Theme parks · Cumiana · Italy
ZOOM Turin, the biopark with two beaches
ten habitats on foot between Asia and Africa, and two pools where you swim beside penguins and above hippos
ZOOM is not a zoo with a swimming pool tacked on the end: it is a place where a wet swimsuit and a giraffe belong to the same day, and that changes how you plan it. You walk through ten habitats with the animals behind glass and ditches rather than behind bars, and at some point you get into the water: at Bolder Beach you swim in a white sand bay with African penguins on the other side of the glass, at Malawi Beach the current carries you down to the hippo cave, where you watch them underwater from a metre away. The price of that double nature is that the pools come with a serious set of rules and a separate supplement, and that without knowing it beforehand you find yourself at midday with a towel in your hand and nowhere to put it down. We spent two days there, the 30th and 31st of July, and that is the right measure: in a single day you either swim or you look, and having to choose would be a shame.
Getting there
Cumiana lies in the Pinerolo plain, twenty five kilometres from Turin, and the road is wide for the whole stretch that matters: there is no narrow section to fear with a long vehicle.
- Address: Strada Piscina 36, 10040 Cumiana (TO). From the Turin to Pinerolo ring road take the Piscina exit, then follow the signs for Cumiana for about four kilometres
- Motorhomes come in by a different gate. Follow the signs for P2 and then P3-PC, which is the camper car park proper, two hundred metres from the main entrance. The way in is signposted from the road and it is the second entrance coming from Turin: do not go to the main park entrance
- Anyone not staying the night parks in the daytime P1 for 5 euros, and you cannot stay there overnight, nor in any case beyond the park's opening hours. Car parking costs 6 euros, is paid at the ticket office, is not supervised and closes half an hour after the park
- By train you get off at Piscina di Pinerolo, a kilometre and a half away. Show the ticket office your same day Turin to Piscina rail ticket, or a Trenitalia season ticket, and entry costs 5 euros: it is the biggest discount the park gives, and almost nobody knows about it. The electric shuttle transfer from the station is suspended, and replacement buses are running on the line: check the website before counting on it
- By bus there is the Cavourese line: the 175 from Monday to Saturday, with three departures from Piscina station (9:39, 10:39, 16:39) and two from the biopark (17:04, 18:04), and the 176 on Sundays and public holidays, two return runs. There are few services and they need checking beforehand, because missing the 18:04 means being stranded
Practical information
Duration a full day is the minimum if you want to do both things, walk the habitats and spend time in the water. With the camper package it is two days, and that is how we did it: pools on the first afternoon, animals in the evening, and the long circuit the next day with the flight display at midday. The park offers evening entry from 18:00, which is a different way of using it.
Price 26 euros, free under 3, plus 7 euros for the pools
When to go March to October, the pools from June to mid September
Suitable for perfect for children, and built for them. Pushchairs and disabled visitors get around without trouble. The thing to watch is the heat: it is an open air park in the middle of the plain, in summer you walk in the sun for hours, and the drinking fountains and the shade have to be sought out. Comfortable flat shoes, because you cannot go barefoot anywhere in the park, and you cannot walk around in just a swimsuit outside the water areas either.
Booking compulsory, and the park says so plainly. You book the visit even if you already have the ticket. Parasols and loungers are booked separately, online or at the park, and they run out.
Contacts
Where it is
Cumiana · Piemonte
You set off from
Notes
- Opening times and calendar. Open every day from 28 February to 2 November; from 3 November there are special openings which are listed on the calendar and need checking each time. Evening entry starts at 18:00. The water areas have a calendar of their own: Bolder Beach opens on 30 May, Malawi Beach on 6 June, and they close in mid September, the first on the 13th and the second on the 20th. The park warns that in cold or bad weather the animals are less visible and the activities are reduced, which is an honest warning worth reading before booking in March
- Prices. Ticket 26 euros, 20 euros for people with disabilities holding certification, free under 3 years of age, and free for the companion of a person with a disability. The pools are a 7 euro supplement, and anyone who has bought the Park only ticket can upgrade at the park. There is an Infinity ticket, online only, from 13 euros, with unlimited entries until 31 October. Evening with barbecue 19.90 euros. Rates change with the season and with promotions: to be checked again on the official website before setting off
- The camper package, which is the reason this page is on a motorhome site. From 35 euros a head it covers one night in the camper area and a multiday ticket valid for two consecutive days of park and pools, starting from the day of check in. Two nights make three days, and so on. On top of that it gives something you cannot buy: entry to the park thirty minutes before it opens to the public, which is to say the savannah empty
- What the camper area is like. Closed by an automatic barrier, lit and under video surveillance, with a power point for every pitch, a black water drain and a fresh water tap. The food outlets inside the park stay open for lunch and dinner for much of the year. Check in between 11:00 and 18:00: arriving later means telephoning at least twenty four hours in advance, and after 23:00 you cannot get in at all. The pitch must be cleared by 10:00 on the day of check out, and anyone wanting to stay on in the park moves the vehicle to the daytime car park free of charge
- The beach rules, which are the thing that catches people out. You enter the water areas only with the Park plus Pools Combo ticket and with the wristband. On the beaches it is forbidden to lay out a towel, to sit or to lie down; you cannot eat, drink or smoke (electronic cigarettes included), you cannot come in wearing shoes, you cannot put down rucksacks or bags, and pushchairs are not allowed. Only those who have hired a parasol and loungers may stay in the beach areas, and these are not included in the Park plus Pools ticket. Plainly put: without a hire you swim and you use the grass solariums, not the sand
- The other prohibitions. No pets, on veterinary grounds: guide dogs are allowed, but not in the Madagascar habitat and not in the Petra Amphitheatre, and authorisation is asked for at the ticket office. Glass objects, balls, bicycles and scooters are banned, with the exception of balance bikes for children under three; there is a rack behind the ticket office. You may leave and come back by telling the ticket office staff
- The talks are free and included, and they are the best way to use the day: they are the sessions with the biologists. Access to the Petra Amphitheatre, to the Hippo Underwater arena and to Madagascar Island is however only until capacity is reached, so you go early rather than at the last minute
- What we actually saw, in the order of the day. The first afternoon the Penguin Bay and the lions lying in the long grass of the Masai Mara Rock; then the pools until evening. Between six and seven, when the heat lets go, the good circuit: the hippo stockade, the zebra, the giraffes of the Serengeti, the black rhinoceros, the two red pandas at the Tiger Temple, the dromedary, the goats in the shade of the sails, the baobab against the sky and the ring tailed lemurs walking along the handrail of the bridge, half a metre from your hands. The next day the Butterfly Oasis, the chameleon, the Farm where Letizia fed the goats, and at midday the flight display in the Petra Amphitheatre, with the birds of prey skimming over the packed steps
- The flight display is worth the wait, and it is the one thing for which it pays to watch the clock. The birds fly low over the audience, and those in the front rows feel them go past. We got there at 12:15 and the amphitheatre was already full
- The lake by the entrance, early in the morning. At eight, with the park still shut, from the wooden jetty under the reed canopy you see the still water and behind it the line of the mountains. It is the photograph you do not take home if you arrive at ten in the queue at the gate
- Breakfast with the giraffes and a restaurant looking out on the baobab are two things the park sells and that we did not try: price and availability are asked when booking
- Photographs and video may be taken freely for private use. For commercial use you have to write to the marketing department. By entering you accept that you may be filmed by other visitors and by park staff
