Start from 27 curated places around Stratford, CA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Mercer Kitchen Beer Hall
Stratford's liveliest downtown room in a heritage building — a craft beer hall with the city's biggest tap selection and an Izakaya-influenced menu of dumplings, Korean BBQ bowls, and buttermilk fried chicken. The place for a casual group dinner when you want good food, great beer, and noise.
Bijou at the Church
Stratford's most celebrated French-bistro kitchen now in its most theatrical home — a heritage Gothic Revival church on Brunswick Street, with a seasonal Perth County-sourced menu and a sommelier-led wine list that has defined fine dining in this town for nearly three decades. The room is extraordinary: stone arches, stained glass, and a kitchen that earns its setting.
Trails & outdoors
T.J. Dolan Natural Area
A 100-acre urban natural area on the north edge of Stratford with quiet wooded trails, a meadow, and a small pond. The closest serious nature walk in town.
Avon Trail (Wildwood Section)
A 110 km trail system from Conestogo to St. Marys with a 15 km section running through Stratford and the surrounding farmland. Flat, family-friendly, good for biking.
Things to do
Stratford Festival
Canada's largest and longest-running classical-theatre festival, running mid-April through October across four theatres with Shakespeare, classics, and contemporary work. The reason Stratford exists as a tourist destination.
Festival Theatre
The Stratford Festival's flagship 1953 thrust-stage theatre on the Avon River, hosting the biggest productions of the season. The architecturally distinctive original venue.
Landmarks & sights
Avon River
The river that defines Stratford, with its resident pair of swans, the riverside walks, and the bridge views that match the Shakespearean theme. The town's pulse, around which everything else organizes.
Shakespearean Gardens
A garden alongside the Avon River planted with every flower mentioned in Shakespeare's plays, with quotation panels and a riverside setting. Quirky, themed, and free.