Ethel M. Chocolate Factory & Botanical Gardens
This outing is a real treat for visitors to Las Vegas with your luxury car rental. On top of that, admission here is free, but the chocolates are not! Once inside the factory, you can take a self-guided tour, where placards and video demonstrations will guide your journey through the candy-making process. You will start with the preparation of the candy fillings and end where it is wrapped in foil. You will not want to leave this trip to return to your luxury car rental. The tour will take you to the Chocolate Shoppe, where there is very tempting array of sweets (sugar lovers beware). You get to sample one treat for free, but it will be hard to resist another. The Lemon Satin Crèmes, Almond Butter Krisps, Caramel Splendors, Pecan Caramel Raptures, Coconut Delights and Almond Clusters are some of the most popular treats people go home with in their luxury car rental.
The Ethel M. Chocolate Factory comes from a family tradition over a century old using unique and time-tested recipes that call only for the finest ingredients. The man who created this factory was Forest Mars Sr., who named it after his mother, Ethel. Mars was the man who’s father created the Milky Way bar. The younger Mars wanted to go into business for himself and went on to build one of the best-known candy bars in the United States.
After the tour of the factory, you can explore the Botanical Cactus Gardens. The garden holds over 350 species of cactus, making it one of the largest of its kind in the United States. You can walk off some of that candy you just ate before going back to your hotel in your luxury car rental.
Another popular attraction on the grounds in the “Living Machine”. This is where live bacteria, algae, protozoa, snails, and fish are used in a cutting-edge wastewater-treatment facility to recycle 100 percent of the water from the factory so that it can be reused in the manufacturing process at the factory. Don’t forget: this is the desert and water is a rare and expensive commodity. This machine uses no chemicals and is able to recycle 32,000 gallons of water each day, which is then used in landscaping as well.
Directions
Located only 10 miles from the Strip with your luxury car rental, you take Tropicana Avenue to Mountain Vista Avenue. Turn right onto Mountain Vista until you reach Sunset Road. Turn left onto Sunset and follow the signs to the factory.
The Ethel M. Chocolate Factor and Botanical Gardens is a place where you can leave your luxury car rental and follow your nose to the delicious candy treats. Then, you can burn some of those calories while walking through the desert environment exploring the 350 species of cacti. At the end, there is a water treatment facility that will amaze you with its innovation.
