Split's old town is not next to a Roman palace — it is inside one. People live in the walls, hang washing between second-century columns and take deliveries through gates built for an emperor. Everything worth seeing is a five-minute walk from everything else.
The old town is the palace, and the palace is the old town — there is no separation. Three thousand people live inside the walls, which is why there is a butcher, a bakery, three wine bars and a woman who has run the same souvenir shop for thirty years, all within a Roman military compound. You will hear washing machines at ten in the morning and arguments at midnight, because the stone carries sound in a way that no modern building does.
The palace in detail — what to see and in which order — is in the Diocletian's Palace guide.
Walk through the palace at six in the morning, before the cafes put their chairs out and before anyone else is up. The Peristyle is empty, the light is soft, and you will understand why people moved in here and never left. Then go back at midnight, when the cruise groups are gone and the bars have spilled into the lanes — it is a different place, and the one the locals actually see.
Eat breakfast standing up at Kruščić bakery near the Golden Gate — a slice of soparnik and a coffee, the way the people who live here do it. Do not eat lunch on the Peristyle; eat it two streets back, where the menus are on blackboards rather than in photographs. If someone stops you in the lane to show you their restaurant, walk on — the good places inside the walls do not need to find you.
The square at the centre is the Peristyle.
Inside the walls for two nights if you want the full experience and can sleep through noise. The stone amplifies everything — a conversation outside the bar below your window sounds like it is in the room. Varoš, five minutes away, is the compromise: same walkability, a quarter of the noise, and the konobas are there.
Varoš is the compromise: five minutes away, with a quarter of the noise.
No cars inside the walls, and no need for one. The old town is five minutes end to end, flat except for the Varoš stairs on the west side, and everything you came to Split to see is within it or a short walk from it. The one thing to avoid is the middle of the day in July, when the Peristyle is a cruise-ship queue — go early, go late, or go somewhere else between eleven and four.
On your first morning, a ninety-minute guided walk makes the rest of the palace make sense.
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.
Within a short walk.
History
Ninety minutes through the palace with someone who can explain what you are looking at. Worth it on your first morning: the palace makes far more sense with a guide, and everything you do afterwards is better for it.
History
Diocletian's Palace is free: its lanes, the Peristyle, the domed Vestibule and the central passage through the cellars are open at all hours with no gate. You pay only for interiors — the side halls of the cellars (€10 for adults as of October 2026) and the cathedral, bell tower, crypt, treasury and Temple of Jupiter, ticketed separately. Built around AD 305, it is still full of homes, bars and shops.
History
The colonnaded courtyard at the centre of Diocletian's Palace, where the emperor appeared to his subjects and where Split now drinks wine on the steps. Free, roofless, and the best-preserved Roman square you can sit down in.
Food & drink
Four or five hours that start at the green market and the fish hall and end with you eating what you bought. The good ones shop first, which is the half that teaches you something: how to tell this morning's fish from yesterday's, and what is actually in season.
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.
Food & drink
The layer between the Riva and the clubs: small cocktail rooms, jazz corners, hostel bars and neighbourhood cafés that turn into bars after nine. This is where the local crowd drinks, it costs about a third less than the seafront, and it is the part of Split nightlife that still works in February.