We loved our visit to the relatively new chocolate tour at Maestrani’s Chocolarium. The discovery tour is beautifully designed, with lots of chocolate to sample and fun interactive and educational activities throughout. We were all fascinated by the live chocolate production line, with cool machines pouring, wrapping, and boxing up chocolate.
Everyone enjoyed making their own chocolate bars at the end, making swirling designs and sprinkling on toppings. It’s a great outing for a rainy day and visitors that want to get up close and personal with some real Swiss chocolate.
Contents
They offer a combo ticket with the nearby Appenzeller Cheese Factory, which we also enjoyed and recommend.
Note: Thanks to the Chocolarium for hosting our visit. All opinions expressed here my own.
| Location: | Eastern Switzerland |
| Address: | Toggenburgerstrasse 41, 9230 Flawil |
| Car: | 50 mins from Zurich |
| Train: | 1hr20 from Zurich HB to Flawil, Maestrani |
| Open: | open almost every day 10:00-18:00, see website for exceptions |
| Price 2023: | Adult CHF 14, Child 6-16 CHF 8, under 6 free |
| Services: | cafe, stroller accessible |
| More info: | www.chocolarium.ch |
Getting There
The Chocolarium is located in eastern Switzerland, on the way to St. Gallen.
By car: From the A1 freeway, take exit 78 to Uzwil, then drive south to Flawil. The factory is located at Toggenburgerstrasse 41, 9230 Flawil. There is lots of free parking in front and behind the building.
By public transport: Take a trin to Uzwil or Flawil, then bus 741 to Flawil, Maestrani. Then walk one block south on the main road to the factory entrance.
Follow the blue arrows to the entrance, so adorable.
Opening Times
The Chocolarium is open most every day 10:00 to 18:00, a few exceptions mostly holidays. See opening times here. It’s best to visit on a weekday since that’s when the chocolate production is live, meaning you can see chocolate bars being made and packaged with the real industrial machines on the factory floor. But if you have to go on a weekend, it’s still a fun visit.
Tickets
Entrance to the Chocolarium costs Adults CHF 14, Child 6-16 CHF 8, under 6 free. They also have a family ticket for 2 adults 2 children for CHF 34. This includes the interactive discover tour, a look into the factory (live production happening Mon – Fri) and lots of chocolate samples.
They offer a combo ticket with the nearby Appenzeller Cheese Factory, which we also enjoyed and recommend.
Making your own chocolate bar costs an extra CHF 10 per bar. I think making the chocolate bar is super fun and worth the extra money, especially for the kids. If you’re not going to make bars, prep your kids before you get to that part of the tour, so they don’t freak out when you get there.
You can purchase tickets online beforehand for a specific time slot, but it’s not required and usually not necessary. On busy days, pre-booking will allow you to skip to the front of the line if there are a lot of people waiting to start the Discovery Tour, which starts every 10 mins. We went on a rainy day during the October school break. The parking was full and it was busy, but we only had to wait a few minutes to start our tour. The staff said the longest wait time they’ve seen is 30 mins, but that’s unusual.
Planning your visit
Plan for about 1 hour for the tour. We were there 2 hours, but we’re slow.
They have an audio guide that accompanies the tour on their mobile app. I couldn’t get a good wifi signal inside the building to download the app. So maybe install this before your visit. App Store or Google Play
If you are making a chocolate bar, know that takes 15 mins for your chocolate bar to cool and be ready to take home. Profi tip: the chocolate making is right after the factory floor. So better to walk quickly though the factory, make your chocolate bar, then go back to enjoy the factory while you wait for the bar to cool. We saw lots of kids and parents, just sitting and wait for the bars. You can do better.
The toilets are near the cafe, outside the tour. There are no toilets inside the tour, but you can leave the tour and re-enter if necessary.
Discovery Tour
I’ll show you some of the tour, but I don’t want to show you everything. Part of the fun is discovering it for yourself.
Before the tour, you start with a photo booth, sending smiles down to the factory floor. For each picture, you get a sweet quote as shown below. We got at least 8 different messages, maybe there are more.
The film is part educational about chocolate product and half a promo film for the Maestrani brand but very well done and entertaining. When the film is over, the screen rises and reveals a door to the discovery tour. Now you can roam free and spend as much time as you like working your way through the various rooms full of activities.
On the left, the squirrel asks kid to shake down “nuts” from the tree. On the right, kids see how much milk they can get from a virtual cow.
All text is in German and English, very smartly designed I thought. Videos have subtitles in English. There is one Globi activity for small children that is only in German but it’s not a big part of your visit.
All the exhibits are brightly colored and very fun. I definitely felt like we were in a magical chocolate factory.
Photo/Video Booth
There was no end to the silliness once we got to the photo room. You push a button to trigger a camera to film you being silly with the chocolate props. Then it sends a sped up version to your email address. The kids loved this part.
Chocolate samples
There are three places where you can sample chocolate. Right before you enter the movie, there is a little free vending machine with little chocolates, snacks for the movie.
Halfway through the tour, there are chocolate fountains as shown below, with white, milk and dark chocolate. There are disposable plastic spoons that you hold under the spigot, then push a button so the chocolate drips out. This was the best!!!
When you reach the factory floor, there are several chocolate dispensers with different flavors of chocolate bars, as shown below right. My son is eating banana split chocolate here. You can eat as much as you like.
Profi tip: My kids got really thirsty after sampling the chocolates. So bring a bottle of water with you.
Eventually you reach the observation deck above the live chocolate factory. No photos allowed here for the privacy of the workers. Workers are there only Mon-Fri, so best to go during the week. If you go on the weekend, you can look into the factory, but the machines won’t be running.
When we were there, several machines were running. One was pouring liquid chocolate into molds. Other was wrapping chocolate bars in foil and packing them into boxes. Another was individually wrapping tiny chocolates on a long conveyor belt. It was fascinating!
Profi tip: right after the factory, you’ll enter the chocolate making room. Your chocolate bar needs to cool for 15 minutes. So maybe skip the factory, make your bar, then go back to the factory while you wait for the bar to cool.
Making your chocolate bar
Right after the factory floor, you enter the chocolate making room. If you already bought your ticket for this, you can simply show it at the counter. If you can also pay to make chocolate bars here if you didn’t purchase this at the beginning.
If it’s busy, you may need to wait in line at the counter to get your mold. The worker will ask you which flavor chocolate you want: white, milk or chocolate. You can request half & half. If you want to swirl it yourself (you do! it’s so fun!), make sure to tell the worker and s/he will give you a little wand so you can swirl.
Then take your mold over to the toppings bench and go crazy. I loved that they had a second lower bench for small children, so they don’t have to be lifted up to reach the toppings. But small children will probably need some supervision. Toppings included nuts, sprinkles, cocoa flakes, dried fruit, spices, etc.
When you are done decorating, give your chocolate mold back to the workers and they will cool it for you. There is a cooling machine in the middle of the room that is self-service, but it wasn’t working when we were there. It takes about 15 mins for your chocolate bar to cool. So go back to the factory floor and eat more chocolate samples and watch the machines while you wait.
When the chocolate bar is ready, you pop it out of the mold, slip it into the plastic bag and you’re ready to go.
End of your visit
After the chocolate making room, you walk through a history of chocolate room.
Then you exit through the chocolate shop and cafe, which also has outdoor seating. The cafe has normal Swiss cafe food, like pizza, pre-made sandwiches, bircher müesli, cakes, etc.
Workshops & Parties
The Chocolarium offers a variety of workshops for adults and children. They also do birthday parties, which include the tour and workshop. Details on their website.
Well, what do you think?
You might also want to visit the nearby Appenzeller Cheese Factory, which has a combo ticket with the Chocolarium.
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