A skippered yacht for the day, out to Šolta or Brač and back on the afternoon wind. Slower than the fast boats, quieter than all of them, and the only way to see this coast the way it has always actually been travelled.
By Ana Kovač
You leave one of the marinas in the morning under engine, get the sails up once you are past the harbour, and spend the day crossing to Šolta, Brač or the Drvenik islands with a couple of swim stops and lunch in a bay or a village. The wind on this coast is dependable in a way it is not in most places: the maestral fills in from the north-west most summer afternoons and takes you home. Reckon on seven or eight hours.
For the island itself, see the Brač and Zlatni Rat day trip.
A fast RIB will show you five places in a day; a sailing boat will show you two properly. If you want to tick off the Blue Cave, book a speedboat. If you want a day where the engine is off, the only sound is water, and the swimming stops last as long as you want them to, this is the one. It is also the only boat day that is better in a bit of wind rather than worse.
If the Blue Cave is the point, the Blue Cave and five islands day is the fast-boat version.
Most day-sail operators run small yachts taking six to eight people and will sell you either a single place or the whole boat. A shared place is roughly €120–160 a head including the skipper; taking the boat privately runs into several hundred for the day. If you want to learn something rather than be ferried, ask for a discovery sail — many skippers will hand you the helm and teach you the basics for the same money.
For a shorter evening on the water, the Šolta sunset swim cruise is five hours on a ten-person boat.
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.
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.
Within a short walk.
Nightlife
The hour before the Riva. A pine-shaded headland fifteen minutes west of the harbour, on the site of an old cemetery, where you sit on the wall with a bottle from the shop and watch the sun drop behind Čiovo. Free, no bar, no music — then walk back down for dinner.
Beaches
A small pebble beach below the Meštrović Gallery, dominated by a diving platform and a café under the pines. Deep water, no crowds and a strong neighbourhood feel — this one is genuinely local.
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.
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
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.