Cambados tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 01:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Europe/Madrid local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Tue 05 May (range 2.0m). Next neap on Sun 10 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Cambados sits on the western shore of the Ría de Arousa, the largest of Galicia's Atlantic rías by surface area, where the mean spring tidal range reaches approximately 4.0 metres above chart datum. The town is the acknowledged capital of Rías Baixas wine country — the Denominación de Origen Rías Baixas covers five sub-zones, and the sub-zone of Val do Salnés, centred on Cambados, produces the albariño varietal that has become Galicia's most exported white wine, characterised by Atlantic minerality and high acidity that complements shellfish from the same estuary waters. The Ría de Arousa is the most productive shellfish estuary in Europe. The combination of Atlantic upwelling, semidiurnal tidal exchange (which cycles nutrient-rich bottom water through the ría twice daily), and relatively shallow bathymetry creates optimal conditions for cockle (berberecho), clam (almeja fina), and mussel cultivation managed by cofradías — the fishing guilds that have regulated shellfish beds in Galician rías since the mediaeval period. The beds are zoned by the cofradía de pescadores de Cambados, which controls harvesting times, methods, and quantities. Low water exposes the gravel and sand flats where women (mariscadoras) work the clam beds by hand with short rakes — a scene unchanged in method since before industrialisation. The tidal timing is the operational driver: the beds are accessible only during the low-water window, typically 1.5 to 2.5 hours of working time around the low. The O Grove peninsula, 8 kilometres north across the Pedras Negras channel, holds the Aquarium of the Atlantic at O Grove and, in October, the Festa do Marisco O Grove — one of the largest seafood festivals in Galicia, running for a full week with live scallops, percebes (barnacles), and local albariño. The festival timing aligns loosely with the October spring tides, when the shellfish beds are at maximum productivity after the autumn flush. Toxa Island (A Toxa), connected to O Grove by a short bridge, holds a thermal spa hotel resort built on the island's mineral spring — a different kind of coastal resource from the surrounding estuary, but part of the same geography. The small chapel on Toxa, its exterior walls covered in scallop shells, is one of the more photographed architectural oddities on the Galician coast. For kayakers, the inner ría between Cambados and O Grove is well-sheltered, with the tide working in predictable 4-metre cycles that give clear visual cues to water level throughout the day. The outer ría — toward Arousa Island (Illa de Arousa) and the ría mouth — carries more commercial traffic from the port of Vilagarcía de Arousa and requires more open-water confidence. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. For authoritative Spanish tide data, consult Puertos del Estado (puertos.es/es/estadisticas-y-datos-del-mar).