Cadbury World

We were only in the city for two days and went here. The tour was disappointing and café even more so. The café was basically a grade school cafeteria with food under warmers. We took a 20 min cab ride to get there and were disappointed we didn’t eat at the hotel. The tour needs to be upgraded and factory portion was a complete disappointment. The workers were cleaning the floors. So at least we know it’s clean. The best part of the tour was receiving the chocolate at the beginning. I give the Curly Wurlys five stars.

Having spent my childhood about a mile away from Cadbury World you can imagine I’ve been here a few times. About 10. It’s come a long way from my first childhood school trip to now.
Firstly, as some of the other reviewers have noted — book in advance! You can book online or at reception. You can also visit the playground, Bournville Experience, the shop and the café without a ticket.
The attraction itself is mostly centred around children but I still have fun even though I’m rapidly approaching 30. With lots of themed areas around the history of Bournville, how they turn cocoa beans into heaven and that kind of stuff. Lots of it is interactive and fun.
There is loads of parking and it’s free. It’s also has good public transport links being right next to the 11 bus route and Bournville train station.
The play area has recently been rebuilt and if I had been wearing more appropriate shoes I would have been in there climbing on everything. There is a café and a food stall by the play area with lots of seating, but it isn’t cheap. £8 for a slice of pizza, a can of pop and chips is a tad expensive.
The shop is full of touristy nicknacks and lots of chocolate. It is a little bit cheaper than it would be in a supermarket but not by much unless you find the secret room. Now the secret room is in the shop but in a different room, in there you can find the stuff they are trying to sell off. I managed to get 10 Curly Wurly’s for £1.50 and 15 Fudge’s for £2. Bargain.
Opening times do vary throughout the year, so check online first and they do extra events around Christmas and Easter. I went to a Christmas event a few years ago and got a free advent calendar, more chocolate and a present from Santa. I was a very happy adult.

You will probably be in a chocolate coma by the end of your visit to Cadbury World, but what’s wrong with that, amiright? Also, although it’s geared towards kids and families, you can totally be a kid at heart and go — as long as you like chocolate!
My main recommendation: book online before you go! You book specific dates/​times so it doesn’t get too crowded, and by the time I arrived on a rainy Saturday morning, they had already sold out for the day. Thankfully I had checked the website and seen that I needed to pre-​book, so when I arrived a bit early I chowed on a massive chunk of crunchy-​chocolate-​marshmallow-​concoction from the café while waiting for my turn.
The guided experience you go through is a solid hour and a half to two hours long and a mix of historical museum-​like exhibits, holographic video presentations (the latest in high-​tech museum technology, of course), a glimpse of part of the factory (which was not working the day I was there, but still interesting), hands-​on games and activities, a chocolate-​making demonstration by hand, and my favourite part: a ride in a little car through a colourful world of cocoa beans and music. I tried to tell you I’m a kid at heart…
They give you four candy bars included in the tour as well as a little cup of liquid chocolate with toppings! I expected a lot more out of the shop, but you can get some good prices on Cadbury brand chocolate stuff, and their café has decent food, though less chocolate than I expected — I had curry and strawberry milk after my tour. Totally normal combination.
All in all, this was a fun day out for this chocolate lover who found herself in Birmingham one day!

Expensive for what you get. Would like to know if exhibits are not open before we pay. Supposed to take three hours to go through, but with nothing operational it went by really fast. Call and ask before booking. Book early as this place fills up fast.

Cadbury World is an ideal day out for both children and adults alike.
We managed to find a voucher code online that allowed us to enter at a discounted rate which was helpful.
Parking on site is free (mind the speed bumps) which is a bonus.
We spent about two and a half hours looking around, I can imagine it’d be longer when it’s full of families in the holiday period.
Likes:
1) Free samples. We were given a Crunchie, Curly Wurly and Marvellous Creations Cookie Nut Crunch.
2) The packaging factory. It was interesting to see the bars whizzing around and boxes flying about, ready for the high street.
3) Toilets. Very clean toilets, ¹⁰⁄₁₀.
4) The free taste pot of molten chocolate and sweet of your choice. Shortcake biscuit and Maynard’s Wine Gums, yum yum!
5) The Bournville Experience. Was great to see the wrappers and products of yesteryear. Spice Girls chocolate, anyone?
Dislikes:
1) Despite Cadbury’s heritage I felt there could’ve been a greater insight to how it came to be the company it is today.
2) Cadabra. Cool if you’re like 5, not cool when you’re a grown up.
3) The shop. All of the classics are there. But there was none of the recent additions such as Crunchums and Limited Edition Strawberries and Cream. Not in stock when the supermarkets have them on the shelves? A big no no!

My boyfriend and I took his two young children (3 &5) on a Thursday in March. I knew that it wouldn’t be like something out of Willy Wonka, but it was far more elaborate than I had anticipated. The factory tour was a bit like something designed by Disney Imagineers, with interactive elements, live actors, theaters with motion seats and even a dark ride. There was plenty of education slickly hidden under the fun.
We spent about three hours in total at the factory, including letting the kids lose on the playground. I was surprised at how much free chocolate they gave away, three full size bars each, which we added to the basket full of Cadbury merchandise that we purchased in the store.
The kids were a little bored during the movie about George Cadbury, which only lasted about fifteen minutes. However, other than that, they very much enjoyed themselves. I definitely would recommend this attraction!
One tip– book ahead online. We didn’t and due to their timed entry (which is great, we were able to enjoy the tour without a huge crowd) we had to wait over an hour before we could enter. This gave us time to see The Bournville Experience and do the playground, but it still would have been nice to go on it. I can imagine that during peak times, prebooking is a necessity!

Yes, we still take university students to Cadbury World. It is one of their favourites! they get to be kids again and of course you get to eat chocolate. What’s not to love about that?!
If you are booking a group, super easy! Book ahead to get your date and then two days ahead of your visit just confirm you numbers with them (great if you have people who cannot make up their mind) and you’re all set! The courier and the driver get free tickets and a free meal voucher. No I didn’t have time to use mine because I was wandering the factory and then buying up the store. The staff at Cadbury are absolutely lovely! Great customer service!
As far as chocolate samples, we had minis of some of their products: Curly Wurlies, Buttons, Dairy Milk in a couple of places on the tour and then… because they were in the middle of marketing their Spots and Stripes bar, they were handing out full sized bars of the Spots and Stripes! Delicious! There is the Aztec Rainforest where you can learn about the history of chocolate, the Cadabra Cocoa Bean ride (slow cute little ride), there is the marketing and product history of Cadbury, some kind of movie presentation, the Bourneville Experience, Essence where you can get liquid chocolate with some toppings… or plain if you are a purist like me.
The store… amazing! I loaded up on presents for my family and Christmas… also getting myself some Curly Wurlies and Bourneville Dark Chocolate. After you exit the main exhibit and make your way to the back of the building, the Bourneville Experience and Essence are there along with a playground for children, picnic benches if you are bringing your own lunch or wanting to snack on your chocolate. There is a little hut selling hot drinks, I can’t remember if they sell snacks or meals…
So while I really enjoyed it, here is why I didn’t give it five stars:
1) There seems to trouble managing the traffic flow of guests. The first was in the Aztec Rainforest. The second was trying to get into the theatre/​seating area for a presentation that you cannot bypass. Standing there, just missing out on the previous showing is a bit miserable as it starts to fill up and there is nothing more to look at because you have see it all.
2) In part of that theatre/​presentation thingy… there is a part that scares the crap out of everyone and while us older kids just laugh at the fact that we may have been scared for something so ridiculous, the little kids freak out and there is lots of crying. Come on Cadbury, don’t scare the little kids. They just want chocolate.
3) I wanted to see the factory running. Basically you just have to be lucky to hit the factory at a time when it is running. Lame. Really lame. I may be the only person, but I enjoy watching the chocolate bars on a line speeding through various points, getting wrapped and boxed… and whatever else. Instead, I just saw boxes and boxes… and more boxes. And that was a decent portion of the tour… walking by dead machines with boxes covering up some of the production areas… so it is a narrow walk way with boxes on the right and a window on the left.
Other than that, if you are worried about going as an adult… don’t, there are lots of people there without little children… or shame for that matter ;)

I’m not giving it a 1 because I don’t want to be a grump, but seriously? Save your money.
We had the 2-​for-​1 voucher for Purple Thursdays, which means it was about £15 for two of us. I would have been even more annoyed if I’d paid full price — so make sure you get a voucher of some kind to visit. Oh, but you can’t book for the 2-​for-​1 online; you can only call the Cadbury number… which they charge you for. Of course.
We’d heard that you get lots of free chocolate! Free chocolate around every corner! Hooray!
Yeah. No. You get a small cup of liquid chocolate, with one addition (rice krispies, marshmallows, etc. — but just one!), and then a Curly Wurly and a Crunchie bar. So… I’m sorry, but that doesn’t classify as a lot of chocolate to me.
The packaging plant was closed, and you have to sit through a bunch of Cadbury propaganda videos. Really. I kept rolling my eyes — we get it, Cadbury is great. There’s an extremely lame ride that desperately needs updating… and that’s it. There were a couple of places to have your picture taken on a green screen, but then of course you have to pay a ridiculous amount to get prints.
The biggest Cadbury shop in the world was an extreme disappointment, and was barely cheaper than regular retail.
Would I go back? Uh, no. Honestly, I don’t think I would go back even if it were free. My husband and I thought that we would find the experience funny later, but instead I just want my money back. Go to the Black Country Living Museum for the same price if you want to visit a great Birmingham-​area attraction.

Visiting Cadbury World as an adult is brilliant. I’d worried before my last visit that it would have lost some of its magic and that they might have stopped giving out such generous free samples. Thankfully, it was still suitably magical and the free samples were in abundance.
Some things hadn’t changed since I was a kid — there’s still the Aztec rainforest and the Victorian Street. There are plenty of new editions, like the hilarious Cadabra ride where you sit in a little car and ride around a world populated by weird animatronic cocoa beans. You get to see the chocolate being made and packaged, before venturing into the new advertising themed area and the Purple Planet interactive zone.
Essence is the latest attraction, though I found it a bit on the lamezoid side — even though it involved getting a cup of liquid chocolate loaded with sweeties.
As always, you exit through the gift shop, which claims to be the «world’s biggest».
Cadbury World is a great fun day out for young and old alike. Tickets are 2 for 1 on Thursdays (must be booked in advance by calling 0844 8 807 667) and booking tickets in advance online can mean decent savings.

I’ve been to a fair few food and drink inspired theme parks in my time. One of my all time favourites was Coca-​Cola Land in Atlanta, GA. One of the greatest UK brands of all time has a chocolate inspired theme park, it is called Cadbury World and I would like to recommend to locals that they don’t miss it. Cadbury World beats Coca-​Cola Land hands down.
In the heart of Bourneville lies Cadbury HQ and adjoining the factory is Cadbury World, «Where Chocolate Comes to Life!»
Cadbury World has 14 attractions to make the most out of your 15 Pounds entry (for adults) for kids you will pay 10.75. I really enjoyed watching how my favourite brand of chocolate is made and packaged.
The World’s Biggest Cadbury Shop made my trip complete. I was in awe at the varieties and discounts on offer. I bought a bag of chocolate and took it home immediately afterwards to gorge to my hearts content.

AKA: Cadbury World.
I don’t know how I learned of Cadbury World, but somehow I did. I was in England for holiday, and my friend’s parents had never been either!
We ventured to Birmingham and went on the tour. There was a cute ride you go through and they take your photo (for purchase, of course).
They also feed you chocolate at every turn, it seems (which, I am OK with!). haha. It was so interesting to learn the history of Cadbury and the different confectionery processes.
I am not sure if the taste will change since they were bought out (I heard?) — but I would definitely go again!
Check it out — it’s great for kids, and for adults!!! And the store has EVERY.CHOCOLATE.IMAGINABLE. Yummy.