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Posted on 11th July, 2016
The Milky Way Adventure Park in North Devon has been awarded by Trip Advisor as one of the UK’s best amusement parks in the 2016 Travellers Choice Awards – despite being rather different to the other ‘big boys’ in the list.
The family-run park has been named along with Legoland, Alton Towers and Peppa Pig World in the 2016 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice™ awards for Amusement Parks, ranking 7th in the UK for the second year running.
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 another £750k invested in new attractions in 2014 – but it is still run by the same family and operates in a beautiful rural area on a fraction of the budget of the others on the list.
“We’re delighted – and a little stunned - to be considered up there with the best in the UK,” said Trevor Stanbury, who opened The Milky Way in 1984 with his wife Christine on their dairy farm. He was later joined in the business by his children Marten and Tara and their spouses.
“We don’t aspire to be like the big theme parks, and we definitely cater for families rather than adrenalin junkies! We are different – a bit smaller, and we don’t have the white-knuckle rides or the huge crowds and queues. But we like to think that’s one of the reasons that people have such a great day out with us. We offer good old fashioned fun with a wide range of indoor and outdoor amusements designed to encourage adults to have fun with their children - 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 providing a good family day out and are extremely proud of our friendly, helpful staff – we’re so pleased that our visitors on Trip Advisor think we’ve all done a good job.”
For the second year The Milky Way is the only amusement park in the South West to have won a Travellers’ Choice Award.
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.
