October is worth it: highs around 20 °C, a sea still at about 21 °C, and the summer crowd gone — the airport carries less than half of August's passengers. The first half is still swimming weather. From mid-month, boat trips and island timetables thin, and the clocks go back at the end.
By Marin Perić
Yes — especially the first half. It is the last month with genuinely warm sea, the walking weather is the best of the year, and the city is visibly emptier: Split Airport handled about 332,000 passengers in October 2025, under half of August. Most things still run until the middle of the month. After that, the season winds down week by week, and by the end of October Split is a winter city again.
DHMZ's Split-Marjan normals give an average high of 20.5 °C and a low of 14.7 °C — warm days, cool evenings. About 80 mm of rain falls on roughly seven days, and sunshine averages over six hours a day. A day above 25 °C happens about once in a typical October. The clocks go back on the last Sunday (25 October in 2026, 31 October in 2027), and sunset drops from around ten past six in mid-month to before five.
Yes. The sea averages about 21 °C in October, with a ten-year range of roughly 17 °C to 24 °C. The water is often as warm as the air, and locals swim right through the month. In the first fortnight it feels much like early June. By the last week it is a brisk swim rather than a lazy one.
The best spots for an autumn swim: Kašjuni and
Open all month: the palace, museums, the green market, and nearly every restaurant in town.
Thinning from mid-month: boat tours, sunset cruises and the seasonal private catamaran lines. Most stop by the end of October.
Closing: beach bars and island konobas, many of which shut for winter during the month.
The state fast boats to Hvar town are on their off-season timetable — afternoon out, early morning back — and Brač keeps at least 12 ferry sailings a day.
Krka drops to €20 for adults in October, with the Skradin boat running until 31 October. From November it is €7, without the boat.
If you are choosing between the two, the numbers are close on rain — about 80 mm in October against 82 mm in September — but not on anything else. September is about five degrees warmer by day, its sea is about two degrees warmer, and it has nearly two hours more sunshine a day. October is far quieter: Split Airport handled about 332,000 passengers in October 2025 against 558,000 in September. Choose September for the sea, and October for walking, space and the lower Krka price.
October has no headline festival. That is part of its appeal: the calendar belongs to the city, not to visitors. Hajduk are in the middle of their season at Poljud, and Krka at half its summer price is a good reason to fit in a day trip.
Plan it: the Krka day trip.
Swim in the morning and walk in the afternoon. Marjan is at its best — the heat has gone and the light is low and gold. Go up to Klis, or out to Trogir, without the summer coaches. The cooler evenings are the time for a wine tasting or a long dinner.
See Marjan hill,
Klis Fortress and
Boat trips early in your stay, not at the end — the later in October, the more weather and the fewer departures. Rooms are easy. Restaurants need booking only at weekends.
Comparing months? Read Split in autumn 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.