We were already at the lake. Sirmione in the evenings, Peschiera in the mornings, and Gardaland somewhere in the middle — not squeezed in but properly planned, because this is what we do. The annual birthday tradition had delivered Europa Park the year before, which set a bar that probably wasn’t fair to anyone. And then Gardaland surprised us and got close.
The gold waterfall entrance sign. Gardaland announces itself without apology.
The scale of it
Italy’s biggest theme park has a layout that makes sense — which sounds like a low bar but isn’t. Themed zones that actually feel distinct. Wide paths with enough breathing room. Trees mature enough to give the whole place shade. It doesn’t feel like someone drew it on a spreadsheet. Turn a corner and there’s a full Arabian quarter with teal domes and a minaret and a restaurant called Bar Aladino operating out of what looks like a small mosque, and somehow none of it feels cheap.
Bar Aladino. Teal domes. Gold minaret. Lake Garda in May.
Yellow flowers, fountains, the Arabian domes, a coaster looping behind them. The park earns its views.
Jumanji
The centrepiece of the park’s middle section is a full-scale artificial mountain — rock face, vines, waterfalls, jungle canopy — themed around Jumanji: The Adventure. You can see it from most of the park. It functions as a landmark and a ride and a piece of scenery all at once. We queued. It was worth it.
Jumanji: The Adventure. The park’s mountain. You can’t not look at it.
The rides
The coaster lineup is serious. Blue Tornado is an inverted suspended coaster — blue steel structure, grey track threading underneath it at angles that don’t look possible from ground level. The loading area has a decommissioned fighter jet on a plinth, a life-size pilot figure standing next to it in full flight gear, and — inexplicably, brilliantly — a green alien in a yellow high-vis vest crouching on the tarmac as ground crew. Nobody was talking about it. We both noticed it immediately.
Blue Tornado. Fighter jet on the tarmac. Green alien ground crew. This is a normal theme park.
Blue steel and grey track. The geometry only makes sense once you’re in it.
The details
Late afternoon, the crowds thinning slightly, we found a garden tucked against a castle wall — ornate ironwork fence, clipped hedges, and at the centre: a floral clock with the park’s mascot rendered in living flowers, eyes and all, keeping actual time. It was tended. Someone maintains that thing. We stood there for longer than we’d planned, which is how you know a park has done something right.
The floral clock garden. The mascot in marigolds. Someone spends their Monday mornings on this.
Through the archway
There’s a stone archway near the medieval section — vines growing over the top, castle battlements visible beyond — and the light through it on a May afternoon does something particularly good. People walking toward you, flags in the distance, the whole park laid out on the other side. You’d take a photo. We did.
Stone archway, mid-afternoon. The park on the other side.
Gardaland goes on the permanent list. Not because it’s the closest thing in Italy to Europa Park — it isn’t trying to be. It’s doing its own thing, with its own confidence, and it does it well. The tradition, it turns out, travels.
If you’re planning a few days around Ravenna and Lake Garda, it fits naturally into the itinerary. Sarah’s tours at tours.kalica.co.uk cover the wider region — and yes, a Gardaland day can absolutely be part of that.
