Photo: Mick D Kirkov / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
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Why the Lindt Home of Chocolate is worth the trip
Switzerland has no shortage of chocolate attractions, but the Lindt Home of Chocolate is the one built at industrial scale. It opened in September 2020 next to the Lindt & Sprüngli headquarters in Kilchberg, on the western shore of Lake Zurich, and cost around CHF 100 million — a museum, a research centre and a visitor centre in one building by the Basel architects Christ & Gantenbein.[6]
What makes it more than a factory shop is the way the visit works. You walk in through a hall dominated by the fountain, then take a self-guided chocolate tour with an audio guide in several languages that runs through the history of cocoa, the arrival of chocolate in Switzerland and the way Swiss makers turned it into an industry. It is a dry subject handled well: you finish the tour by walking past a small working production line, and the tasting comes with it.
For anyone based in Montreux, the honest calculus is this. It is a long train ride — almost three hours each way — but it is entirely flat, entirely indoors if it rains, and it pairs naturally with an afternoon in Zurich, which most first-time visitors to Switzerland want anyway. Compare that with a mountain excursion that can be closed by weather, and the Lindt Home of Chocolate is the reliable half of a day out.
If chocolate is the theme of your trip, our guide to the Gruyères and Maison Cailler day trip covers the other half of the story — the medieval cheese town and the oldest chocolate factory open to the public in Switzerland, both far closer to Montreux.
Getting there from Montreux
The route is straightforward but not short: Montreux → Lausanne → Zurich HB → Kilchberg ZH. On a weekday the first sensible departure is the 07:51 from Montreux, which arrives at 10:48 with two changes and 2h57 on the clock; the 08:08 departure lands at 11:18, and the 08:23 route via Palézieux, Bern and Zurich takes a few minutes longer. Coming back, the 17:10 from Kilchberg ZH reaches Montreux at 20:06, and later trains continue into the evening.[1]
Once you are in the Zurich area the last leg is the easy part. Kilchberg ZH station is served by the S8 and S24 lines, and the walk from the platform to the entrance takes about ten minutes on the Pilgerweg. Alternatively, the electric bus number 165 from Bürkliplatz drops you at the ‘Lindt & Sprüngli’ stop, and in summer a short lake boat to Kilchberg ZH (lake) plus the same ten-minute walk makes a nicer approach. The official directions page puts the whole thing at twenty minutes from central Zurich.[5]
One detail that catches people out: Kilchberg sits outside the ‘110’ zone of the Zurich fare network, so a standard local ticket bought inside the city is not enough — buy to Kilchberg ZH, or use a Swiss Travel Pass, GA travelcard or the Zurich Card, all of which the attraction accepts for arrival.[5] By car it is roughly 200 km of motorway from Montreux via Bern or Basel, and parking around Seestrasse 204 is limited, which is a good reason to leave the car at home and take the train.
Inside: the fountain, the chocolate tour and the Chocolateria
The fountain is the building's signature, and it is genuinely enormous. Its construction is exactly 9.3 metres tall and holds 1,400 kg of real chocolate that flows at around a kilo per second, pushed through 94 metres of piping hidden inside the sculpture. It stands in the entrance hall, which you can walk into, photograph and stand under without buying anything at all.[2]
Citation capsule. The chocolate fountain at the Lindt Home of Chocolate is 9.3 m high, holds 1,400 kg of chocolate and circulates it at roughly 1 kg per second through 94 m of internal piping. Source: www.lindt-home-of-chocolate.com (fountain page).
The paid part is the chocolate museum, a self-guided circuit of themed rooms with an audio guide: the cocoa plantations and the trade that shaped them, the Swiss invention of conching and milk chocolate, advertising history, and a modern production line making chocolate live behind glass. There is a tasting at the end of the tour, and the rooms are interactive enough that children stay interested. Behind the scenes the same complex also houses a research and innovation centre for the group's pâtissiers and chocolatiers.[4][6]
If you want to do more than look, book a Chocolateria course. In a full professional kitchen you make your own bar or figures with a chocolatier guiding you; courses run from CHF 32 for a chocolate-bar workshop to CHF 40 for figures and lollipops and CHF 72 for the champagne truffle class. Courses are booked in advance, they sell out first on weekends, and they last long enough that you should build them into the day rather than treating them as an extra.[4]
Two other things are worth knowing before you go. The Lindt café on site serves the obvious things but is small and busiest between noon and two, and the shop next to the exit is where most people spend more than they planned. Both are free to enter — a ticket is only needed for the museum circuit and the courses.
When to go, what it costs and a realistic day
The attraction is open 360 days a year: general opening hours are Monday to Sunday, 10 am to 7 pm, the entrance hall opens at 9.30 am and the first audio-guide tour starts at 10 am, with two or three maintenance days in May and November when the museum closes. Rain or shine makes no difference — everything except the walk from the station is indoors, which is precisely why this works as a poor-weather day from Montreux.[3]
| Ticket | Price (2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate museum, adult | CHF 17 | Includes the audio guide and the tasting |
| Reduced (students, AHV/IV, ages 16+) | CHF 15 | Bring the card that proves it |
| Children 8–15 | CHF 10 | Young children 0–7 free |
| Group tickets (min. 20 people) | CHF 15 / CHF 8 | Adults / children |
| Guided tour | CHF 13 to 30 | Public tours; private tours from CHF 13 to 35 |
| Chocolateria course | CHF 32 to 72 | Bars, figures, champagne truffles; book ahead |
Prices are the tariffs published on the official tickets page; the museum tour is the only ticket most visitors need, while the entrance hall, fountain, café and shop are free to enter.[4] Museum admissions are sold in timed slots and do sell out — the official site regularly shows ‘fully booked’ days — so reserve online before you commit to the train times, particularly on Saturdays and during school holidays.
A realistic day from Montreux, built around the timetable rather than hope:
- 07:51 Montreux — arrive 10:48, change in Lausanne and at Zurich HB. Buy breakfast on the train; the Lausanne connection is only five minutes.
- 11:00 Kilchberg — ten-minute walk from the station, then the fountain, the café and the shop before the museum gets busy.
- 12:30 Chocolate museum, roughly an hour to ninety minutes including the tasting and the production line.
- 14:30 Take the S-Bahn back to Zurich HB: an afternoon on the lake, in the old town, or at the Kunsthaus.
- 17:10 Kilchberg ZH — or leave from Zurich HB a little later and still be in Montreux before 21:00.
It is a full day, not a half day, and it is a rail day rather than a mountain day. If that sounds like the wrong trade, our Titlis and Engelberg guide is the same kind of excursion with a glacier at the end of it, and considerably less travelling.
Kilchberg, Lake Zurich and the rest of the day
Kilchberg is a quiet lakeside commune rather than a destination in its own right, and that is what makes it work: you arrive, you spend three or four hours on one subject, you leave. The village slopes down to Lake Zurich, and the waterfront in the neighbouring communes — Küsnacht, Zollikon, Rüschlikon — is strung together by lakeside paths and the same S-Bahn line if you want a short walk with a lake view before heading back.
Most visitors treat the attraction as an outpost of Zurich and give the city the rest of the day, which is the sensible plan. The old town and the Limmat, the Kunsthaus, the lake boats from Bürkliplatz and the walk along the Bahnhofstrasse all sit within twenty minutes of Zurich HB, where every train back to Montreux stops. A good compromise is an early museum slot, lunch in the city, and the 17:32 or 18:32 train home.
If you prefer your wine to your chocolate, the Lavaux vineyard terraces are on the doorstep of Montreux rather than three hours away — a UNESCO landscape of terraced vines above Lake Geneva that can be walked in an afternoon. Many guests do exactly that one day and Zurich the next.
Base yourself on Lake Geneva
RivieraHost manages apartments and villas in Montreux, Clarens and the surrounding Riviera — a quiet base between the lake and the Alps, with the Montreux SBB station ten minutes away and the whole of Switzerland reachable in a day.
See our apartmentsFrequently asked questions
Can you visit the Lindt Home of Chocolate as a day trip from Montreux?
Yes. The 07:51 train from Montreux reaches Kilchberg ZH at 10:48 in 2h57 with two changes, in Lausanne and at Zurich HB, and the 17:10 return gets you back to Montreux at 20:06. Budget between seven and nine hours door to door, including the walk from Kilchberg station.[1]
How much does the Lindt Home of Chocolate cost?
Museum admission is CHF 17 for adults, CHF 15 for students, AHV/IV pensioners and visitors aged 16 and over, and CHF 10 for children aged 8 to 15; under-eights go free. Guided tours cost CHF 13 to 30, and Chocolateria courses run from CHF 32 to CHF 72. The entrance hall with the fountain, the café and the shop are free.[4]
Do I need to book the chocolate museum in advance?
Admission is sold in timed slots and popular days do sell out, so book online before you fix your train times — especially at weekends, in school holidays and in the run-up to Christmas. Courses in the Chocolateria should always be reserved ahead.[3][4]
How long do you need at the Lindt Home of Chocolate?
Plan on one and a half to two hours for the museum circuit with the audio guide and the tasting, plus half an hour in the café or the shop. Add an hour or more if you have booked a Chocolateria course, which puts you on a late-afternoon train rather than the 17:10.
What are the opening hours?
The building is open 360 days a year, Monday to Sunday from 10 am to 7 pm. The entrance hall opens at 9.30 am and the first audio-guide tour starts at 10 am. The museum closes for two or three maintenance days in May and November, listed on the official opening-hours page.[3]
Sources
- SBB / opendata.ch public timetable — connections Montreux → Kilchberg ZH (07:51–10:48, 2h57, changes in Lausanne and Zurich HB) and Kilchberg ZH → Montreux (17:10–20:06), queried 24 September 2026 for a weekday.
- Lindt Home of Chocolate (lindt-home-of-chocolate.com), chocolate fountain page — fountain exactly 9.3 m high, holding 1,400 kg of chocolate at about 1 kg per second through 94 m of internal piping.
- Lindt Home of Chocolate, opening-hours page — open 360 days a year, entrance hall from 9.30 am, general hours Monday–Sunday 10 am–7 pm, first audio-guide tour at 10 am, maintenance closures in May and November.
- Lindt Home of Chocolate, tickets and prices page — museum admission CHF 17 adult / CHF 15 reduced / CHF 10 children 8–15 / free 0–7, group tickets CHF 15 and CHF 8, guided tours CHF 13–30, Chocolateria courses CHF 32–72.
- Lindt Home of Chocolate, directions page — Schokoladenplatz 1, Seestrasse 204, 8802 Kilchberg; S8 or S24 to Kilchberg ZH plus a ten-minute walk via Pilgerweg, bus line 165 from Bürkliplatz, lake boat to Kilchberg ZH (lake); twenty minutes from central Zurich; Kilchberg lies outside the Zurich ‘110’ fare zone.
- Lindt Home of Chocolate (Wikipedia) — built 2017–2020, opened September 2020, cost around CHF 100 million, architects Christ & Gantenbein, next to the Lindt & Sprüngli headquarters in Kilchberg.
- Hero photograph: Mick D Kirkov, ‘Kilchberg ZH — The Lindt & Sprüngli Works’, 500px via Wikimedia Commons, released under CC0 — file page.
10+ years in hospitality. BBA Hospitality (Glion), MSc Tourism (FHGR), MSc Data Science (HSLU).
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