Where to start
Split does history, water and food in roughly equal measure. Pick a lane.
Right now · autumn
The locals' favourite: warm water, soft light and half the crowd.
Local favourite
History
Diocletian's Palace is free: its lanes, the Peristyle, the domed Vestibule and the central passage through the cellars are open at all hours with no gate. You pay only for interiors — the side halls of the cellars (€10 for adults as of October 2026) and the cathedral, bell tower, crypt, treasury and Temple of Jupiter, ticketed separately. Built around AD 305, it is still full of homes, bars and shops.
Local favourite
History
The oldest cathedral building in the world still in use, and it started life as the mausoleum of the emperor who persecuted the man it is now named after. The bell tower beside it gives you the best view in Split for the price of 183 steps.
Local favourite
Adventure
The pine-covered hill on Split's western edge, a fifteen-minute walk from the Riva and the reason the city feels liveable in August. Free, open always, with viewpoints, hermit chapels, swimming coves at the bottom and a proper trail network on top.
Local favourite
Beaches
Split's city beach, and the only proper sand within walking distance of the palace. Shallow for fifty metres, which makes it excellent for small children and the reason picigin — Split's own barefoot ball game — was invented here.
Local favourite
Beaches
The best beach within reach of the city: white pebbles, clear deep water and pine shade on the south side of Marjan. A beach club at one end, empty rock at the other, and a sunset that faces exactly the right way.
Adventure
Two hours on a board lit from underneath, pushing off Stobreč as the sun goes and paddling into the river mouth in the dark. The LEDs light the bottom through three metres of water, which is the whole point: you can see what is down there.
Get out on the water
Small-group boat trips and walking tours out of Split. Every page names the operator who runs it, because this guide does not sell them.
Local favourite
Boat trips
A full day on a fast twelve-seat boat: the Blue Cave on Biševo, the Monk Seal cave, Stiniva's famous cove, lunch on Vis and a swim off Budikovac's turquoise lagoon, finishing with a stop at Hvar town. Ten and a half hours, small group, no coach transfer.
Local favourite
History
Ninety minutes through the palace with a guide who lives inside it: the Golden Gate, the cellars, the Peristyle, the cathedral and the streets in between. Small group, no flag, and a proper explanation of why a Roman emperor retired to a cabbage patch in Dalmatia.
Boat trips
Five hours to Šolta and back on a ten-person boat: three swim stops in coves you cannot reach by road, an hour in Maslinica for dinner or a drink, and the run home across the channel as the sun goes down behind the island.
Read before you go
Day-by-day plans, practical guides and the lists we hand to friends who land with no plan at all.
Guide
Summer is Split at full volume: 30 °C, sea at 25 °C, every boat running and the old town solid with people from eleven to four. It works if you invert the day — swim and walk early, hide in the palace cellars at midday, and start the evening at seven like everyone who lives here.
Local favourite
Nightlife
Split nightlife is not one club district but a progression through zones, and the hour matters more than the venue. Dinner, then the palace lanes, then the Riva, then a decision at half past midnight: Bačvice for the beach party, or a central club for the dance floor. Timing is what visitors get wrong.
Guide
September is the local favourite: a whole summer of stored heat in the sea, softer light and half the crowd. October is still swimmable to mid-month and perfect for walking. November is the wettest month and the city returns to the people who live in it.
Guide
The best things to do in Split are walking Diocletian's Palace, climbing the cathedral bell tower, swimming at Bačvice or Kašjuni, hiking Marjan hill at sunset, eating in a Varoš konoba, and taking a boat to the islands. Almost all of it is within twenty minutes on foot.
Guide
The best day trips from Split are Hvar and Brač by catamaran, Krka national park an hour and a quarter inland, Trogir for a complete medieval town twenty minutes west, and the Blue Cave on Vis for the single most spectacular day on the water.
Guide
One day in Split: Diocletian's Palace and the cellars before ten, the bell tower, lunch in Varoš, an afternoon swim at Kašjuni, sunset from Marjan and dinner inside the walls. Everything is within a twenty-minute walk.
Already in Split?
Every beach, sight, konoba and meeting point on one map — filtered by what you feel like doing.