Gardaland Resort is an amusement park resort located in northeastern Italy. Opened on 19 July 1975, the resort includes Gardaland Park, Gardaland Sea-Life, Legoland Waterpark, Gardaland Hotel, Adventure Hotel and Magic Hotel. It is adjacent to Lake Garda. The entire complex covers an area of 445,000m2 (4,789,940sqft), while the amusement park alone measures 200,000m2 (2,152,782sqft).
Since October 2006, the park has been owned by the British company Merlin Entertainments. Major attractions at the park include Mammut, Jungle Rapids, Fuga Da Atlantide, Shaman, Blue Tornado, Raptor and Oblivion: The Black Hole which opened on 28 March 2015. The park's mascot, Prezzemolo, was popular in the Italian licensing market during the 1990s and the 2000s.
With just under three million annual visitors, Gardaland is ranked as the eighth most visited theme park in Europe.
History
The Castle garden
The concept for Gardaland dates to the early 1970s when Livio Furini, an entrepreneur from Verona, was inspired by a visit to Disneyland in California.[2] Built on the eastern shore of Lake Garda at Castelnuovo del Garda, Gardaland opened on 19 July 1975, between Peschiera and Lazise.[3] In 2004, Gardaland Hotel opened, which was the first hotel in Italy to provide themed accommodation. Merlin Entertainments took ownership of the park in 2006. A Sea Life aquarium opened on site in 2008. In the following years, more hotels were built. Gardaland Adventure Hotel opened in 2016 followed by the Gardaland Magic Hotel in 2019. Additionally, the first Legoland Waterpark in Europe was launched in the park in 2021.[2][4]
Gardaland was forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic but reopened on 13 June 2020, making it the first Italian amusement park to reopen after the COVID-19 lockdown. The maximum number of daily visitors in that season was restricted to 10,000 per day.[5]
As a result of a global deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, a variety of rides, food outlets and hotel rooms were developed across Merlin theme parks themed around the Jumanji film franchise.[6] The park opened a ride called Jumanji - The Adventure for the 2022 season, featuring a large animatronic figure.[7] The ride was the first theme park attraction to be based on the Jumanji franchise.[8] In 2023, another Jumanji-themed attraction named Jumanji - The Labyrinth opened in the park, which is a walkthrough attraction featuring a mirror maze and jungle maze.[9]
In 2025, the park celebrates its 50th anniversary with a remodelled area named Dragon Empire, set to launch in April.[10] In November 2024, Gardaland announced an upcoming water dark ride for 2025 based on a new intellectual property registered by Merlin Entertainments named Animal Treasure Island. The 6,000 square metre ride was an investment of approximately 10 million Euros.[11]
Gardaland's mascot is a young dragon named Prezzemolo, the protagonist of an Italian animated television series.[12] Prezzemolo became the park's mascot in 1984. He was popularised in Italy through cartoon theme songs and Gardaland adverts. In 1993 the park ran a competition to modernise Prezzemolo's image. A local cartoonist won and was responsible for making the character more visually appealing to the public.[13]
Resort hotels
Gardaland Hotel
Gardaland Hotel comprises 247 rooms, including 36 themed rooms. The hotel has two bars, the Wonder Bar in Wonder Palace and the Pool Bar at the Blue Lagoon pool area. The onsite restaurants are the Wonder Restaurant Buffet and the Matka Family Gourmet Restaurant.[2] Alongside the launch of the Jumanji - The Adventure ride in 2022, four Jumanji-themed rooms were introduced to the hotel.[14]
Gardaland Adventure Hotel
In 2016, the Gardaland Adventure Hotel was inaugurated. Constructed across 15,000 square meters, the hotel features 100 themed rooms, including 90 standard rooms, 8 superior rooms and 2 junior suites. The rooms were designed with four themes: the Arctic, Arabian, jungle and the Wild West.[15] The hotel, located adjacent to the Gardaland Hotel, was an investment of 25 million Euros and features the Tutankhamon Restaurant, which was designed to resemble an ancient Egyptian temple.[16]
Gardaland Magic Hotel
The third themed hotel opened in 2021. Gardaland Magic Hotel comprises 128 rooms with three themes: Enchanted Forest, Magic Ice Castle and Great Wizard.[17] The four-star property was an investment of 20 million Euros and was designed around the concept of a magical enchanted kingdom.[18]
Themed areas
Name
Picture
Additional information
Fantasy Kingdom
Fantasy themed area featuring a variety of family rides.
The Vekoma SLC (765m[2,510ft] extended with helix) is situated near the entrance of the park, and stands 33.32m (109ft 4in) tall from the ground. The track is 765m (2,510ft) long, and the main elements are a rollover, sidewinder and a double in-line twist ending with several high speed helices close to the ground. The minimum height restriction is 1.4 metres.
Vekoma Double Loop Corkscrew, and is situated on the lower level of the park. The oldest coaster in the park. It stands at 30m (98ft 5in) above the ground and 700m (2,296ft 7in) long. Its main elements are a double loop, double corkscrew and a rising helix. In 2009 the classic Arrow Dynamics trains have been replaced with the new model of Vekoma. The minimum height restriction is 1.2 metres. In the 2017 season the ride was rethemed and renamed as 'SHAMAN' and featured a Virtual Reality experience. The VR was removed prior to the 2018 season.
Raptor is the prototype Wing Coaster by Swiss manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard. It opened on 1 April 2011. The minimum height restriction is 1.4 metres.
Oblivion: The Black Hole opened on 28 March 2015 and is a dive coaster manufactured by Bolliger and Mabillard. It's based on the prototype dive coaster at Alton Towers which is called 'Oblivion'![citation needed] The minimum height restriction is 1.4 metres.
Fuga da Atlantide (Escape from Atlantis), is a Shoot the Chute, the Intamin Super Splash, and is situated near Blue Tornado.[19] The ride begins with a cable lift hill, then the car/boat turns on a shallow helix and plummets down a steep drop on a track with water jets into a pool. The ride progresses to another similar element.
An inverted rollercoaster that reopened in 2019 as "Sequoia Magic Loop". It was standing but not operating in 2022, then removed.[22]
Attendance
In 2015, Gardaland reported a record year in volume and growth. Two thirds of visitors were families with children and one third (33%) were "thrill seekers" aged 15 to 25. A third of all visitors were international. The park's growth had been the result of its strategy to attract international visitors who were staying at Lake Garda by working with local hotels and campsites. Visitor numbers were also boosted by the Oblivion coaster.[16] The park achieved an 11.5% rise in visitors from 2,600,000 in 2017 to 2,900,000 in 2018, driven by the addition of Peppa Pig.[23] In 2024, Gardaland was listed as the eighth most popular theme park in Europe, having received 2,950,000 visitors in a year. It was twice as popular as Mirabilandia in visitor numbers.[24]
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