Safari Parks in Italy: Where to Drive Among the Animals

In Italy you can drive your own car among the animals at safari parks from Lake Maggiore to Puglia, so the best one is usually the one on your route. Zoosafari Fasanolandia in Puglia is the giant, at 140 hectares with a 6 km drive and an amusement park thrown in. In the north, Pombia Safari Park and Parco Safari delle Langhe are in Piedmont, while Parco Natura Viva by Lake Garda pairs a short drive with a long walk.

Which safari park to choose

Wikipedia lists five safari parks in Italy. This guide covers four of them; the fifth is Safari Ravenna, opened in 2012.

Zoosafari Fasanolandia, Puglia: the biggest

Zoosafari is in Fasano, a short hop from Alberobello, Monopoli and Polignano a Mare. It covers 140 hectares with more than 200 species. The Safari winds for about 6 km among centuries-old olive and carob trees, past tigers, zebras, giraffes, elephants and lions, as well as deer, camels and Asiatic black bears, and takes about an hour. You may not get out of the car; in an emergency, sound the horn.

An armoured train takes you through the Monkey Village, home to more than 300 free-roaming baboons, and the Metrozoo carries you to the Lake of the Large Mammals, with cheetahs, hippos, gibbons, brown bears and polar bears. The park has the only male African elephant and polar bears in Italy. There is news, too: on 20 August 2025 a gorilla was born here, the first born in Italy since 1980, and in April 2026 the park presented a new walk among its lemurs.

Your ticket also covers the Fasanolandia amusement park, with free Teatro Fantasy shows, exhibitions and museums. The rides cost extra, and so does the Sea Lion Aquarium.

Featured location Zoosafari Fasanolandia Fasano, Italy Ranked the second largest zoological garden on the continent, it holds about 3,000 animals of 200 species across thirty hectares, seen from a car route. Groups of giraffe, zebra, lion and Tibetan bear are among the highlights. It keeps the only polar bears, Indian rhinoceroses, gorillas and male African elephant in the country.

Pombia Safari Park, near Lake Maggiore

Pombia Safari Park, created in 1976 by Angelo Lombardi, calls itself a zoological park on Lake Maggiore, with 400 animals of 110 species on 450,000 square metres. You start with the Safari, in your own vehicle or on the park's train, among lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, zebras and antelopes. Then you park and walk to the lemur oasis, the educational demonstrations, the aquarium and the reptile house.

Look out for the three species the park singles out as especially endangered: the addax, a rare Saharan antelope, the Somali wild ass and the king cobra. In 2006 a white lioness called Ashanti was born at Pombia and became the first in Italy to survive to adulthood. New for 2026 is the Terrazza Giraffa, a café looking straight onto the safari area, so you can watch giraffes, zebras and other large herbivores over a coffee.

Parco Safari delle Langhe, Piedmont: the rarities

The Langhe park began in 1976 in Murazzano, in the Piedmont hills, and celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026. It covers about 60 hectares and keeps about 350 animals of around fifty species. You walk a footpath among the animals, drive a safari of about 4 km and finish in a reptile pavilion with giant tortoises.

Two residents stand out. The park says it is the only Italian zoo with Canadian wolves, and its female jaguar, Regina, born on 13 February 2002, has turned 24, which the park calls the record for the oldest jaguar in a controlled environment. New in 2026 are a crane aviary and an arachnid exhibition. On 2 June 2026 a hailstorm destroyed much of the park's structures and fencing. The park said all its animals were safe, and it stayed open.

For a closer look, the backstage tour takes groups of up to 20 with a keeper to see big predators such as tigers, lions and wolves. It runs only at weekends, costs €5, is for ages 8 and up and lasts about an hour and a half. Book by email by 22:00 the day before.

Parco Natura Viva, Lake Garda: the most animals

Natura Viva is a 42-hectare zoo in the woods of Lake Garda's morainic hills, with 1,500 animals of 200 species, and it calls itself the zoo with the most animals in Italy. The Africa Safari, with giraffes, antelopes, lions and spotted hyenas, takes about 40 minutes, while the park recommends 3 to 4 hours for the walking route, which passes hippos, lions, chimpanzees, lemurs, red pandas, Siberian tigers and Arctic wolves.

2026 has brought new faces. Two male white rhinos arrived, and you see them in the Africa Safari; an elderly female Andean bear came too. Camilla, Europe's oldest hippo, has just had her fifteenth calf. If you would rather not drive, the Bus Safari takes you among the African animals with a naturalist guide in about 45 minutes. One thing to know: the House of Dragon glasshouse is under works and can only be visited in part.

So which? Zoosafari for sheer size and rides, Natura Viva for what it calls the most animals in Italy, Pombia for a day by Lake Maggiore, and the Langhe for the lowest adult desk price and rarities like Regina.

Tickets and saving money

These prices were checked in September 2026.

• Zoosafari Fasanolandia: €36 for adults and €28 for children aged 4-10; children under 4 and under a metre tall go free. On days when only the car safari runs, everyone aged 4 and over pays €25. You buy tickets at the desks when you arrive.
• Pombia Safari Park: €29 for adults and €22 for children aged 3-11, plus €2 for parking. The Safari train costs €5 per person, and a card for six rides costs €10.
• Parco Safari delle Langhe: €18 for adults and €14 for children aged 2-12; children up to 2 go free and parking is free.
• Parco Natura Viva: at the ticket desk, €25 for the park or the Safari alone and €30 for both; children aged 0-2 go free. Parking costs €6 for the day.

From Monday 14 September 2026, Pombia's combined ticket with unlimited rides drops to €38 for adults, down from €47, and €30 reduced, down from €40, and it includes free entry the next day. At the Langhe, anyone arriving on a weekday from 15:30 gets €2 off at the desk plus a €2 coupon for a later visit, until 18 September; its family packages, the park's cheapest option, are sold only on its website. Natura Viva sells online tickets from €16 in its baby-hippo promotion, and its €30.90 park-and-Safari season pass, valid until 6 January 2027, costs barely more than one desk ticket.

Best time to visit

Last entry comes well before closing at most of these parks, so aim to arrive in the morning.

• Zoosafari Fasanolandia: open every day, with no booking needed. On 12 September 2026 its entrance ticket office was open from 09:30 to 14:00. On days marked A in its calendar, big crowds are expected and the park advises arriving early.
• Pombia Safari Park: open 10:00-17:00 on weekdays and 10:00-18:00 at weekends, but the last car goes into the Safari at 15:00. The lemur oasis is open from 12:30 to 15:00, and the rides from 13:00.
• Parco Safari delle Langhe: the ticket office closes an hour before the park, and the carnivore safari runs from 11:00 until half an hour before closing. Winter can shut it: mud, ice and low temperatures kept it closed from the Christmas holidays until 21-22 February 2026.
• Parco Natura Viva: the Safari opens at 9:30. On standard days the park is open 10:00-19:00, with last entry, Safari included, at 18:00. Nature by Night runs until 3 October 2026, with the park open until 22:00 and last entry at 19:00.

Italian schools go back on 10 September in Veneto, 14 September in Piedmont and 17 September in Puglia. If you can, pick a weekday after those dates.

Getting there

Natura Viva bars convertibles with the roof open, motorbikes and bicycles from its Safari, and if you break down you give three short horn blasts and stay in the car. The Langhe safari admits only cars and coaches. Campervans can drive both.

• Zoosafari Fasanolandia: Bari airport is about 70 km away and Brindisi airport about 55 km. By car from the north, take the A14 to the Bari Nord exit and the SS 16 south to Fasano. By train, go to Fasano station and take a taxi; on Sundays in June and July, and daily from 31 July to 30 August, the park runs a free shuttle from the station. Without a car, ask for the internal Safari shuttle (€5 per person) at least two hours before last entry.
• Pombia Safari Park: from the A8-A26, leave at Castelletto Ticino towards Novara; from the A4 Turin-Milan motorway, leave at Novara Est towards Lake Maggiore.
• Parco Safari delle Langhe: from Milan, take the Milan-Alessandria-Asti motorway, then follow signs for Alba, Dogliani and Murazzano. From Turin, take the Turin-Savona motorway to the Cherasco exit and follow signs via Dogliani.
• Parco Natura Viva: from Milan, leave the Milan-Venice motorway at Sommacampagna; from Venice or Bologna, at Verona Nord; from Trento, at Affi.

With kids and accessibility

Dogs cannot enter the Langhe safari, not even in the car, but four free lockable boxes wait before the entrance. At Natura Viva, dogs may ride through the Safari only inside a closed carrier or kennel.

The Langhe's walking area takes pushchairs and wheelchairs, though the route has uphill and downhill stretches. It has toilets with changing tables, even in the safari area, and an accessible toilet by the Bar Tartaruga. Natura Viva lends wheelchairs free at the infopoint and rents pushchairs for €10, but most of its paths are packed earth or gravel with many slopes, so it suggests bringing someone to help. Companions of people with disabilities enter Natura Viva free.