RS essay starts out saying Stratford-upon-Avon is overrated, and to an extent I have to agree. I remembered being there with my parents decades ago when it was still a relatively quaint Cotswold village. No more.
Today it's largely a modern municipality with big box stores, high-end automobile dealerships, multi-level parking garages, traffic jams and pedestrian crowds. The seating in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre is painfully short on legroom (you thought flying coach was bad). The staff in our hotel acted kind of harried like they were suffering from a slight case of tourist burnout. I had thought it would be easy to find classy, creative souvenirs to buy, but that wasn't really the case.
Of course the old town central district is preserved in a charming manner, and it's still a thrill to visit the birthplace, the gravesite, Anne Hathaway's cottage and Mary Arden's farm. The tour guide on our HOHO bus was very knowledgeable and engaging.
If I were to go again, I'd probably stay overnight someplace a few miles away, either in the Chipping Campden or Warwick direction.