Family Days Out and Holidays: Best Chocolate Museums and Attractions

by Rhonda Carrier

It’s a rare child (or adult) who is immune to the seductive powers and addictive flavour of chocolate. My all-time favourite book, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, has found equal favour with my kids, who’ve already devoured it several times as well as watching both movie versions, literally drooling at certain scenes. Few things seem to have the hypnotic effect that chocolate does on my boys.

Whether your own fix is a Roald Dahl style daily lunchtime dessert of a bar of chocolate and some Smarties or a discreet square or two of Montezuma’s organic Very Dark Chocolate with Chilli, we’ve rounded up the yummiest chocolate-related venues for an Easter outing or to enjoy all year round.

UK
Mini-Melt, London
The enticingly named west London chocolate shop and kitchen Melt runs a bi-weekly mini masterclass each Wednesday and Saturday, when kids can get up close to a real cocoa pod, painting moulds with chocolate, and make and decorate chocolate lollipops.

The Chocolate Boutique Hotel, Dorset
The world’s only chocolate-themed hotel, located in Bournemouth, offers in-room mini chocolate fountains and dips, and the option of chocolate pancakes at breakfast. Three rooms have double sofabeds, sleeping 4 in total. Parents can indulge in various holistic treatments, including chocolate-infused reflexology, while ages 10+ can take part in a Chocolate Delight workshop, run here and also at locations in Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leamington Spa, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester, Oxford and Stratford.

Walker’s Chocolate Emporium, Devon
Seaside Ilfracombe is the setting for this award-winning shop and museum with its collection of chocolate memorabilia and other items, including a 1m-tall Easter egg, a giant chocolate lolly, a monster chocolate rabbit and a life-size chocolate man (the latter coated in varnish to prevent him melting in hot weather).

Pemberton’s Chocolate Farm, Wales
This award-winning vintage chocolatier on a converted hill-farm in the heart of the Welsh countryside offers a tour of its ‘Chocolate Village’ to see handmade production in action, the chance to try chocolate-making for yourself, and entry to the Chocolate Cinema showing a film on ‘the life of a cocoa bean’.

Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester
This market town on the western slopes of the Pennines just north of Manchester is a great day-out destination for sweet-toothed families, especially if you come in April for the two-day Chocolate Festival, when all the family can enjoy themed activities and parents can sample chocolate cocktails, wines or beer. There’s also a farmers’ market on the second Sunday of each month, and tempting year-round venues such as the Chocolate Café, Cultured Bean coffee bar and chocolate shop, and Ramsbottom Sweet Shop.

Oban Chocolate Factory, Scotland
This handmade chocolate producer on lovely Oban Bay has a café with a viewing window so you can watch truffles and moulded chocolates being made while you scoff (the interpretation panels give the low-down on what’s going on). Goodies on offer in the café include hot chocolate with fresh cream and caramel, cinnamon or even chilli, ice-cream floats or milkshakes, and towering sundaes, and there’s a toybox for kids. School holidays see workshops for ages 4–12, when kids make their own Belgian truffles and receive a certificate.

REST OF EUROPE
The Netherlands’ capital Amsterdam is scheduled to open its big new chocolate museum, De Chocoladefabriek, in 2013.

Context Travel runs chocolate walks in Paris, Tuscany, and Barcelona, and also in New York City; all can be tailored for kids as part of a private family walk.

Musée du Cacao et du Chocolat, Brussels, Belgium
A 17th-century house close to the Belgian capital’s central Grand Place is home to this museum tracing the history of chocolate from its cultivation by the Mayans and Aztecs to its arrival in Europe and beyond. Tours culminate in a demonstration of traditional praline-making by a master chocolatier. You can get joint tickets with the Scientastic Museum, Mini Europe or SNCB (national trains), and gourmet chocolate-themed tours of the city can be arranged. There are other chocolate themed walking tours, available in English and suitable for families, led by La Fonderie. 

Belgium is the place to visit if you have a real passion for chocolate, with many small chocolate museums dotted about the country, plus the world’s best hot chocolate. See also our feature Chip and Chocolate on a visit to Chocostory in Bruges.  

Chokladfabrik, Malmö, Sweden
This ‘mini-museum’ in the Swedish capital allows you to taste famous Mazetti products such as Eyes Cocoa and Diné Royal pralines, sniff different cocoa beans, and watch the resident chocolatier at work in the 120-year-old factory, which has its own café.

Musée Art du Chocolat, Midi Pyrenées, France
France is full of little chocolate museums (including the Chocolatrium in Damville in Normandy, the Planete Musée du Chocolat in Biarritz in Aquitaine, and the Musée Le Paradis du Chocolat in La Côte-Saint-André in the Rhône-Alpes). But this museum in Lisle sur Tarn stands out from the crowd in that it specializes in sculptures made of chocolate, which include animals and life-size human figures.

Musée Les Secrets du Chocolat, Alsace, France
The museum of chocolate-maker Marquise de Sévigné near Strasbourg includes animated figures and a maze of themed areas to bring the history and manufacture of chocolate to life. It’s part of the Alsace Route du Chocolat, which brings together about 50 gourmet sites welcoming visitors, so you can make a chocolate pilgrimage of it.

Alimentarium, Vevey, Switzerland
Cailler-Nestlé’s ‘museum of food’ has lots of displays on chocolate, but it’s best to time your visit to coincide with one of the special family activities, which include Easter chocolate-bunny making and decorating.

Halloren Schokoladenmuseum, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Germany’s oldest chocolate producer company, located in Halle, has its origins in a gingerbread bakery set up in 1804. The highlight of its museum includes a 27-metre-square room made entirely of chocolate.

Schokolademuseum, Cologne, Germany
One of Germany’s top 10 most popular museums, this ship-like glass and metal building on the harbour near Cologne cathedral extends over three levels and includes a tropical hothouse where cocoa trees can be seen up close.

Chocolate Museum, Vienna, Austria
The Austrian capital’s chocolate museum is located at Heindl confectioners, best known for its Sisi-Taler pralines. Vides and a 1hr tour of the historical machinery and modern production halls teach you all about the history of cacao, manufacture of sweets and chocolate, and packaging design. While you’re in the city, don’t miss a tasting of the world-renowned, chocolate-laden Sachertorte at the Hotel Sacher.

Casa del Cioccolate, Umbria, Italy
This little museum and chocolate-cookery school in the Umbrian capital Perugia is best visited in October, when the city hosts the nine-day Eurochocolate festival, including chocolate sculptures, tastings, chocolate spa treatments, and record-setting such as the construction of the world’s biggest chocolate bar (more than 7m long, made in 2003).

REST OF WORLD
Hershey’s Chocolate World, Pennsylvania, USA
About a 3hr trip from New York City and 2.5hrs from Washington DC, this major attraction by the world-famous firm includes a dark-ride tour, the Factory Works Experience, when kids get to play at being packaging experts by collecting Hershey's Kisses in containers, the Really Big 3-D Show (a musical), and a chocolate-tasting ‘experience’. There are the inevitable shops and eateries, including the main candy store where you’ll find new Hershey products including some not yet on general sale.

Just 42km away, in Lititz, the Candy Americana Museum is far more low key (and free to visit), displaying chocolate memorabilia and offering the chance to watch handmade chocolates being created, including almond bark, peanut butter meltaways, and mint drizzle.

A second free chocolate site lies 60km south of Hershey, at York, where Wolfgang Candy offers factory tours, a museum and special family events.

Ganong Chocolate Museum, New Brunswick, Canada
The town of St Stephen in the maritime province of New Brunswick was designated ‘Canada’s Chocolate Town’ in 2000 by virtue of its being home to the country’s oldest confectionery company, established in 1873 and still a major employer. As well as being home to the non-for-profit museum (vastly expanded in 2009), the town plays host to a week-long Chocolate Fest each August.

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