book a tour, Lisa?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, we'd love for you to come and join a tour. Um, so you can find us on the internet and www.gopotswolds.co.uk. Uh, we're also on Facebook and Instagram and all those social media channels. Um, and yeah, you can book a tour directly on our website. We love it if you book direct on our website. We do list on via tour and get your guide and places like that, but they charge us lots of commissions. So we'd love it if you book direct with us, that'd be great. And if you do book direct with us, you can use the UK Trav Plan discount code. Yeah, 5% off.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. So book direct, use our code and book direct, support both our business and and Lisa. So we are both kind of dedicated to what we do and um and kind of local, as it were. I'm kind of local to the whole of the UK, it feels like. And and obviously um Lisa and her husband Tom have got a have done a sterling job, absolutely sterling job in building up uh just a phenomenal, phenomenal uh to a company. So I mean it is you're you guys are always winning awards. You you I've always seen awards and how brilliant you guys are. So so congratulations, honestly. And um, if you're listening, seriously, go on. Book a tour with uh with Lisa and Tom's Go Cotwell's company.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you, Tracy.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh no, it's right, and thank you so much, Lisa, for joining me again. Fourth time. I'll have to think of what you could come on for the fifth time, because I'm sure you'll be on again. And I'm gonna have things to talk about soon. Well, you know what we'll do? We'll we'll we'll we'll decide what we could do is we can give questions out on the Facebook group and say, right, Lisa's gonna come on, give us some questions about visiting the Coxwalls and going out with Go Coxwalls and we're gonna take from us. So if you're listening to this podcast and you think, I have some questions for Lisa, you can go onto the show notes and we have uh you can click a link and you can leave a message, uh a voice message for myself. And if I get one through, I'll send it through to Lisa as well, and we can reply to you. So if you've got a question, go through Speakpipe through the um show notes and and leave us a message so we'll we'll be able to reply. So that'd be cool.

SPEAKER_02:

That'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Great. Yeah. Anyway, so thanks again, Lisa. It's been great to chat to you as always. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanning.com. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you, and you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode. But as always, that just leaves me to say until next week, happy UK travel planning.