THE MILKY WAY NAMED 4TH IN UK BY TRIP ADVISOR

24th July 2018

Categories: Visitor News

Devon, UK – July 24 2018

For the fourth year running The Milky Way Adventure Park near Bideford has been honoured by Trip Advisor with their most prestigious accolade -  a 2018 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice™ award.

This award is the highest honour TripAdvisor can give and is presented annually to the top 1% of businesses across select categories. The Milky Way is the only attraction in North Devon to make the top 10 – and is now ranked by Trip Advisor as the 4th best amusement park in the UK, having been named as 7^th in 2017. Crealy Adventure Park were also placed this year, at #5.

90% of people who review The Milky Way on TripAdvisor rate the park as Very Good or Excellent – a statistic which puts them head and shoulders above most.

The family-run park came just below Paulton Park, Alton Towers and Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

“We’re delighted to be considered up there with the best in the UK, and this is a great testimony to the huge effort put in by the Milky Way team,” said partner Tara Stanbury.

“We’re different to some of the others on the list – a bit smaller, and we don’t have the white-knuckle rides and huge crowds and queues. But we like to think that’s one of the reason that people have such a great day out with us. We offer a wide range of indoor and outdoor amusements that adults and children can enjoy together - three smaller roller coasters, dodgems, huge bouncing pillows, and some enormous play areas suitable for adults and children, as well as lots of shows and other activities.

“We really focus on having friendly, helpful staff and a providing a good family day out – and we’re so pleased that our visitors on Trip Advisor think we’ve done a good job of this.”

The Milky Way Adventure Park is one of only two attractions in the South West to have won a Travellers’ Choice Award in the Attractions category.

Yet it started as a farm attraction on the Stanbury family farm near Clovelly. Since then it has grown both in size and popularity, with the family investing £750k in new attractions in 2014 – but is still run by a father, children and partners team, and operates in a rural area on a fraction of the budget of the others on the list.

When deciding on the awards TripAdvisor took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for amusement parks worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period.

To see TripAdvisor traveller reviews and opinions of The Milky Way Adventure Park near Clovelly go to https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g186251-d295795-Reviews-The_Milky_Way_Adventure_Park-Clovelly_Devon_England.html

Other recent awards and accolades for the Milky Way include: Gold Winner Large Visitor attraction of the year 2016/2017 - Visit Devon Tourism Awards; Winner Best Family Attraction in Devon 2017 Muddy Stilleto Awards (voted by public); Silver Award Large Visitor attraction of the year 2016/2017 - South West Tourism Awards; Winner Best Attraction - North Devon Food, Drink & Tourism Awards; 2016 & 2017 Overall Runner Up – Primary Times Devon Reader Awards

About The Milky Way Adventure Park

In July 1984 Trevor and Christine Stanbury were forced to diversify into tourism in order to survive following the introduction of milk quotas by the European Community.

Originally The Milky Way was one of the country’s first working farm parks, but over the years, as the number of farm parks in the region increased, it developed into an all-weather adventure park. In 2014 over £750,000 was invested in new attractions and upgrades in order to attract new markets and extend the opening season. Some of the new additions included a baby sensory room and baby and toddler classes. This investment has transformed the business, bringing in younger families and massively increasing footfall during low season. The Milky Way continues to invest and improve and in 2016 added a vast collection of Sci-fi memorabilia, and in 2018 added the Gravity Rider, a two lane donut slide at around 30ft tall and 200ft long.

The overriding aim has been to create a day out in North Devon that encourages adults and children to spend more time having fun together. Today, the Milky Way offers nearly 2.5 acres of undercover facilities and over 10 acres of outdoor areas, making it one of the region’s biggest all weather days out and a great place to visit in Devon when it's raining.

Visitors can ride the Cosmic Typhoon roller coaster and enjoy the panoramic views, encounter aliens on the Clone Zone ride and challenge themselves on the huge death slides in North Devon’s biggest indoor play area - the Time Warp. New for 2018 is the Gravity Rider - at around 30ft tall and 200ft long, this two lane donut slide is totally new to Devon and guaranteed to give a fast, fun and exhilarating ride.

There’s plenty for smaller adventurers too, including the innovative Little Stars play centre, which is designed especially for babies and pre-schoolers. It has a multi-level soft play area, sensory room for babies, dressing up area, role-play pizzeria – and even a pretend car wash. They'll also love the Milky Way railway, and Cosmic Caterpillar mini roller coaster. 

View the amazing display of Sci-Fi memorabilia - one man’s vast private collection of characters, collectibles and fan art from film and TV …from Daleks to Darth Vader! 

The Milky Way is also now home to one of the UK’s largest bouncing pillow, as well as a smaller pillow for under fives. The ever-popular droid destroyer dodgems guarantee a bumping good time for everyone, and alongside this there’s golf, archery and laser shooting for all the family

It also offers very popular shows, including Merlin from Britain’s Got Talent with his fun-packed skills and thrills show and breath-taking displays from the North Devon Bird of Prey Centre. The park also has a 1,000 seat indoor arena, so the show goes on whatever the weather!

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor^® is the world's largest travel site*, enabling travellers to plan and book the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers advice from millions of travellers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools that check hundreds of websites to find hotel prices. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching 340 million unique monthly visitors**, and 350 million reviews and opinions covering 6.5 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The sites operate in 48 markets worldwide.

About the awards

2018 Travellers Choice Award from Trip Advisor
This is the 4th year The Milky Way has won this award, which places it as one of the top 10 amusement parks in the UK. It is the only attraction in North Devon to have a Travelers Choice award in ANY attraction category in 2018. It has also been awarded the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence in 2018 for the seventh year running.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/TravelersChoice-Attractions-cAmusementParks-g186216#7

Muddy Stilettoes Awards 2017
Up to 100,000 people per day voted across the Muddy Stilettos sites. Muddy Stilettos celebrates and supports unique and interesting  lifestyle businesses.
https://devon.muddystilettos.co.uk/awards/

Visit Devon Gold/ 2016 – Large Visitor Attraction
This is the most prestigious award available for Devon attractions – The Milky Way also won a bronze award in 2015.
http://www.devontourismawards.org.uk/

Winner 2016 North Devon Journal Food, Drink & Tourism Awards in the attractions category.
 This award is run by the North Devon Journal and is judged by families who visit. We were also runner up in the 2015 awards.