Just a few miles from the better known Gardaland in Italy is a theme park like no other, with a remarkable collection of rides and attractions inspired by the studios of Hollywood.

We visited Movieland to check out their latest addition Pangea, the first ride of its kind in the world, and all the other highlights.

On arrival we were greeted by Francesco for a tour of the theme park's most popular attractions. 

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The new ride is an all-terrain expedition into a world of dinosaurs that you drive yourself and we were totally blown away by the innovative attraction. The entrance looks brilliant, and the queue line winds through a mysterious cave where a pre-ride video explains the mission ahead. Your group then awaits a vehicle for you to begin a journey back in time, millions of years ago, to the super-continent of Pangea. 

The attraction has been designed, programmed and built almost entirely in-house by their own engineers and tech people using software that they have developed themselves. The ride story is available in both Italian and English, with a story to follow along the way as well as helpful instructions on steering, driving forwards and reversing.

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By using collision avoidance technology, much like parking sensors on cars, the ride prevents you from ever bumping into anything along the route. The ride vehicles are real jeeps, which have been modified so that their speed is restricted, but there are no tracks or guide rails, and the vehicles don't drive themselves.

Anyone 14 years old or over can drive and Francesco told us that young drivers tend to achieve the highest scores because they are less nervous about navigating the obstacles along the route. There are sharp corners, steep descents and climbs, bumpy tracks with boulders and logs, water to cross, a rickety bridge and that's before you factor in the many encounters with dinosaurs!

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The more quickly you complete the course the more points you get and there are plans to introduce a game element for passengers. After several laps around Pangea, we moved on to some of the park's other top attractions.

Kitt SuperJet is an action packed speed boat ride based on the iconic TV show Knight Rider, it's absolutely wet and wild! The well themed boarding area includes a pre-ride video with the star of the show, David Hasselhoff. After collecting your life jacket and boarding the boat (this is a real speed boat, there are no tracks or guide rails here either!) a driver reverses out of the dock and begins a thrilling series of manoeuvres. The ride is enhanced by on-board audio to continue the story line, an indoor scene and an exciting finale with simulated gun fire.

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The unique Magma 2.1 is really extreme! A high speed ride on land and through water with an earthquake simulation, fire and other effects. This ride utilises big converted ex-military vehicles, capable of rapid acceleration, navigating a series of extreme obstacles, crashing into a lagoon on a falling platform and driving through water. An on-board video screen and audio accompany the experience with a story line, but there is plenty of action throughout. After our first ride, we were allowed to join the driver in the front cabin to see the stunt driving skills that are necessary to deliver this experience.

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Their inverted boomerang roller coaster Diabolik Invertigo launches riders from 131ft in the air into a cobra roll and loop then back again, so riders experience 6 inversions in total. A novelty of this ride is that with the exception of the front and back rows, all the riders are seated so that they are sitting face to face with others. It reaches 50mph during the run and is enhanced by on-board audio. 

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The Horror House was a really unexpected highlight. A year-round live action walk-though featuring scenes from famous horror movies such as The Exorcist, Hannibal, The Ring, SAW and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Aside from the detailed sets and various scare actors, suspense was very effectively built through long sections in pitch black darkness with only a tiny red light to lead the way.

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We were then ready to ride Hollywood Tower, a free-fall drop ride that's heavily inspired by Disney's The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's a very rare first generation Intamin free-fall tower that is genuinely quite terrifying, as the carriages descend via second track on the outside of the tower that curves from vertical to horizontal, leaving riders laying on their back before a switch track allows the carriages to reverse down a small drop and back into the station. Totally bonkers!

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There are a couple of indoor motion simulator attractions, Android 3D: The Final Battle was by far the better of the two with a fully themed pre-ride section and once inside the auditorium all the on-screen action is accompanied by a live actor, giant androids and various special effects including blasts of smoke and fire, as the seating pods move around. 

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Police Academy was less impressive but still fun, with humorous antics from lookalikes of the movie's stars, but suffering from low definition 2D video.

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The U-571 Submarine Simulator is based on a war film about a World War II German submarine boarded by American submariners to capture an Enigma cipher machine. The first part of the experience is an action scene in an impressively themed submarine dock. You then board the submarine, take your seats and seemingly begin your descent. This is one of the most ridiculous attractions we have ever experienced, trapped in a confined space in moments of complete darkness when suddenly the submarine begins to leak and water pours into the capsule. Depending on where you sit, you may get soaked to the skin from head to toe!

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TR Machine is a pretty intense thrill ride, complete with water and fire effects.

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The park was so quiet that we didn't queue for anything all day, but even if it does get busy Movieland has an excellent guarantee that if you have to wait more than 30 minutes for any attraction, you can come back on another day for free!

For a smaller independent theme park we were astounded by the quality of theming and presentation, all the staff were in uniforms themed to the relevant attractions and there were good quality food and drink options. The park also features an array of great photo opportunities with replica cars from the movies and cut outs of Hollywood movie stars.

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Our visit concluded with Full Candy Jacket followed by the John Rambo Stunt Show, just two of many live shows throughout the day. We also caught performances of the Back to the Future Tribute, Wild West Show and Overdrive - Live Set.

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Caneva is a beautifully themed water park that's next door to the Movieland theme park, and Francesco took us for a look around. There are tropical pools, a selection of slides ranging from sedate to extreme, exclusive cabanas and theming not dissimilar to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon.

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On our trip to Lake Garda we stayed at Garda Relais located just 10 minutes drive from Movieland. It's a new hotel that's perfect for couples and families with modern rooms, free WiFi, free parking and free breakfast. It's also only 20 minutes from Verona Airport where flights are available from across Europe.

Book your hotel stay: Garda Relais

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