The palace is the front door. The islands are the rest of the week.
Which speedboat actually gets inside the Blue Cave. What the Krka day costs once park entry is added. Whether Plitvice is worth five hours in a minibus. Reviews of every tour you can book out of Split.
Krka, Biševo, the palace cellars and the Cetina canyon.
The four bookings a first week in Split is usually built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The day everyone booksKrka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and SwimmingBoardwalks across the falls at Skradinski Buk, reached by boat up the river from Skradin.
02The five-island runBlue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourBiševo’s cave, the Pakleni water and a stop on Hvar, all inside one long speedboat day.
03The first morningOld Town and Diocletian Palace Walking TourTwo hours inside the emperor’s walls: the cellars, the Peristyle and the lanes that grew into them.
04The river dayCetina River: Rafting and Cliff Jumping TourAn hour inland at Omiš the Cetina drops through a limestone canyon. Paddle it, then jump off the rocks.
Split, Trogir, Šibenik, Omiš, Makarska: five harbours on one coastline.
Everything on this stretch sits inside ninety minutes of the palace gates, which is why almost nobody moves hotel. Pick the harbour you want to wake up in, and the best day out from each.
The good days in Split start at a quay at eight in the morning.
Three kinds of boat leave the Split and Trogir waterfronts. What it costs to board each one, and how far out it actually gets you before lunch.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour
The Blue Cave runBiševo, Vis and Hvar inside one long speedboat day.
Island hoppingŠolta, Brač and the Pakleni channel, at lunch pace.
The Blue LagoonShallow turquoise off Drvenik Veli, swim ladder down.
Every boat dayHalf-day cruises, catamarans and the long island runs.
All 192 days on the water →
Split does not really start until the Riva lights come on.
The old town cools about the time the day boats come back in. Sunset from the water, kayaks lit from underneath, a glass on a deck with Marjan going pink behind it.
The days out of Split that fill up before everything else.
Every tour in Split →More travellers book these than anything else on the coast, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimming
Review of the Krka Waterfalls trip from Split, with a river cruise, guided park walk, free time, and swimming or sightseeing in Primošten.
From · $31
Read our review →
2
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $45
3
Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour
from $111
4
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $44
5
Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour
from $109
6
Blue Lagoon & 3 Islands Cruise with Lunch from Split
from $78
7
Old Town and Diocletian Palace Walking Tour
from $17
8
Blue Lagoon Boat Party with DJs, Shots & After Party
from $47
Diocletian built a retirement palace. Split moved in and never left.
Fifteen hundred years of building on top of a Roman emperor’s house: the cellars underneath, the Peristyle in the middle, an octagonal mausoleum that ended up as the cathedral. A guide is the difference between a pretty lane and a floor plan you can read.
Three things this stretch of coast has and the rest of Croatia does not.
Old towns and clear water turn up all round the Adriatic. A river canyon an hour from the sea, a cave that lights itself from below, and a glass floor twelve hundred metres above the beach are harder to find.
Rafting the Cetina canyon
The Cetina comes off the karst behind Omiš and cuts a limestone canyon before it reaches the sea in the middle of town. Rafts run the calmer upper stretch from spring into autumn, with cliff jumps and a swim where the water widens out. It is close enough that most trips are back on the Riva by mid-afternoon.
- 1Cetina River: Rafting and Cliff Jumping Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,774 reviews
- 2Cetina River Rafting with Cliff Jump & Swimming★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,258 reviews
- 3Zipline Croatia: Cetina Canyon Zipline Adventure from Omis★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,248 reviews
The Blue Cave
The cave sits on Biševo, a small island past Vis, and the light only works when the sun is high enough to come through the underwater opening. Boats queue for a numbered slot and you transfer into a small tender to go in. Swell shuts it without notice, which is why the sensible operators build a second island into the day.
- 1Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,150 reviews
- 2Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,320 reviews
- 3Blue Cave & 6 Islands Speedboat Tour From Split or Podstrana★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,195 reviews
The Biokovo Skywalk
A horseshoe of glass juts off the Biokovo ridge above Makarska with about twelve hundred metres of nothing underneath and the islands laid out to the horizon. The road up is a run of single-lane switchbacks on a booked entry slot, so almost nobody drives it themselves.
- 1Skywalk Tour with a Tuk Tuk – Skip the line ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 552 reviews
- 2Skywalk Tuk-Tuk Tour with Skip-the-Line Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 467 reviews
- 3Biokovo Skywalk Entry Ticket with Transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 379 reviews
What a day out of Split actually costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price. A guided hour inside the palace still costs less than dinner on the Riva.
Palace walks, Klis and the museum tickets, the Krka day with the boat in, an afternoon on the Cetina.
The full-day standards: five-island speedboats, Plitvice, Biokovo and the catamarans out to Hvar.
Private skippers, chartered boats and the days built around one group and nobody else.
Four bookings around Split that will not wait for you.
Most of this coast can be sorted the night before over a beer on the Riva. These four run on entry slots, boat queues and a mountain road with a gate across it.
- 01Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourBiševo takes boats in numbered order and the light inside only works late morning. Swell closes the cave with no notice at all.
- 02Biokovo Skywalk Entry Ticket with TransfersThe Biokovo road runs on timed entry with a daily cap, and the switchbacks are single lane. Turning up at the gate is not a plan.
- 03Plitvice Lakes National Park Guided TourPlitvice sells timed entry and caps its numbers through the summer. It is also two and a half hours each way, so the early departure is the only sensible one.
- 04Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and SwimmingThe Skradin boat runs to a timetable and the park closes its gates once it fills. In August that happens days ahead.
The morning the bura cancels every small boat out of Split.
A north-easterly off the mountains flattens the small-boat schedule, and by July the palace lanes hold the afternoon heat like an oven. Both have the same answer: the day goes inland. Waterfalls with shade over them, a cellar an hour up the road, a long lunch and the cool rooms inside the walls.
By harbour, Šibenik down to Makarska
By kind of day: boat, canyon, stone or table
Palace, Trogir, Biševo, Krka: how a first week out of Split usually runs.
The newest Split tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Krka National Park & Zipline Šibenik – Čikola Canyon
Read our review →
Rafting River Cetina from Makarska Riviera including transfer
Read our review →
Split and Salona Cultural Heritage Day Tour from Trogir
Read our review →
Private transfer from Split to Dubrovnik with 2h sightseeing stop in Ston
Read our review →
Jewish Heritage & Diocletian’s Palace Walking Tour
Read our review →
Private Krka National Park Tour from Split (tickets&guide incl.)
Read our review →
