Places
Split's sights sit inside a working Roman palace, so most of them are a five-minute walk apart. Start with Diocletian's Palace and the cathedral bell tower, then climb Marjan for the view that makes sense of the whole city.
Local favourite
Food & drink
The nine-until-midnight part of a Split night, and the best of it. Small cellars and side rooms inside Diocletian's Palace pour Dalmatian wine by the glass with no music you have to shout over. Arrive before nine if you want a table, and leave around midnight when the lanes empty.
Local favourite
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.
Local favourite
Nightlife
Where a Split night ends rather than starts. The row of clubs behind the sand fills from about midnight, runs to three or four in summer, and sits a ten-minute walk east of the Riva, so nobody needs a taxi home. Loud, young and pop-driven — arrive before one and it will feel empty.
Nightlife
Central is the closest thing Split has to a conventional big-room European nightclub, centrally placed and built for larger DJ nights. It does not get going until after midnight. Arrive at 22:30 and you will find a half-empty room and conclude the city is dead; come back at one and it is unrecognisable.
Local favourite
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.
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.
Nightlife
Vanilla is Split's big summer party venue, out by Poljud rather than in the old town, which makes it a destination for a planned night rather than a stop on a bar crawl. Go if you want a large room, a late finish and holiday energy; skip it if you came to find Split's own bars.