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.
By Marin Perić
Small, steep, deep and shaded, with a concrete platform that teenagers jump off all summer. Not a beach for a whole day with a family; ideal for a swim after the Meštrović Gallery, which is directly above it. The beach is tucked under the pines below the gallery, and it has the strong neighbourhood feel of a beach that is used by the people who live around it rather than by visitors.
Above it is the Meštrović Gallery — see the gallery first, swim after.
The concrete platform at the eastern end is the local landmark — a flat slab about three metres above the water, with a ladder back up, and a queue of teenagers taking turns all afternoon. The water below it is deep, which is the point. If you want to swim laps, this is the best place in Split for it: deep, clear, and you can swim along the coast without turning.
For a bigger beach with more room, Kašjuni is on the same side of Marjan.
Free, no sunbeds. The cafe under the pines sells drinks and closes at sunset. There are showers and changing rooms. The beach is a twenty-five-minute walk from the Riva along the Meje shore road, or bus 12. Pair it with the Meštrović Gallery above it, which is the reason most visitors end up here.
The shore road runs through Meje, the quiet villa quarter on Marjan's south side.
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.
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.
Beaches
Split's city beach, and the only proper sand within walking distance of the palace. Shallow for fifty metres, which makes it excellent for small children and the reason picigin — Split's own barefoot ball game — was invented here.
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.
Beaches
On the north shore of Marjan, under dense pine, with concrete platforms and pebble coves, tennis courts, a running trail and a café. This is where Split actually swims — quieter than Bačvice, shadier than Kašjuni, and free.
Beaches
The long, recently rebuilt beach strip east of the centre: wide promenade, sports courts, beach clubs, plenty of space and proper accessible entries into the water. Little shade, but the easiest beach in Split to spend a whole day at with children.
Beaches
A small sandy bay just past Bačvice, in front of the tennis club where Goran Ivanišević learned to play. Shallow, calm and mostly families — the quieter alternative when Bačvice is a wall of people.