The Milky Way Adventure Park is a multi-award-winning, family-run attraction with some delightful differences.
We're 2023/24 winners of Devon's Large Attractions of the year in the Devon Tourism Awards, judged by industry experts. Plus, thanks to outstanding visitor reviews and ratings, we’re also a 2023 Travellers’ Choice® Best of the Best award winner in the Amusement Parks and Water Park category for the 8th year running - ranking 5 out of 25 in Europe and 10 out of 25 in the world…the only attraction in South West England to make the lists! Best of the Best award winners are among the top 1% of listings on Tripadvisor, distinguishing them as travellers’ favourites for 2023.
Partner Tara Stanbury says that while she and her team are thrilled with the news, they are also a little taken aback. “Whilst pleased to receive this award, as it means so many families have had a great experience with us and is testament to our fantastic staff, we are honestly a little gobsmacked to be ranked so highly by Tripadvisor,” she says.
We are a bit different to many of the attractions that TripAdvisor also included in it's award list. Like the others, we’re committed to excellence, to providing a fantastic day out, and to constantly adding to and improving what we offer – but we’re also much smaller, very welcoming, and a little quirky too (plus, our entrance fees and queue times are significantly less!).
Our small family run and family friendly adventure park in rural North Devon obviously offers something very different to most of the other large, corporately owned attractions on the list, so we are definitely hesitant to be compared to them, as we simply don’t have the visitor numbers or money needed for big thrill rides - so we know that will never measure up for people looking for this kind of day out.
The Milky Way started as a farm attraction on the Stanbury family farm near Clovelly in 1984. In the time since, it’s grown both in size and popularity, with around £2 million invested in new attractions and upgrades in recent years – but it’s still run by the same family members, in beautiful, rural North Devon.
It’s quite likely to be one of the Stanbury family who serves, greets or helps you on your next visit here – or one of our very loyal members of staff (some of whom have worked here since day 1 too!).
To this day, the most important thing to all of us at The Milky Way is that our visitors (no matter how old they are – from 0 to 100+!) have a fantastic day out, and one that’s great value - virtually all our attractions are included in the one entrance fee. We also design our attractions so that families can play all together - adults are encouraged to have fun with their kids here, rather than just watching them.
In recent years, we’ve also won the Gold Award and been runners up in the Large Visitor Attraction category at the Visit Devon Awards, won Silver in the Large Visitor Attraction Category at the South West Tourism Awards, and been named Best Attraction at the North Devon Food, Drink & Tourism Awards.
You’ll find a very warm welcome when you arrive at The Milky Way, and if you need anything to make your visit better – please just ask.