December in Split means Advent on the Riva, highs around 12 °C and almost no tourists — the airport sees about 50,000 passengers, against 787,000 in July. Worth it for a mild, local Christmas break; not for swimming, boat trips or long sunny days, since sunset is at about quarter past four.
By Marin Perić
Yes, if you want a mild, low-key Christmas break rather than a beach. December is one of the quietest months — Split Airport handled about 50,000 passengers in December 2025 — and Advent turns the Riva into the city's living room every evening. The palace is empty, lunches are long and the weather is mild by European winter standards. What you give up is the sea, the boats and daylight: the sun sets at about quarter past four.
The DHMZ Split-Marjan normals give an average high of 11.8 °C and a low of 7.2 °C. December is the second-wettest month — about 99 mm over nine days — and the least sunny, at about four hours a day. A frost happens about once in a typical December. The bura can blow for a day or two at a time, clear and cold, and it is the usual reason a ferry or catamaran is cancelled.
Not really. The sea averages about 17 °C — warmer than the air most days — with a ten-year range of roughly 14 °C to 19 °C. A few committed locals swim through December. Most visitors do not.
Advent runs from the end of November to 6 January along the Riva and around the Prokurative, with wooden stalls, mulled wine, fritule (small fried dough balls), an ice rink and free concerts most evenings. It is smaller and more local than Zagreb's, and it is outdoors in a city where December evenings hover around 10 °C. The best time is between six and nine, when the lights are on and the families are out. The city has also held a free New Year's Eve concert on the Riva in recent years.
What to eat and where: Advent in Split.
Open: the palace, cathedral, galleries and museums on winter hours, the green market, cafés and most restaurants in the centre.
Holidays: 25 and 26 December are both public holidays, as is 1 January. Some restaurants close for Christmas, so book or check ahead.
Shut for the season: beach bars, boat tours, kayak rental, and many island konobas and hotels.
The state fast boats to Hvar town keep an off-season timetable from 1 January to 28 May and from 28 September to 31 December. On line 9608 that means one sailing a day from Split at 16:00 and one back from Hvar at 07:30 on weekdays, at a winter fare of €6.40 in 2026, and the other year-round fast line through Hvar, towards Vela Luka and Lastovo, also leaves Split in the afternoon and comes back in the early morning. That is a timetable for islanders, not day-trippers — you cannot do Hvar as a day trip on it. Brač is the easy island in the off-season: since January 2026 Jadrolinija has kept at least 12 ferry sailings a day between Brač and the mainland all year.
Krka is at its €7 winter price for adults, without the Skradin boat. Trogir and Klis are short, quiet trips that work in any weather that is not a bura.
See the Krka day trip and
Mornings in the palace and at the green market, a long lunch, a walk up Marjan before the light goes, and the evening at Advent on the Riva. The cellars and the Meštrović Gallery fill a wet afternoon. For a couple, it is one of the most romantic months: the city is lit up and nearly empty.
See the green market,
romantic things to do in Split and
things to do in Split in winter.
Rooms for the New Year weekend, which is the only time December fills. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners, well ahead. Everything else can be decided on the day.
Comparing months? Read Split in winter and
Where these numbers come from: air temperature, rain and sunshine are the 1991–2020 climate normals for the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) station at Split-Marjan, 122 m up on Marjan hill, as published by the World Meteorological Organization through NOAA. A rain day is one with at least 1 mm. Sea temperature is the ten-year average for Split from seatemperature.info. Daylight and sunset are for the 15th of the month. Passenger figures are from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.
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.