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Foodie Travel: Taste NYC With Sweet Walks' Chocolate Tours

Don't count on Sweet Walks' Luxury Chocolate Tour to help you burn off those Valentine's Day-related calories. This isn't one of those walking tours that involves long, punishing distances, though you might break a sweat being chased by perfume hawkers at Saks Fifth Avenue on a Saturday. But if you like chocolate and want to know where to find the really fancy, top-of-the-line goods, the Luxury Chocolate Tour is a splendid method of whiling away a Friday or Saturday afternoon in NYC.

Our fun and knowledgeable guide took us to five different European chocolate shops on the Upper East Side in two and a half hours. At each place we sampled chocolates (included in the price!) and learned about the history of the store and the process of chocolate making. These stores are so exclusive and relatively unknown that, as our guide said, 80 percent of tour-goers are locals. (Can't say that about those double-decker buses.)

Our favorites? The buttery-caramel centers of the Rigoletto chocolate at La Maison du Chocolat (30 Rockefeller Center) and the spicy hot cocoa and adorable cocoa-butter-painted chocolates at MarieBelle (762 Madison Avenue).

Related Stories:
· Sweet Walks [Official Site]
· Chocolate coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: chrisglass]