Walking, swimming and abseiling down the Cetina where the canyon narrows above Omiš. The extreme version drops you 53 metres beside the Velika Gubavica waterfall and 25 metres again near the canyon exit; the ordinary one keeps its feet closer to the water.
By Ana Kovač
Operators run a standard trip and an extreme one, and the difference is real rather than marketing. The standard version is a wet walk: scrambling, sliding and swimming through the narrows with short jumps you can decline. The extreme version adds two rope descents — one of about 53 metres beside the Velika Gubavica waterfall, which is itself around 50 metres, and a second of about 25 metres near the exit of the canyon. If you have never been on a rope, that first one is a long way down.
The canyoning section is upstream of the rafting, where the river tightens between Blato na Cetini and the gorge at Zadvarje. It is a different landscape from the rafting run: less open water, more rock, and long stretches where the walls close over you.
The extreme trip has a minimum age of 15. You need to be able to swim and to be reasonably comfortable being cold and wet for several hours; no climbing experience is required, because the guides rig and manage every descent. Wetsuit thickness changes with the season — 3 mm in high summer, 5 mm at the shoulders, 6.5 mm when the water is at its coldest — and the wetsuit, buoyancy aid, helmet and harness come from the operator.
The Cetina is fed by karst springs and reaches only about 20 °C at the height of summer, while the Adriatic is sitting at 25 or 26. That gap is why people who book this on a hot August afternoon are surprised. Eat beforehand and expect to be genuinely cold by the end.
Get out there
Guided trips that include this stop, with live availability.
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.
Within a short walk.
Adventure
Around eleven kilometres of the Cetina through its canyon below Omiš, on grade II–III water in summer. Three to four hours on the river, most of it drifting between short rapids, with swimming stops and a cliff to jump off if you want one.
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.
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.
Adventure
Three hours paddling the cliffs and hidden coves along Marjan's south shore, with two swim stops and a cave you can only reach by water. The best way to see Split from the side it was built to face, and easy enough for a complete beginner.
Adventure
An hour and a half up the marked path from Strožanac to the chapel of St George, topping out around 441 metres with Split, Kozjak, Mosor and the islands all in view. It is free, it starts at a supermarket, and locals walk it before work.
Family
The south side of Marjan drops straight into clear water over rock rather than sand, which is exactly what you want and exactly what the city beaches are not. Bring a mask, walk in off the stones at Kašjuni or Bene, and it costs nothing.
Adventure
Eight steel wires strung across the Cetina canyon about three kilometres from Omiš, 2,100 metres of cable in total. The longest single run is 700 metres, 150 metres above the canyon floor, and takes well under a minute.