Rob Hodgkins · File:Looking down on Split (36847304770).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Looking_down_on_Split_(36847304770).jpg
Split
A Roman emperor built a retirement palace on this bay and a city moved into it — and never moved out.
Split
Not a city with Roman ruins in it, but a city inside a Roman ruin. Diocletian built a fortified palace here to retire into around AD 305; centuries later, when the nearby provincial capital was sacked, the survivors moved inside its walls and simply stayed. People still live in it, hang washing in it and run bars in it.
Explore Split on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
Beyond the temples
A palace you live in rather than tour, a bell tower with the whole coast from the top, and a hill to walk off the day on.
Diocletian’s Palace
- The Peristyle is the palace’s ceremonial courtyard and still its centre of gravity — a colonnaded square where the emperor appeared to his court, and where people now sit on the steps with a drink while a klapa choir sings.
- The substructures beneath it are the reason the palace survives: the cellars mirror the floor plan of the imperial apartments that stood above them, so walking through them is walking through the shape of rooms that are gone.
- The Cathedral of St Domnius is Diocletian’s own octagonal mausoleum, reconsecrated as a church — and dedicated to a bishop the emperor had put to death. Its Romanesque bell tower is a steep, open, not-for-vertigo climb with the whole coast and the islands from the top.
- The Vestibule, a domed rotunda open to the sky, has extraordinary acoustics and usually someone singing in it, and the small Temple of Jupiter beside it keeps one of the finest Roman barrel vaults in the Adriatic.
The city outside the walls
- The Riva at dusk is the single best free thing in Split — the whole city walks it, and the palace wall behind is floodlit. The Pazar green market and the Peškarija fish market either side of the old town are where the food actually comes from.
- Marjan is a forested peninsula of pine and rosemary with chapels cut into the rock and a stepped climb to viewpoints over the harbour and the islands. Locals run it at dawn; visitors should walk it at either end of the day.
- Bačvice is a rarity on this coast — a genuinely sandy, very shallow bay — and it is the home of picigin, a local game played in ankle-deep water with a small ball and no scoring, which is taken seriously and is free to watch.
- The Meštrović Gallery on the Marjan road holds the work of Croatia’s great modern sculptor in the villa he built, and is the quietest good hour in the city.
Just outside
- Salona, at modern Solin, was the Roman capital of the province of Dalmatia and the city Diocletian was born beside. It is a large, under-visited field of walls, basilicas and an amphitheatre, and it explains why the palace is where it is.
- Klis Fortress straddles the pass in the mountains directly above the city, which is exactly why it was fought over for a thousand years. The view back down over Split and out to the islands is the best in the county.
- Both are a short trip from the centre and are usually done together as a half-day, which is the single best argument for giving Split a third night.
Three days in Split
Inside the palace
The Peristyle and the substructures early, the Cathedral of St Domnius and the bell tower before the queue, then the Vestibule and the Temple of Jupiter. Afternoon in the markets, and the Riva at dusk.
Salona, Klis and the hill
The Roman capital at Solin in the morning and the fortress above the pass after it, back for a late lunch. Marjan in the golden hour for the view over the harbour and the islands.
Swimming and the city’s own day
Bačvice or the Marjan coves, the Meštrović Gallery, and an evening with nothing scheduled — a konoba in the lanes rather than a table on the waterfront.
To the islands
The ferry port is beside the old town. Hvar, Brač or Vis are the usual next leg, and the Split-Dalmatia page sets out how to choose between them.
Arriving & getting around
A city you walk, an airport near Trogir, and the busiest passenger port on the coast.
Arriving
- Split Airport (SPU) is at Kaštela between the city and Trogir, and carries heavy seasonal European traffic. From India the routing is normally one or two changes at a European hub; your specialist confirms what is flying for your dates.
- Indian passport holders need a Schengen visa. Croatia joined the Schengen area in 2023 and adopted the euro at the same time, so one visa now covers a trip taking in Italy, Slovenia or Austria as well — which was not the case before.
- The coastal road and the motorway both reach the city, and long-distance coaches are frequent and cheap. Trains exist but are slow and are not how the coast moves.
Around the city
- Split is walked. The palace is pedestrian, the Riva, the markets, Bačvice and the foot of Marjan are all within an easy stroll, and a car inside the old town is impossible rather than merely inconvenient.
- Wear shoes with grip: the palace lanes and the Riva are paved in limestone polished by seventeen centuries of feet, and it is genuinely slippery when wet.
Onward to the islands
- The ferry port sits beside the old town, which is what makes Split the hub of Dalmatia — sailings run to Šolta, Brač, Hvar, Vis and beyond. Car ferries are slower and far more tolerant of weather; fast catamarans are quicker, foot-passenger only, and the first thing cancelled when the sea gets up.
- The bura and the jugo can suspend crossings for a day, so we never plan an island departure for the morning of an international flight. The Split-Dalmatia page sets out which island suits which trip.
Split in practice
The handful of things that decide whether the days work.
Croatia adopted the euro in 2023, replacing the kuna, so old guidebooks and older advice about changing money are out of date. Cards are accepted almost everywhere in the city; small konobas, markets and island kiosks still like cash. Prices on this coast in high summer are closer to Italy than to the rest of the Balkans.
When ships are in, the palace lanes and the Peristyle fill for a few hours in the middle of the day and then empty completely. The city is at its best early in the morning and after about six in the evening, which is also when the light on the stone is worth photographing.
Bačvice is the exception — genuinely sandy and very shallow. Almost every other beach in Dalmatia is pebble or rock, which is why water shoes are worth packing and why the sea is so clear. The Marjan coves west of the centre are the quietest swimming within walking distance.
July and August are hot, and the palace stone holds it. Summer days here work if the sightseeing is early and late and the middle is spent swimming or eating; they fail if they are planned like a spring trip. May, June and September avoid the problem.
Croatian tap water is safe to drink and restaurants will bring a jug of it. Public fountains in the old town are drinkable. It is a small thing that matters in a place where you will be walking limestone in the heat all day.
How to be a good guest
A Mediterranean city with a very strong sense of itself, and rather more coffee than seems possible.
Manners
- Coffee is a social occasion rather than a drink to take away. Sitting for an hour over one is normal, and being visibly hurried in a café marks you out more than anything else will.
- Cover shoulders and knees inside the cathedral and other churches. The old town is also a residential neighbourhood — people live above the bars — so late-night noise in the lanes is genuinely unwelcome.
- Hajduk, the football club, is close to a civic identity here and its crest is painted across the city. It is a good thing to ask about and a poor thing to be dismissive of.
Eating
- Dalmatian cooking is simple and ingredient-led: grilled fish, peka — meat or octopus baked slowly under a bell-shaped lid buried in embers, which must be ordered hours ahead — and pašticada, a long-braised beef dish served with gnocchi.
- Vegetarian travellers do reasonably well with a little planning: blitva, chard boiled with potato, olive oil and garlic, is the standard side and a meal in itself; grilled vegetables, fresh cheeses and market produce are excellent. Soparnik, a thin chard pie from the Poljica area near Split, is a protected local speciality and entirely meat-free. Ask about fish stock in soups and risottos.
- The wine is worth taking seriously — Plavac Mali reds from the islands and the Pelješac peninsula, and crisp whites from Hvar and the Kaštela bay. Croatia keeps most of its best bottles at home.
Insider tips
What people who have been before do differently.
Timing the old town
- Walk the palace at seven in the morning. The lanes are empty, the deliveries are happening, and it is the only time it feels like the neighbourhood it actually is rather than an attraction.
- Climb the bell tower early too — it is narrow and open, the queue builds fast, and there is very little room to pass on the stairs once it is busy.
Getting more out of it
- Give Salona and Klis a half-day rather than skipping them. Seeing the ruined provincial capital first makes the palace make sense, and the fortress gives you the geography of the whole county in one view.
- Eat away from the Riva. The waterfront charges for the view; the konobas in the lanes behind the palace and up towards Varoš are where the cooking is, and they are two minutes further.
- Go down to Bačvice in the early evening and watch picigin being played. It costs nothing, it is very funny, and it is the most purely local thing a visitor can do in Split.
Out of the city
What is genuinely close, whose county it is in, and what is a different country.
Related to Split
Journeys that include Split — each one visits the city as part of its itinerary.
Common questions
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