Booking choice: The Lydgate Farms chocolate tour, from $145 per person. Check dates Compare the options below
Lydgate Farms, in the uplands behind Kapaa, is a working cacao farm: the tasting is built around chocolate from its own award-winning beans. Princeville Botanical Gardens is a landscaped private garden where the chocolate tasting comes midway through a plant-lover's walk, and the listing describes the chocolates as single-origin bars from around the world.
The right one depends on where you are staying, who you are travelling with and whether you care more about chocolate or plants.
The quick answer
Choose Lydgate Farms if the chocolate matters most: you taste chocolate made from cacao grown on the farm, weekdays only, ages 9 and over. Choose Princeville Botanical Gardens for a garden walk on the North Shore with a tasting of chocolates from around the world, a tip-included $126 price and a child fare from age 2.
How do the two tours compare side by side?
Lydgate Farms is the cacao farm with estate chocolate; Princeville is the garden walk with world chocolates and the tip included.
| Lydgate Farms | Princeville Botanical Gardens | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | 5730 Olohena Rd, Kapaa (east side) | 3840 Ahonui Pl, Princeville (North Shore) |
| From | $145 + tip | $126, tip included |
| Length | 3 hours | 3 hours |
| Start times | 9, 10, 11 AM, noon; Mon to Fri | 9:30 AM |
| Chocolate | Made from the farm's own cacao | Single-origin chocolates from around the world |
| Also tasted | Honey, vanilla, fruit, fresh cacao | Fruit and honey |
| Ages | 9 and over (child fare 9 to 13) | Child fare 2 to 13; infants on laps |
| Group size | Up to 25 | Up to 17 |
| Rating | 4.9 (1,105) | 4.8 (884) |
Chocolate first? Check weekday dates for the Lydgate Farms tour and tasting.
Check dates for the Lydgate Farms chocolate tourWhich has the better chocolate?
If you want chocolate from cacao grown where you stand, Lydgate Farms; if you want to compare fine chocolates from many origins, Princeville.
Lydgate's tasting builds to its 70% estate bar, made from beans recognised several times by the Cocoa of Excellence awards. Princeville's listing describes single-origin gourmet chocolates from around the world, tasted in a shaded outdoor area; one guest wrote that there was "an excellent variety of chocolate to taste from locations around the world".
Which is the prettier walk?
Princeville: it is a landscaped botanical garden with terraces, creek beds and a valley floor, and plant lovers rave about it.
Lydgate Farms has botanical gardens too, but it is a working farm with orchards, bees and vanilla, and the focus is on how food grows. At Princeville the plants are the main event and the chocolate is the reward in the middle.
Which is cheaper?
Princeville, once you count the tip: it is $126 with the gratuity included, while Lydgate is $145 plus a tip.
Both cancel free up to 24 hours before on Viator. Neither includes transport. At Lydgate the farm shop comes at the end of the tasting, so budget for a few bars if you are tempted. See the full price guide.
Which is easier on your legs?
Neither is wheelchair accessible: Lydgate has steep grassy hills, Princeville has stairs and loose gravel slopes.
Princeville asks for moderate fitness and provides walking sticks and umbrellas. At Lydgate, guests report the farm offers golf cart help on the steepest sections; ask when you book. If accessibility is the deciding factor, the organic fruit farm tour near Kilauea is wheelchair and stroller accessible.
Leaning to the garden? Princeville's price already includes the tip.
Check dates for the Princeville garden and chocolate tourWhich is better with children?
Princeville, for younger kids: it has a child fare from age 2, while Lydgate Farms does not take anyone under 9.
Princeville asks parents to accompany children at all times and to judge honestly whether their child will enjoy a three-hour walk. For the details, see chocolate farm tours with kids.
Which is closer to where you are staying?
Staying in Princeville or Hanalei, the gardens are on your doorstep; staying in Kapaa, Wailua or Lihue, Lydgate Farms is the short drive.
From Poipu, Lydgate is the nearer of the two. The drive between them along the east and north coasts takes a while, so pair each with sights on the same side of the island rather than doing both in one day.
On the North Shore? The Princeville garden walk starts at 9:30 AM, with fruit, honey and a chocolate tasting.
Explore the Princeville garden and chocolate tourWhich should you book?
Match the tour to what matters most to your group.
- Serious chocolate lovers: Lydgate Farms.
- Garden and plant lovers: Princeville Botanical Gardens.
- Children under 9: Princeville, or the Lydgate tasting room in Kapaa.
- Only free at the weekend: Princeville, since Lydgate runs Monday to Friday.
- Want the whole bean-to-bar story on a farm: Lydgate Farms.
Made up your mind? Lydgate's weekday slots cancel free up to 24 hours before.
Check dates for the Lydgate Farms chocolate tourFrequently asked questions
Is the chocolate at Princeville Botanical Gardens grown there?
The listing describes a tasting of single-origin gourmet chocolates from around the world, so it is not an estate chocolate tasting like Lydgate Farms'.
Can you do both tours on the same day?
It is not practical: both last about three hours, and they are on different sides of the island.
Which tour includes the tip?
Princeville Botanical Gardens includes the gratuity in its $126 price; at Lydgate Farms the tip is extra.
Ready to book
Choose your tasting
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before on every option. Prices are from-prices in USD and move with the season.
Kauai Chocolate Farm Tour & Tasting
- Three-hour guided tour of the Lydgate Farms cacao orchard and botanical gardens
- Tastes of estate honey, vanilla, tropical fruit and fresh cacao fruit
- Chocolate tasting, from chocolate-covered macadamias to the 70% estate bar
Princeville Botanical Gardens & Chocolate
- Guided walk through Princeville Botanical Gardens (terraces, creek beds, valley floor)
- Fruit and honey samples, then a tasting of single-origin chocolates from around the world
- Gratuity included; walking sticks, umbrellas and DEET-free bug spray provided
Organic Tropical Fruit Pick & Taste Tour
- Guided walk through the orchards and gardens of a nearly 30-acre organic farm
- Pick and taste the fruit in season from nearly 2,000 trees
- Small group of at most 10; wheelchair and stroller accessible
