Factory tours
 

What are the best factory tours in the US and abroad?

Any that are to be avoided?

So far I enjoyed the Jelly Belly tour in California, but the Ben and Jerry's tour in Vermont was a bit of a letdown.

Boeing Tour 747,767,777,787 production lines

Factory tours
 

BMW museum and assembly plant tour in Munich.

In some countries such as China, Indian, Thailand etc., certain group tours involve "Factory Tours" (jewellery, tea, spices etc.) which are tourist traps. They expect you to buy stuff at above market prices.

Factory tours
 

Jelly Belly has a great tour if you are a candy lover, I believe it won best factory tour in the USA. Others that I've heard are good are the Guiness factory tour in Dublin and the Heineken factory tour in Amsterdam.

The Tobasco plant in Louisiana is kinda neat. It's short, but educational.
Who knew they needed a salt mine nearby in order to make hot sauce.
(watch out for the gators)

Oh...and the Bourbon Trail.
A bit more than a factory tour.

The Toyota museum and factory tour ^ in Toyota-Shi, Aichi Prefecture

Factory tours
 

Definitely Boeing factory tour. That was great. Also, there's an assembly line tour at The Henry Ford in Detroit/Dearborn. I live here and I've never been on it, but I guess you can see where trucks are made.

The best part of the Ben and Jerry's tour was the maple sundae I bought at the end.

I second the previous poster regarding the factory tours in china. All I wanted to do was see the Great Wall and I was followed around a jade factory/showroom by people trying to rip me off.

+1 Definantly a must see even if you don't like flying.

I'd also add the Makers Mark Distillery in Kentucky.

Factory tours
 

-Dole Plantation, Oahu
-Ethel M Chocolates, Las Vegas
-Bacardi Rum, San Juan (more like a museum and you get 2 free drinks)
-World of Coca-Cola, Atlanta (also a museum but you get to taste Coke products from around the world)

I did this one back in 1988. At the time it cost about US$0.50 to do the tour which seemed to spend about 30 minutes in the brewery part and the last two hours in a bar drinking lots of free beer. What more could a student want in a factory tour?

+1 on Ford Rouge plant tour in Detroit area.

Not in the US, but the Royal Canadian Mint tour in Winnipeg is really good.

Factory tours
 

Jameson in Dublin

Waterford factory tour in Waterford, ROI.

You can touch the machinery and talk to the artists. You could probably even ask to make a cut ( they might even let you). This kind of tour could never be allied in the US. No insure would write the risk.

Coors Brewery, Golden, Colorado.

Especially the last stop.