Kayaking in Venice with high tide: all you need to know
It’s not a mystery that, especially in winter, in Venice, there’s high tide. Everyone knows that Venice is called the floating city or (also) the flooding city. Don’t worry; the second one is barely true.
The high tide phenomenon is natural, and in Venice, it’s quite frequent during the coldest period of the year.
This is why we decided to dedicate a blog post to it. Kayaking in Venice with high tide hasn’t special precautions to take, but it’s always good to know what you are facing.
Kayaking in Venice with high tide: what you should know
As we said, if you’re kayaking in Venice, the high tide won’t affect your day. But, you have to be more careful.
During high tide, you can’t go everywhere, for example, you won’t be able to pass beneath St. Stefano Church, one of the 5 most beautiful spots in Venice that you can admire only by kayak.
There are many other things you should know about high tide and to let you know them, we will answer the most frequent questions about “acqua alta”.
How long does an acqua alta last?
Predicting how long high tide will last is easy, but only because the tide cycle is regulated by the moon.
Every six hours, the water grows up and goes down. Right after reaching its peak, which is basically when you see the water flooding the streets, the high tide starts decreasing.
How often does high tide occur?
Usually “acqua alta” occurs in winter, as we said, especially in November and December, but sometimes you can find it also in January and February.
Rarely it’s really high, but the lowest parts of Venice like St. Mark’s Square are the first ones to be covered by water.
Does Venice completely go under water when high tide occurs?
The answer is simple: no, it doesn’t.
The 97% of the town is at +100 centimeters above the sea level, which means that you should start getting worried only when the forecast indicates that the acqua alta will reach 140cm since it would be an exceptional height.
How to know if you find high tide or not during your holiday
Venetians are used to deal with high tide, and it’s part of their daily life in winter. Once you know when the high tide will be, you just need to get ready and keep living your day normally.
You can help yourself with the free Hi!tide app, which tells you in advance how high the water will be.
