“All the world’s a stage...” begins one of Shakespeare’s many famous quotes.

When visiting the delightful riverside town of Stratford-upon-Avon where the great Bard was raised it is easy to imagine how the playwright could form a view that the world is somehow stage managed.

Surrounded by beautiful Warwickshire countryside and with quaint period houses lining the streets, it is one of those places that seem somehow a world apart – much like Shakespeare’s works themselves it seems to transcend time and other boundaries.

The town is teeming with heritage and intriguing history with tales that are begging to be told at every turn.

Having studied Shakespeare at university I have always been interested in the man himself and how he managed to encompass such a range of human emotions and experiences into his work with themes of love, ambition, heroism and family relationships that stand the test of time.

I was delighted to have the chance to visit the place he spent his formative and final years.

Stratford understandably celebrates its links to Shakespeare at every opportunity and you can follow the great Bard’s life almost literally from the cradle to the grave with a visit to Shakespeare’s birthplace and the place where he is buried at the town’s Holy Trinity Church as well as a number of other properties associated with the writer and his family.

But it is not all about the Bard in Stratford and there are many other places to keep people of all ages entertained. My wife and I particularly enjoyed a visit to the MAD Museum, a celebration of mechanical art and design that feels like you’ve entered the college of mad professors’ end-of-term science fair.

The town has kept alive its strong theatrical tradition through the Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres.

While the plays of its famous son are regularly re-enacted, again it is not all about Shakespeare here and during our stay we were treated to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Wendy and Peter Pan.

The show was an original and fun-filled romp through J M Barrie’s well-known tale with the focus shifted to place Wendy Darling in the central role. While it offered plenty of laughs it also raised some fascinating questions about the plot that you never found yourself asking before and offered a new perspective.

There are plenty of options for places to eat in Stratford and we were lucky enough to stumble upon Othello’s brasserie at the Shakespeare Hotel.

This was dining of the highest quality – I couldn’t praise my Asian fishcake starter and pork belly main enough – and we enjoyed it in the lovely setting of a 16th century building that, like many in the town, positively bristled with history.

There is also plenty to explore in the surrounding area and during our stay we paid a visit to the hugely popular Warwick Castle. The castle offered insights into a history of a different kind – the pen might be mightier than the sword but a journey through 1,000 years of knights, kings, princesses and battles was a fun contrast to the literary heritage of Stratford.

With our visit coinciding with half-term it also gave us an opportunity to see how to run a really good family attraction with so much on offer to fascinate and stimulate the minds of children of all ages. A visit to the castle dungeons is well worth it, but without giving too much away I would be on your guard if you are of a nervous disposition.

With so much to see and do we needed somewhere to relax and fortunately we stayed in the wonderfully comfortable surroundings of the Welcombe Menzies Hotel on the edge of Stratford.

The town is not exactly full of hustle and bustle, unless you get caught up in one of the school groups that visit, but the hotel set in acres of countryside and beautiful gardens and with its relaxing spa offers an extra sense of peace and tranquillity and a feeling of getting away from it all.

My wife and I were assigned the Hathaway suite with a lovely four-poster bed and guests are not likely to leave hungry due to its appetising dinner and breakfast offerings.

There are so many good reasons to visit Stratford it seems like you hardly need any more, but this year there is an added incentive as the town celebrates 450 years since the birth of Shakespeare.

A series of celebrations will be held to mark the occasion in late April and various events in the town and on stage will run throughout the coming months.