15 Places You Can Visit to Celebrate William Shakespeare

Though it’s been more than 400 years since William Shakespeare stopped writing plays, inventing words, and punning up a storm, the Bard of Avon’s legacy is as strong as ever. Shakespeare fans have no shortage of places from his life and work to visit. If you need a starting point for your literary pilgrimage, here are 15 suggestions.

1. Shakespeare’s Birthplace
2. Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall
3. Shakespeare’s Globe
4. Hampton Court Palace
5. Juliet’s Balcony
6. Royal Shakespeare Company
7. Folger Shakespeare Library
8. Kronborg Castle
9. Charlecote Park
10. Smallhythe Place
11. The Painted Room
12. Macbeth Trail
13. Shakespeare Cliff
14. The Willow Globe
15. The London Stone

Shakespeare’s Birthplace

Shakespeare was born and grew up in a house on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in addition to spending the first five years of his marriage to Anne Hathaway there. Hathaway Ownership of the home passed through generations of Shakespeare’s relatives until the building was purchased by a butcher in the early 19th century. In 1846, when the house again went up for sale, preservationists launched a campaign—supported by Charles Dickens—to save Shakespeare’s birthplace for posterity.

Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall

Shakespeare attended the King Edward VI School, a.k.a. K.E.S., in the Stratford-upon-Avon Guildhall from approximately 1571 to 1578, when he was 7 to 14 years old. The school is still in operation. Visitors can explore the classroom where Shakespeare studied and take part in a Tudor-era lesson.

Shakespeare’s Globe

The actual Globe Theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were performed during his lifetime has been out of commission since, oh, the 1600s. In 1997, a recreation of the theater—called Shakespeare’s Globe—opened along the Thames in London, just a few hundred yards from the original site. Plays by Shakespeare and others are performed here, and the theater hosts education events and tours for the public.

Hampton Court Palace

Whereas the original Globe is long gone, another venue where Shakespeare’s plays were performed during his lifetime is still standing: the Great Hall in Hampton Court Palace, where Shakespeare’s company, the King’s Men, set up shop for a stretch of time in the early 1600s. Aside from the Great Hall, visitors to Hampton Court Palace can see the Cumberland Art Gallery, the famous Hampton Court Maze, and the 450-year-old Chapel Royal.

Juliet’s Balcony

Legend has it that a particular balcony in Verona is the very place where Romeo and Juliet had their famous tête-à-tête in Shakespeare’s most enduring romance. The house where the balcony is located used to be owned by the Capello family, and it’s the similarity of that name to Capulet that has made the balcony one of Verona’s most popular tourist attractions. There’s a bronze statue of Juliet in the courtyard outside, and people rub her right breast for luck, in addition to leaving love notes in the surrounding walls and doorways.

Royal Shakespeare Company

Since 1875, the Royal Shakespeare Company—then called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Ltd.—has been helping to keep the legacy of the Bard alive. The company performs Shakespeare and non-Shakespeare plays year-round in the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres, both in Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Folger Shakespeare Library

If you want to get your Shakespeare on without venturing to the UK, another option is Washington, D.C.’s Folger Shakespeare Library, home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. Visitors can take advantage of multiple tours, including tours of the library’s famous reading rooms.

Kronborg Castle

Situated an hour north of Copenhagen is Kronborg Castle, which you may know by another name: Elsinore, a.k.a. the royal castle that was home to Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, and all their dead Danish friends. There’s some dispute as to whether Shakespeare ever visited Kronborg Castle, but we do know he set Hamlet there. A Shakespeare festival takes place at the castle every summer.

Charlecote Park

Charlecote Park, on the banks of the River Avon, is said to be the site of one of Shakespeare’s youthful indiscretions: poaching deer. He was caught, legend has it, and brought before local magistrate Sir Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare allegedly satirized Lucy in The Merry Wives of Windsor as the vain Justice Shallow, though academics do not agree on that point. Deer still roam in Charlecote Park, which is a favored spot for picnics and birdwatching.

Smallhythe Place

Smallhythe Place in Kent is of interest not just to Shakespeare fans, but to those interested in costumery as well. The house was once inhabited by Ellen Terry (1847-1928), one of the leading Shakespearean actresses of her time. Smallhythe Place is now host to 250 costumes worn by Terry, which have been subject to meticulous conservation efforts.

The Painted Room

Though easy to miss, Oxford’s Painted Room hides a little slice of Shakespearean history behind an unassuming façade. The Painted Room, so called for its Elizabethan wall paintings, is part of what used to be the Crown Tavern, owned by John Davenant. Shakespeare, a friend of Davenant, would stay in the Crown when traveling between London and Stratford-upon-Avon. He was also friendly with Davenant’s wife, Jane; one of the many rumors surrounding Shakespeare is that he was the father of one of Jane’s sons. The Painted Room is a part of local Shakespeare celebrations and can be visited year-round.

Macbeth Trail

The Macbeth Trail (less a “trail” than a variety of locations spread throughout Scotland, so don’t try to walk it) gives Shakespeare enthusiasts a chance to visit some of the places critical to the life of the ambitious, murderous Macbeth—both the Shakespeare character and the actual historical figure on whom he’s based. Among the locations are the grounds of Inverness Castle, where Macbeth lived; the heath surrounding the town of Forres, where Macbeth had his encounter with the three witches; and Macbeth’s Stone, which is said to mark the spot where the real Macbeth was executed by Malcolm Canmore in 1057.

Shakespeare Cliff

King Lear fans can visit Dover’s so-called Shakespeare Cliff, which is said to have inspired the scene in which the blind Earl of Gloucester is tricked into thinking he survived jumping from a miraculous height. Shakespeare’s description of the cliff matches the real-life version, and Shakespeare and his company visited Dover around the time he was probably writing Lear. Less touristy than other Shakespeare attractions, Shakespeare Cliff is a good spot for fishing or taking a stroll.

The Willow Globe

If a trip to London to see Shakespeare’s Globe isn’t your speed, just outside of Llandrindod Wells, Wales, is the Willow Globe, a scaled-down outdoor version of the Globe made of trees. “The Willow has been carefully woven into an organic and spiritual theater, starkly sculptural in spring, which is almost completely absorbed by its lush, green surroundings in summer months,” according to its website. A variety of events takes place there from April through September, among them educational events and community and professional productions of Shakespeare plays.

The London Stone

The London Stone is one of England’s odder tourist attractions, due to the fact that no one really knows why it’s supposed to be a big deal. There are many theories about the stone’s importance, one laid out by Shakespeare himself, who included it in Henry VI, Part 2 as a sort of prop that rebel leader Jack Cade used to declare himself Lord of the City. Today, you can see the stone in a custom-made vitrine on London’s Cannon Street, where it looks like nothing so much as … a moderately-sized stone.

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A version of this story was published in 2016; it has been updated for 2025.