Two hours out of the city harbour towards Čiovo and back as the light goes, with a drink in your hand and Split's waterfront lit from the water. The single easiest good decision on a first evening in the city.
By Ana Kovač
The palace front from the sea — the angle it was designed for — then out past Sustipan and the Marjan cliffs, with Šolta and Brač going pink to the south. Most boats cut the engine for twenty minutes at the turn, and the silence is the point. The palace wall from the water is the thing you cannot get from the land, and it is the reason the tour exists.
If you would rather watch from land, Sustipan is the headland the boats pass, and it is free.
Small boats of ten to twenty people are much better than the large party catamarans, which are essentially floating bars with a soundtrack. Sailing boats are slower and better, because the silence at the turn is the best moment of the trip. Expect €40–60 with a welcome drink, and check what is included — the good ones include a glass of wine and some fruit, the cheap ones include a beer and nothing else.
For a longer evening on the water, the Šolta sunset swim cruise takes five hours, with three swim stops and an hour in Maslinica.
Two hours, departing from Matejuška or the Riva, usually at 18:30 in summer. Bring a layer — the sea breeze after sunset is cooler than you expect, even in August. Book a day ahead in season, because the small boats fill. The cruise is the best first-evening thing to do in Split, and a good last-evening one too.
Most boats leave from Matejuška or the Riva, Split's seafront promenade.
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.
Boat trips
Croatian law lets anyone drive a boat under 5 kW without a licence, which is enough to potter round a bay at walking pace and reach coves the buses do not. Around €57 a day out of season and €88 in August, and nobody will ask you anything except for a deposit.
Nightlife
Split's staging area, not its destination. The seafront cafés turn into bars after eight, and you are paying for the seat and the view of the palace wall going gold — a fair trade for one round while the group assembles, a poor one for a whole evening. Move inside the walls by half ten.
Culture
Split's palm-lined seafront promenade, and the city's actual living room. Locals walk it at seven every evening, coffee lasts an hour, and nobody is in a hurry. Free, always open, and the correct place to watch the light go orange on the palace wall.
History
Two hours around the palace cellars, the Peristyle and the Klis-facing viewpoints where Meereen was filmed. Honest verdict: worth it if you love the show, skippable if you merely watched it — a standard palace tour covers the same stones with more history.
History
The vaulted basement halls that held up the emperor's apartments, preserved because they were filled with rubbish for a thousand years. The best-surviving Roman substructure anywhere, ten degrees cooler than the street, and the one part of the palace that looks like a ruin.
Food & drink
A working-class canteen on the west harbour, serving big plates of home cooking at prices from another decade. Brusque service, paper tablecloths, fishermen at the next table. Not for a special evening; perfect for a large cheap lunch.
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.