Things to Do in Split, Croatia

Diocletian's Palace

Start here. It is not a monument beside the city — it is the city.

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.

Local favourite2 h

Cathedral of St Domnius & Bell Tower

183 steps for the best view in Split, and the best joke in Croatian history.

The oldest cathedral building in the world still in use, and it started life as the mausoleum of the emperor who persecuted the man it is now named after. The bell tower beside it gives you the best view in Split for the price of 183 steps.

Local favouriteFrom €101 h

Marjan Hill

The pine hill that makes Split liveable in August. Free, and open at all hours.

The pine-covered hill on Split's western edge, a fifteen-minute walk from the Riva and the reason the city feels liveable in August. Free, open always, with viewpoints, hermit chapels, swimming coves at the bottom and a proper trail network on top.

Local favourite2 h 30 min

Kašjuni Beach

The good beach: white pebbles, clear water, pines and a sunset facing the right way.

The best beach within reach of the city: white pebbles, clear deep water and pine shade on the south side of Marjan. A beach club at one end, empty rock at the other, and a sunset that faces exactly the right way.

Local favourite

Blue Cave & Five Islands

The one big day out. Go on a small boat and leave early.

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.

Local favourite10 h 30 min

Diocletian's Cellars

Ten degrees cooler than the street and the best Roman substructure anywhere.

The vaulted basement halls that held up the emperor's apartments, preserved because they were filled with rubbish for a thousand years. The best-surviving Roman substructure anywhere, ten degrees cooler than the street, and the one part of the palace that looks like a ruin.

From €745 min

Bačvice Beach

Sand, shallow water and picigin — Split's own barefoot ball game.

Split's city beach, and the only proper sand within walking distance of the palace. Shallow for fifty metres, which makes it excellent for small children and the reason picigin — Split's own barefoot ball game — was invented here.

Local favourite

Split Food & Market Tour

Three hours that change how you eat for the rest of the trip.

Three and a half hours through the green market, the fish market and four family-run places inside the palace, eating soparnik, pršut, Pag cheese, fresh anchovies and rožata. Enough food to replace lunch, with the context that makes Dalmatian cooking make sense.

Local favouriteFrom €653 h 30 min

Pazar Green Market

Before nine, for figs and an argument about whether your peaches are ripe.

The open-air produce market against the palace's eastern wall, running every morning since forever. Figs, tomatoes, olive oil, cheese from Pag, and old women who will tell you your peaches are not ripe yet. Free to walk through, best before nine.

Local favourite45 min

Klis Fortress

Twenty minutes inland, a thousand years of fighting over one mountain pass.

A fortress wedged into a mountain pass above Split, held by Romans, Croatian kings, Ottomans and Habsburgs in turn — and used as Meereen in Game of Thrones. Twenty minutes on the bus, and the view down to the coast explains a thousand years of fighting over it.

From €122 h

Sea Kayaking Under Marjan

See the city from the side it was built to face.

Three hours paddling the cliffs and hidden coves along Marjan's south shore, with two swim stops and a cave you can only reach by water. The best way to see Split from the side it was built to face, and easy enough for a complete beginner.

Local favouriteFrom €353 h

Meštrović Gallery

The one museum worth paying for, with a sculpture garden over the sea.

The villa Ivan Meštrović built for himself on Marjan's south slope, now the best museum in Split. Sculpture inside, a garden of bronzes with a sea view outside, and the Kaštelet chapel with his wooden reliefs five minutes down the road.

From €121 h 30 min

The Riva

Split's palm-lined seafront promenade, and the city's actual living room. Locals walk it at seven every evening, coffee lasts an hour, and nobody is in a hurry. Free, always open, and the correct place to watch the light go orange on the palace wall.

Local favourite45 min

Night Paddleboarding at Stobreč

Two hours on a board lit from underneath, pushing off Stobreč as the sun goes and paddling into the river mouth in the dark. The LEDs light the bottom through three metres of water, which is the whole point: you can see what is down there.

From €442 h

A Hajduk Match at Poljud

The most Split thing you can do for ten euros. Poljud is a listed 1979 shell of a stadium, the Torcida have been going since 1950, and a mid-table league game on a Saturday night tells you more about this city than any walking tour will.

Local favouriteFrom €102 h

The Peristyle

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.

30 min

The Perun Ridge Walk above Strožanac

An hour and a half up the marked path from Strožanac to the chapel of St George, topping out around 441 metres with Split, Kozjak, Mosor and the islands all in view. It is free, it starts at a supermarket, and locals walk it before work.

Local favouriteFree1 h 30 min

Cetina River Rafting

Around eleven kilometres of the Cetina through its canyon below Omiš, on grade II–III water in summer. Three to four hours on the river, most of it drifting between short rapids, with swimming stops and a cliff to jump off if you want one.

From €303 h 30 min

Snorkelling off the Marjan Shore

The south side of Marjan drops straight into clear water over rock rather than sand, which is exactly what you want and exactly what the city beaches are not. Bring a mask, walk in off the stones at Kašjuni or Bene, and it costs nothing.

Local favouriteFree1 h 30 min

A Day Under Sail

A skippered yacht for the day, out to Šolta or Brač and back on the afternoon wind. Slower than the fast boats, quieter than all of them, and the only way to see this coast the way it has always actually been travelled.

From €1208 h