Split
A Roman palace people still live in today, with house numbers built into the emperor's walls
- When to go
- October 18° · 7 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€price 4 of 5
- How many days
- 2days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 12 km Split · 32 km Brač
- Right now
Split is two days: one for Diocletian's Palace, the other for Marjan, a beach or an island. The emperor retired to the palace in 305, and in the seventh century refugees from ruined Salona moved inside; people have lived there ever since, which is why you walk it as a neighbourhood rather than tour it as a museum.
Inside the palace the order is about timing rather than tickets: from the Riva through the cellars, up onto the Peristyle, then into the cathedral and up the bell tower. That is two to three hours, and it goes in the morning, before the terraces on the Peristyle fill up.
In season the bars in the palace lanes stay open past midnight, and the stone and narrow streets carry the sound. Light sleepers take a room facing a courtyard or sleep outside the walls, west around Narodni trg and Marmontova, five minutes from the Riva. Ferries and catamarans to Hvar, Brač, Vis and Šolta leave from the harbour just east of the palace, so for most people Split is where the islands start, not a city for a third day.
Guides for Split
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Split in 2 days
→The palace from the cellars to the Golden Gate by noon, the sea in the afternoon, and on day two Marjan, Meštrović and…
Day trips from Split
→Trogir for half a day, Brač for a swim, Hvar for a whole day, Krka instead of Plitvice, and Vis for those who stay the…
Where to stay in Split
→Five quarters within walking distance of the palace — and the one difference between them you only hear after midnight.
What Split costs
→Croatia is in the eurozone, so nothing in Split needs converting — price by price, from a hostel bed to a ticket for…
Split once the six-sight list is done
→The north gate with a luck legend, a domed entrance that sometimes sings a cappella, a park on the point, and a costume…
What to eat in Split
→Black risotto and pašticada are the main courses, soparnik from the Pazarić market is the cheapest thing on this list…
The best time to visit Split
→Split month by month in numbers — July is both warmest and driest, November wettest, and June and September strike the…
Getting around Split
→The airport is west of the city, the bus reaches the centre in 50–75 min, traffic-dependent, and from there everything…
Mistakes everyone makes in Split
→The wrong day for the museum, too little time for Hvar, and swimming in the wrong part of Krka — mistakes that cost…
What to see in Split
The palace cellars
The halls that carried the imperial apartments, preserved because they spent centuries filled with rubbish. Their layout almost exactly mirrors the floor above, which no longer exists.
€10
The Peristyle and cathedral
A colonnaded courtyard with a sphinx brought from Egypt. The Cathedral of St Domnius was once Diocletian's mausoleum, and the bell tower is climbed by narrow stairs.
€5 (cathedral), €7 (bell tower) · 20–30 min (cathedral only)
The Riva
The promenade along the palace's south wall, lined with palms and cafés facing the harbour. Best early in the evening, when the sun goes down behind Marjan.
free
Marjan
The wooded hill at the western end of the peninsula. From the Riva through Varoš and up the steps to the first viewpoint, Vidilica, takes fifteen to twenty minutes; paths carry on to beaches on the south side.
free · 15–20 min to Vidilica
The markets
The green market is east of the palace, the fish market west of it. What people here actually eat shows up there before it reaches a menu.
free (entry)
The ferry port
Departures for Hvar, Brač, Vis and Šolta. Catamarans carry foot passengers only and reach Hvar town in an hour to an hour and a half; the car ferry takes vehicles, but on Hvar it docks at Stari Grad.
free (to walk through/watch)
Two things you probably did not know
Split is not a city with a palace but a palace that became a city. Refugees moved into Diocletian's palace after Salona fell, and it has been lived in without a break for seventeen centuries. Around three thousand people live inside the walls today.
The sphinxes in the palace are genuine Egyptian ones, brought from Egypt in the fourth century. Of the dozen or so that were here, three survive, and one still sits on the Peristyle.
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