Some girlfriends like flowers; some prefer jewellery. Fortunately, seeing as it's slightly cheaper, my girlfriend prefers chocolate. This makes Cadbury World in Birmingham an ideal place to take her for a day out. She's not alone, either, as more than half a million people have visited the attraction each year since it opened in 1990, which does mean that advance booking is strongly recommended as waiting times can exceed 3 hours for those without that foresight. It hardly seems fair, though; alcoholics get to go to meetings; chocoholics get to go to Cadbury World.

From the outside, there is very little to suggest wait awaits you. The site is still a working factory and only the size of the car park really tells you it may be any more than this when you arrive. On stepping inside, however, a large lobby area complete with café and shop does give more of an impression of a tourist facility. This is where booking in advance becomes a very good idea, as there is really nowhere much to sit, apart from in the café, if you've got a long wait ahead of you. Fortunately, we arrived only around ten minutes before our allocated slot, so this wasn't an issue.

On entry into the attraction, the first section is a brief history of how chocolate was first used by the Aztecs and stolen by Spanish explores in the 1500s. It's largely a selection of models with information boards, which is interesting enough, but doesn't exactly give the best first impression of the tour. It's laid out well enough, but at busier times than we attended, I can see how it could get quite crowded. It's also quite dark after how well lit the lobby area is and can take a few moments to adjust.

The next section is a model of Bull Street, which is mostly models of the shops and area where Cadbury's first got started. Again, it's a cramped area and there is little of great value, until the short film starts to act as an introduction to the Cadbury story, which is explored in more depth in the next room. This is a small film theatre, which tells some of the history of the Cadbury's company and the Bournville factory and employee village. The timings in this area are such that you cannot enter before the film starts, as you are held in the Bull Street area, so that nothing is missed and there is little delay before the film starts. For fans of Cadbury in general, this is quite a fascinating section.

The next section is equally fascinating, as it features some presentations on a small screen showing how various Cadbury's chocolate products are made, now that you know how the chocolate itself is made. However, there are only 4 of these screens, which isn't really enough for all the people who may be entering that area at the same time, especially as one of them wasn't working when we were there and we had to wait for a turn. Annoyingly, the screen we had was slightly quieter than the ones behind us, so someone else's choices were always audible over ours. Once more, the information is great, but the presentation left a little to be desired.

Less so is the Cadabra ride which is the next part of the tour. This is just a slow paced ride with no informational benefits. It's really only entertaining for young children and seems to exist only for the benefit of Cadbury, as it provides an opportunity to take photos of visitors and sell them. On the plus side, it can be skipped without missing out on anything and there is a specially adapted buggy that can take a wheelchair, which is unusual for this kind of ride in my experience and the staff in this area are very helpful.

Going via the Happiness room, which is nothing more than a large scale version of one of those dance mats that you can get with some Playstation games, you reach the Coronation Street and advertising sections. Again there is the option to see how the advertising idents supporting "Coronation Street" are put together, which is pretty interesting. The advertising section is a short film taking you through the television advertising campaigns run by Cadbury for their various products since the start of broadcasting in the 1950s all the way through to the present. There's not a great deal of education benefit to this, but it is a bit of a walk down memory lane, seeing adverts you remember from years ago. Naturally, seeing some of the 1980s Flake adverts again was my favourite part!

This area leads in deliberately to the shop, which is advertised as "The World's Biggest Cadbury's Shop", which could potentially lead to the world's biggest credit card bill, should you be so inclined. There is a huge range of Cadbury's branded material, from the typical souvenir items of your visit, like pens and bookmarks, through to clothing, which is all surprisingly reasonably priced, considering it's a captive market. There is also pretty much any Cadbury's chocolate you can think of, mostly cheaper than in the shops and including some items I'd not seen anywhere else, such as a 5 kilo Dairy Milk bar and bags of Mis-Shapes, which are pieces that weren't shaped right to go on general sale, but still taste great, as my flatmates agreed later. For the chocolate lover, the temptation to spend a huge amount of money could be immense.

Pictures of Cadbury World

Welcome to Cadbury World

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Just across the other side of the play area, there is an area in an older building which contains the Cadbury Collection. This is more about life at the Bournville factory for the workers and the history of the family and the company, being packed with information and memorabilia. This section has the feel of a room in a museum and is the most educational part of the whole tour. At the end of a long day, though, it does look quite imposing, with the huge amount of information on show. We didn't stay here long, as it's not as immediately appealing as the other section and we did want to beat rush hour on the way home. If you're interested in this kind of thing, however, this is a place you could easily spend more than an hour looking around and reading all the information on display.

The one area of the site which was a bit of a let down was the main restaurant, just off the lobby. The prices didn't seem overly expensive for a restaurant in a tourist attraction and, having stopped at a service station on the way there, even cheap compared to some places. However, it did seem quite small for the size of the attraction and on trying to order fish and chips, which seemed like a fairly staple menu item, we were told there would be a fifteen minute wait and when the food was finally brought our table, the chips weren't terribly good; not that this stopped me eating them. The staff here were the opposite of all the others we saw, not seeming terribly organised or as if they knew what was going on. At busy times, I would imagine that the area could get very full and there could be long waits and a lot of disorganisation. This is a shame, as the rest of the facility was very professional and organised.