A complete medieval town on its own small island, 27 kilometres west and a UNESCO site in its own right. Half a day is enough, it costs almost nothing to reach, and it is on the way to the airport.
By Marin Perić
The Cathedral of St Lawrence and Radovan's carved portal from 1240, which is the finest Romanesque doorway in Croatia and the reason most people come. The portal is a masterwork — Adam and Eve, the months of the year, lions at the base — and you can stand inches from it, which you cannot do with most European cathedral sculpture of that age. The bell tower is climbable and the view is of the whole island and the mainland coast.
The Kamerlengo fortress at the western tip is a Venetian-built square that you can walk around and up, and the walls give you the best view of the old town from above. The Čipka gate on the south side is the main entrance, and the main street inside it — Gradska ulica — is all of three hundred metres long and has most of the shops, cafes and the best pastry place in town.
And the fact that the whole island is about 400 metres across, so you cannot get lost. Walk one way, hit the harbour; walk the other, hit the bridge. That is the layout.
For Split's own cathedral, see the Cathedral of St Domnius.
Half a day is enough for the cathedral, the fortress and a walk around the island. Three hours is tight but doable if you skip the fortress climb. A full day lets you add the beach at Pantan, just east of the bridge, and a long lunch. Trogir is not a place to rush, and there is no reward for rushing it.
Trogir is on the way to the airport — see Split airport to the city centre for the transfer options.
For another half day close to Split, Klis Fortress is twenty minutes away by bus.
The places on the harbour are for coffee and ice cream, not dinner. Go one street in and look for konobas with a blackboard rather than a photographed menu. The fish is the thing to order here, because Trogir is a fishing town first and a tourist town second, and the catch comes off the same boats it always has.
Back in Split, the same fish-first cooking is at Konoba Matejuška, behind the fishing harbour.
Bus 37 from Split's suburban terminal runs every twenty minutes, takes about 50 minutes and costs a few euros — it also stops at the airport. By car it is 40 minutes; park on the mainland and walk over the bridge.
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.
History
Ninety minutes through the palace with a guide who lives inside it: the Golden Gate, the cellars, the Peristyle, the cathedral and the streets in between. Small group, no flag, and a proper explanation of why a Roman emperor retired to a cabbage patch in Dalmatia.
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.