Diggerland Devon Review

Reviewed by Melody Floyde

We recently enjoyed a great family day out at Diggerland Devon with our two sons, aged 6 and 2 years. Prior to arriving the boys were very excited as they are both digger mad!

It was very easy to find Diggerland Devon as it is situated just off J28 of the M5 and is well signposted with brown signs on exiting the motorway. As we live in Exeter it only took us about 20 minutes to get there. On arriving we were pleased to find a large free car park and it was easy to find a space.

At reception, we were served by a very helpful lady who told us all about the rides and explained that everything, apart from the dodgems and small ride on vehicles, was included in the entrance price. The gate price is £19.95 for everyone 90cm and over, although cheaper tickets were available online and there are often discount vouchers in the local press. Small children were asked to stand next to the measuring chart to check if they were under this height. My two-year-old is just over 90cm tall so would be full price, which did seem a bit expensive as, due to height restrictions, there were several rides he was unable to go on and he was too small to drive any of the rides himself.

On entering the park, we were struck by the large number of different rides that we would be able to try during the day and it was hard to decide what to go on first. All of the rides had clear details at the entrance to state height requirements for riding and for driving and also statistics about the cost of the machinery, it’s power and capacity. There were also minimal queues for all rides despite it being the August bank holiday weekend. We were really pleased that our six-year-old was tall enough to drive most of the rides on his own and our two-year-old was tall enough to go on most of the rides with us. There were only a few that we couldn’t try.

Over the course of the day we tried lots of different rides. It was brilliant to get to have a go at operating real diggers to do a range of tasks from skittles and earth moving to hooking ducks (my own personal favourite – even though my six-year-old was far quicker than me at hooking his ducks!). We also got the chance to drive dumper trucks and JCB robots around specially made tracks. My six-year-old son was thrilled that he was able to drive these himself. There were also larger rides we could all go on together. We all loved the Sky Shuttle which took us 50 feet up in the air to look over the park and surrounding area, we got some fab photos! The train was also good fun and our sons really enjoyed getting to steer their own carriages behind us. Only our six-year-old was brave enough to try the Spindizzy ride which involved being seated in a large digger bucket and swung around in various directions – he enjoyed it so much he went on twice! There were also Go Karts which our two-year-old really enjoyed and a digger themed merry-go-round.

As well as the main digger themed rides there was also a good sized outdoor play area with plenty of slides and walkways for the boys to play on. There were also zip wires and a sandpit. Our two-year old also enjoyed the Little Tikes toddler zone where he got to play with sand and water tables and ride in Cozy Coupes. Indoors there were two ball pools and an arcade which were good to get out of the sun although hard to get the boys away from!

We took our own lunch with us and there were several picnic benches available to use.

There was also a café which looked to be fairly reasonably priced and served meals as well as tea and coffee etc. Next to the café there were toilets with baby changing and disabled facilities.

There was also a gift shop which sold a whole range of digger themed merchandise and toys. I was actually pleasantly surprised that some of the Diggerland items were very reasonably priced, £6.99 for a pair of Diggerland wellies was a bargain! The boys also got a free certificate to say that they had been junior digger drivers.

Overall, we had a brilliant day at Diggerland Devon. We spent the whole day there and still didn’t have time to try all of the rides. The only downside for us was that we visited on a very hot day and there was very little shade on the site which we all struggled with a bit. I also imagine that if it had been a wet day we would all have got very wet and muddy as there was very little shelter – but then I guess if you’re operating diggers you don’t expect to keep clean!

I would highly recommend a visit to Diggerland Devon for families, especially for children aged 4 years and over who would be old enough to drive the diggers themselves.

I would give Diggerland Devon 4.5 / 5 and we will definitely return in the future.

Rating: 4.5/5

Tickets cost £19.95 per person (on the day price). Pre-book online and tickets cost £16.99 per person.

Diggerland Devon, Verbeer Manor, Cullompton, Devon, EX15 2PE | 0871 22 77 007