Lavaloha Tree-to-Chocolate Farm Tour

The tour starts at Lavaloha’s Visitor Center, where a guide loads the group onto a small electric bus for a loop through the farm’s cacao orchards. The property is about 15 minutes from downtown Hilo — 1,000 acres total, with 24 dedicated to cacao and another 11 to coffee. The guide covers the growing conditions that set Hawaiian cacao apart: the volcanic soil, the rainfall patterns, and the microclimate that give the beans their flavor profile.

The farm tour runs on a small electric bus, keeping the route quiet and accessible for all group sizes.

The bus stops in one of the orchards for a closer look at the trees. The guide opens a cacao pod to show the white, pulpy interior surrounding  the raw beans. In our experience, this is what surprises most visitors: the fresh pulp tastes nothing like chocolate but rather citrusy and tropical, genuinely good on its own.

Guides open pods in the orchard so visitors can see the raw beans and taste the fresh pulp before moving to the processing area.

After the orchard, the tour moves through the processing areas for the drying, roasting, grinding. The guide explains each step without overloading the detail. The chocolate lounge is where the tour slows down: several samples covering dark, milk, white, and flavored varieties, each tied back to what you just saw in the field.

After fermentation, beans are dried here before roasting: one of several stages covered on the tour.

The tour wraps at the Visitor Center, where the shop carries Lavaloha’s finished chocolate alongside other local products. Pricing reflects the  cost of single-origin Hawaiian production, and most of what’s on the shelf isn’t available in Hilo stores.

The shop at the end of the tour carries Lavaloha’s finished chocolates and other local products, most of which aren’t sold in Hilo stores.

What other people say:

With 169 reviews averaging five stars over several comparison websites, the guides are the consistent reason people leave satisfied. They handle the science accessibly, and the  tasting structure keeps the experience grounded rather than lecture-heavy. One pattern that comes up occasionally: the gift shop pitch at the end can feel pointed. The chocolate is legitimately good, so most visitors buy something anyway, but worth knowing if hard sells bother you.

Groups with kids will find the pace comfortable and the electric tram and covered sections make it accessible for strollers and anyone with mobility limitations.

Lavaloha is one of the few places on the Big Island where you can walk through a working cacao orchard, taste the raw fruit off the tree, and then sit down with finished chocolate made from those same beans. The small group size (around 8–10 people) and knowledgeable  guides make this more substantive than a typical farm stop. It’s well-suited to curious travelers, families with kids, and anyone who wants to understand why Hawaiian cacao commands the prices it does. At around $43 per person (discounts available), it’s one of the better-value experiential tours near Hilo.

We are affiliate partners with Lavaloha Chocolate Farm and any booking on this page you make is made directly with Lavaloha Chocolate Farm. We receive a percentage from the activity provider for each successful booking made through our website but this happens without any additional charge to you. (read more on the use of those links on our website here).

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