Europe’s unexpected chocolate capitals for a sweet getaway

Chocolate tourism is having a bit of a moment, especially with Easter on the horizon. As travellers look for new ways to spend a spring long weekend, chocolate is becoming an unexpectedly tempting reason to book a sweet-inspired getaway.

New research shows that global searches for Easter travel have jumped by 129% this month, pointing to growing interest in trips built around food, local traditions and hands-on experiences.

And while Paris and Brussels may still be the first names that come to mind for a chocolate-fuelled break, plenty of smaller cities are quietly making a case for themselves, often with fewer crowds and stronger chocolate roots.

A new study by Avis has ranked Europe’s most surprising chocolate cities by looking at the number of chocolatiers and chocolate shops listed on Yelp, attractions such as museums and factory tours, Google review ratings and monthly search demand for terms like “city + chocolate”.

The idea was to spotlight destinations where chocolate is a real part of the local experience, even if they are not the first places travellers usually think of.

Turin tops the rankings

In the rankings, Turin came out on top. The Italian city has 233 chocolatiers, five chocolate attractions and nearly 50,000 monthly searches for “Turin chocolate”, according to the Avis study. It is described as Europe’s historic chocolate capital since 1585 and the birthplace of gianduja and bicerin.

Visitors can stop by the Pfatisch Chocolate Museum, join factory tours with brands such as Caffarel or time their trip with the city’s annual CioccolaTò festival.

Best known as the home of Baci chocolates, second-placed Perugia also hosts Eurochocolate, which is billed as Europe’s largest chocolate festival and draws around one million visitors each year.

The Italian city also scored strongly on ratings, with Casa del Cioccolato Perugina at 4.4 stars on Google and Cioccolateria Augusta Perusia at 4.7.

Austria’s Salzburg ranked third, helped by its compact city centre, 51 chocolatiers and its link to the original Mozartkugel, first created by Fürst Confectionery in 1890.

For visitors, it offers the kind of chocolate experience that feels easy to explore on foot and closely tied to the city’s history.

York in the north of England came fourth despite having only 12 chocolate shops listed on Yelp.

Even so, it draws more than 12,000 monthly searches for its chocolate scene, thanks to its confectionery past and attractions such as York’s Chocolate Story, which has a 4.3-star Google rating from more than 3,000 reviews.

The city is also the birthplace of confectionery brand Rowntree’s and Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

Antwerp in Belgium rounded out the top five with 44 chocolatiers and two major attractions: Chocolate Nation, described as the world’s largest Belgian chocolate museum, and Choco-Story Antwerp, where visitors can watch live praline-making demonstrations.