Valor Chocolate Museum — Attraction in la Vila Joiosa / Villajoyosa

First, you need to know that there is no parking on the premises, and parking is scarce in the area. Drop someone off by the entrance (near the roundabout) to go get tickets from the machine while you look for parking.

(Due to recent limitations on number of guests per tour (6), our family was unfortunately divided between two tours, but is certain to change when the pandemic slows down.)

The tour itself took 45-50 minutes. First we entered a room where there were replicas of relics from South America, some plastic cocoa trees, fruits and beans, an overview of where cocoa is grown today, and finally the ingredients of chocolate. A voice recording gave some insights into the europeans' discovery of the plant and its' subsequent popularity in Europe, into the growing of cocoa, and the ingredients of chocolate, all while different parts of the exhibition were in the spotlight, and the rest of the room was dark. Next was a short movie on the history of Valor, before we moved into the old house that holds the actual museum collection. There we saw tools used in chocolate production from the manual labour of the 19th century, through the semi-automation of the first half of the 20th century, to the automation in the second half of the 20th century. The tour ended with a view of the chocolate packing floor, and finally a visit in the chocolate shop.

PS: It is possible to ONLY enter the shop, but then you need to take the drive-in entrance, and inform the guard that you want to go to the shop.

Lack of parking is the main reason I am giving only three stars. With parking it would have been four, and five if there had been more information available online on how to get tickets and the like. The expericence itself was...

The 'tour' was the shortest trip we've ever been on.

We booked on to the rpm English tour.

Once we entered, we were taken to a room and shown the first display. I should imagine 20 minutes in there would be enough for the average person to investigate, read and digest all the information. We were given about 10 before the audio feed started, then shepherded out to the next room, for the video.

This 10 minute video was more about the products the company now makes and the other companies they have acquired.

Leaving that behind, we were taken across to a mock house where the old chocolate making equipment was shown to us. We'd not looked round half of the room before we turned to find the room empty. Everyone had been ushered out without our being aware.

From there we went up the stairs to the factory. I'd hoped this might at least firm the largest part of the tour. Sadly no. We could see part of the packing process.... From a distance, we could see some boxes of a product, be put into other boxes.

Then the last stop - the shop. The only two products to sample were a nutty chocolate, in milk and dark variety. So visitors with nut allergy, or wanting to sample low sugar products lost out.

So as a tour, I found it lacking in so many ways.

I would have liked, expected even...

More time to go over the history of chocolate More time to look round the "house" where their company started A more in depth tour of the factory, comparing modern techniques to the old way More...

A brief, but free, tour of a little museum complete with audio visual and access to a viewing gallery, which mostly looks down upon an automated production line with robotic packing machines. No real possibility of seeing the chocolate actually being made, which is understandable in these modern times. . The little museum had some photos and memorabilia of the family who still run the Valour global operation for the fifth generation. Many historical photos were undated and no explanations given of the old machinery. Once into the shop at the end, there was an opportunity to sample some of the chocolate and purchase some nice gifts. Unfortunately, there is some confusion as to the times of the tours in the different languages. These details on the website, and on the board at the factory gate, use a hyphen between the times and is confusing. For example, English tours, 10:00–16:00 means that there are only 2 tours, one at 10:00 and one at 16:00 hours, NOT several tours during those 6 hours. However, we went on the Spanish tour, and it was still interesting though not very informative. By the way, to book/reserve tickets the website wanted our credit card, to be charged in case we didn’t turn up. We weren’t happy to do this and just went on spec. In high season I guess one would...