Chocolate Museum, Jeju

The Chocolate Museum in Illgwa-ri, Daejeong-eup, in south-western Jeju, is a private museum devoted to how cacao becomes chocolate and to chocolate cultures around the world. Its walls of songi, Jeju's red volcanic scoria, make it look like an old European castle, and inside you can follow the story from ancient Mesoamerican cacao tools to a working chocolate kitchen. It is a handy rainy-day stop on a trip to western Jeju with children.

A museum built by a chocolate-loving couple

Founder and director Hahn Yae-seok and her husband started dreaming in the late 1970s of a retirement spent making chocolate in the countryside, and travelled the world visiting chocolate factories and shops. Over 25 years they toured more than 100 factories. In 1997 they found the building in Jeju, a disused dye factory, and converted it; the museum opened in 2002. It was once voted onto an international travel community's list of the world's ten best chocolate museums, the only one in Asia.

Inside the galleries

• Main gallery: panels and objects arranged around four themes: what chocolate is, its history, chocolate around the world, and stories about chocolate.
• Gallery 2 and the Cacao Room: tools and artefacts from the time when the Aztecs and Maya drank cacao as a beverage, including traditional Latin American implements such as the metate (grinding stone), comal (griddle) and molinillo (whisk), plus cacao pods of different varieties and displays on fermenting and drying the beans.
• Chocolate box collection: wrappers and boxes the couple gathered from around the world over some 40 years, from faded vintage packaging to witty modern designs. It is fun to look for a box you recognise.
• Chocolate factory and art display: through a large window you can watch chocolates being made by hand, and nearby stand sculptures made entirely of chocolate, including the Eiffel Tower and the Venus de Milo.

Garden and cacao greenhouse

The front yard covers roughly 5,000 m², enclosed by a low wall of Jeju stone and a line of cedars. A cacao greenhouse shows the museum's attempt to grow this tropical tree in Jeju; the trees have reached head height. A trolley modelled on the San Francisco cable cars stands in the grounds and is a favourite photo backdrop.

Tripto tips

• Time needed: about 1 hour for the exhibits, 1 hour 30 minutes with the chocolate workshop.
• Opening hours: according to the official website, open every day from 10:30 to 17:00.
• Admission: adults KRW 8,000, children KRW 6,000; free for under-6s and over-70s. The website is not updated often, so call ahead (+82-64-792-3121) to confirm.
• Chocolate workshop: buy chocolate above a set amount in the museum shop and you receive a free ticket for the "Chocolate Academy" class. Sessions start on the hour from 11:00 to 16:00 and last about 40 minutes. No booking, first come first served; children from age 3 can join with an adult.
• Getting there: public transport is awkward, so a rental car is easiest. Sanbangsan and Alddreu Airfield are about 15 minutes away by car, so the museum fits well into a day around Daejeong and Andeok.