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.
By Ana Kovač
The path starts in Strožanac, at the northern side of the main junction as you come into the village — the marking is in front of the Tommy supermarket, which is an unglamorous trailhead for a very good walk. It climbs steadily to the small church of St George, reaching about 441 metres, and takes around an hour and a half at an ordinary pace. It is waymarked the whole way. The reward is the full sweep: Podstrana and Split below, Kozjak across the bay, Mosor at your back, and the islands out in front.
From St George the ridge continues to Križ at 533 metres, the high point of Perun, with the views staying open most of the way. If you want the whole thing, the Trans Perun trail runs about 20 kilometres from Strožanac along the ridge and down into Omiš, and takes the best part of nine and a half hours — a serious day rather than a morning, and one to start early with a lot of water.
Spring and autumn are ideal. Summer is doable if you are moving by seven, and unpleasant after ten: this is limestone and low scrub, and there is very little shade anywhere on the climb. Winter is often the best of all — cold, clear, and the visibility that makes the ridge worth the effort.
Strožanac is part of Podstrana, immediately south-east of Split, and the city buses that run down the Omiš road stop close to the junction. It is one of the few genuinely good walks near Split you can reach without a car.
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
Half a day on the gravel tracks behind Podstrana and up towards Mravince and Kozjak, on roads that carry almost no traffic. The reason to go is the view: Split, Kaštela Bay and the islands laid out below you from a ridge most visitors never reach.
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
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.
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.
Boat trips
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.
Nature
May, June and September are the best months in Split: warm sea, long days and half the crowds of high summer. July and August are hot, busy and expensive but have every ferry and every festival. Winter is quiet, cheap and genuinely pleasant if you like an empty old town.