Board hire from Kašjuni and Bene for about €15 an hour, or a guided paddle along the Marjan cliffs. Flat water most mornings and a shoreline with no boat traffic close in — one of the easier places to learn.
By Ana Kovač
West from Kašjuni along the cliffs. Stay inside the yellow buoys; outside them you are in the boat channel and it is not a place to be on a board. Go before eleven — the afternoon wind makes the return leg genuinely hard work, and a stand-up paddleboard in a chop is a good way to fall in repeatedly.
Kašjuni is the easiest launch: pine shade, clear water and board hire at the beach concession.
The water inside the buoys at Kašjuni is flat most mornings, and the beach concession will give you a quick lesson if you have not done it before. Start on your knees, stand up when you feel stable, and look at the horizon rather than your feet. Most people are upright within ten minutes, and most people fall in once, which is part of it.
Board hire from the beach concessions at Kašjuni and Bene, about €15 an hour or €35–40 for a half day, usually including a buoyancy aid. Guided paddles along the Marjan cliffs cost €40–50 for two hours and are worth it if you do not want to navigate or if you want someone to take photos. Go in the morning, every time.
The shadier launch is Bene, on the north shore of Marjan.
To paddle after dark instead, the night SUP tour from Stobreč runs on LED-lit boards into the river mouth.
Right now · Autumn
Hire is cheaper and the mornings are glassy through September. Most concessions close by the end of October.
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.
Beaches
The best beach within reach of the city: white pebbles, clear deep water and pine shade on the south side of Marjan. A beach club at one end, empty rock at the other, and a sunset that faces exactly the right way.
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.
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
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
Bolted limestone routes on Marjan's south face, fifteen minutes from the old town, with the sea directly below. Guided beginner sessions run all year; the rock faces south so winter is often better than summer.
Culture
The villa Ivan Meštrović built for himself on Marjan's south slope, now the best museum in Split. Sculpture inside, a garden of bronzes with a sea view outside, and the Kaštelet chapel with his wooden reliefs five minutes down the road.
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
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.
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.