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The Bata canal

The Bata Canal Information centre

náměstí Míru 664 (Panský dvůr), Veselí nad Moravou
Phone number: +420 518 325 330, ic@batacanal.cz, www.batacanal.cz 

The way to explore eastern Moravia can be both non-traditional yet still on the other hand traditional.

A unique water passage connects a calm cruise with the inspection of wine cellars, cycling through protected landscape areas as well as a trip to visit historical monuments. Currently, it is even possible to cross the border crossing and get by boat to the port in Slovakia´s Skalice. Bata´s canal is a technical sight that connects sixty kilometres of the area between Otrokovice (so you can not find Baťa's canal in Zlin) and Sudoměřice. It was built in 1938 for the purpose of irrigating the Moravian Slovácko area and to transport brown coal for Bata´s factories in Zlín. The cruises continued up till 1945 then the canal was destroyed by the war and later on rebuilt again. The last boat to cruise the canal was in 1961. It re-opened to tourists thirty-five years later.

Raft with a friend, houseboat for a family

Baťův kanálCurrently, there are nine ports along the artificial waterway that provide visitor facilities and offer various services. Along the passage of the River Morava, you can experience the adventure of a raft, help the children look for treasure, try out homemade sausages and local wine, relax on sandy beaches, send children on one-day learning lesson on a boat or drink beer from a barrel with your friends. Each of the ports is equipped with several types of boats so each passage can be different. For example, the Danaj boat can carry up to sixty people so that is why it is mainly used by companies or schools. Two families with children can rent the houseboat Havaj or the houseboat Zlín where they can cook and spend the night in comfort. For a group of friends two motorboats in various sizes would be sufficient to go for an individual one-day trip. There are also cabin boats, canoes, rafts or rubber boats on hire at the ports. For example, in order to get to Strážnice meanders – unique sand beaches – it is only possible to use small boats due to the low depth and shallow waters.

Baťův kanálThe prices in the ports are more or less similar and only differ in various months of the season or days of the week. For a weekend trip on a houseboat, you would spend around six thousand Czech crowns per boat, a trip by a raft would cost about three hundred Czech crowns per person and a motorboat that can be rented for half a day would cost slightly under one thousand Czech crowns. The providers of the rented boats usually ask for a returnable advance deposit of several thousand Czech crowns. Some parts of Bata´s canal run along the river Morava, other parts of the canal are artificially made. You can see unique technical monuments – historical cabins, the crossing of the water route with rope water ski lift, some of about fifty bridges built over the canal or mechanical weirs.

Thirteen canal locks

Plavební komoryThe height difference along this water passage is almost nineteen meters and is adjusted by the use of thirteen canal locks. The depth of Bata´s canal is on average 1,5 meters and the width around 12 meters. Bata´s canal starts operating usually in April and the official unlocking of the boating season is always on 1st May. The end of the boating season is always on 28th October.

Ports on the Bata Canal

 

More information on the websites o. p. s. Baťův kanál.

Download: Timetable of the boat Morava