Split

Split's town beach is a shallow, sandy curve a ten-minute walk east of the palace, and it is where the city goes to cool off. It is also the home of picigin, a local game in which players stand in knee-deep water and keep a small ball in the air with flat-handed slaps and theatrical dives. Nobody wins; the point is to look good doing it. The water stays shallow for a long way, which makes it popular with families, and the promenade above has cafés and bars that stay busy late into summer nights.

It gets very crowded on hot weekends. For clearer water and more space, carry on east along the coast path to the smaller coves beyond, or head west to the beaches below Marjan.

TipCome early in the morning to watch locals swim their daily laps before the crowds and the heat arrive.

The broad seafront promenade runs along the palace's southern wall, lined with palms, white benches and café terraces. In Roman times the sea came right up to this façade, and the emperor's private apartments looked straight out over the water. Today it is the city's living room, where people meet for coffee in the morning, walk in the evening and gather for concerts, festivals and New Year celebrations.

At the western end, the Riva opens onto the harbour and the old fishermen's quarter, and the main ferry port and bus and train stations lie a short walk to the east, which makes the Riva the natural place to start and end any day.

Because the palace was built on sloping ground, its southern half stood on a huge set of vaulted halls, and these substructures mirror the layout of the imperial rooms that once stood above them. For centuries the townspeople used them as a rubbish dump, which filled them up and, by accident, preserved them almost intact. Excavated in the twentieth century, they are among the best-preserved Roman basement complexes anywhere, and they give the clearest sense of the palace's original scale.

The central passage, entered from the Riva through the Bronze Gate, is free and lined with souvenir stalls; the side halls, with their massive stone piers and exhibits, require a ticket. Fans of Game of Thrones will recognise them as the place where Daenerys kept her dragons.

The palace's ceremonial courtyard is framed by granite and marble columns and arches, with the entrance to the emperor's private quarters at its southern end. Here Diocletian, who presented himself as a living god, would have appeared before his subjects. Above the courtyard a domed vestibule, open to the sky, has acoustics good enough that singers often perform inside it.

Today the Peristyle is the heart of the old town. In summer, actors in Roman costume stage a changing of the guard, and in the evening people sit on the steps with a drink while music drifts out of the café that occupies part of the colonnade. A black granite sphinx, brought from Egypt for the emperor, still stands to one side.

TipVisit early in the morning or late at night to see the courtyard without the cruise and tour groups.

The octagonal building on the east side of the Peristyle was built as Diocletian's mausoleum. In a neat historical irony, the emperor who led one of Rome's harshest persecutions of Christians ended up inside a church dedicated to one of his victims, Domnius, the bishop of Salona, who was martyred in 304. It is often described as one of the oldest buildings in the world still in use as a cathedral. Inside, look for the carved wooden doors by the medieval master Andrija Buvina, the Romanesque pulpit and the frieze around the dome, which is thought to include portraits of the emperor and his wife.

The Romanesque bell tower beside it took centuries to finish. Climbing it involves steep, narrow stairs and an open metal staircase at the top, but the view over the palace roofs, the harbour and the islands is the best in town. Combined tickets usually cover the cathedral, crypt, treasury, the small Temple of Jupiter nearby and the tower.

TipCover shoulders and knees for the cathedral, and climb the tower early, before the stairs fill and the stone heats up.

The palace's main gate, on its northern side, faced the road to Salona and was the grandest of its four entrances. Just outside stands Ivan Meštrović's giant bronze statue of Gregory of Nin, a tenth-century bishop who argued for using the Croatian language rather than Latin in church services. Rubbing the big toe of the statue is said to bring good luck, and it has been polished to a shine by millions of hands.

The park beyond the gate is a pleasant place to sit, and from here the narrow lanes of the medieval town lead west to Narodni trg, the old main square, with its Venetian-era town hall.

Split's green lung is a forested peninsula of pine and holm oak that rises west of the old town. From the Varoš quarter, steps climb in about fifteen minutes to the first viewpoint, where a café terrace looks straight down over the red roofs, the harbour and the islands. From there, paths continue to the summit of Telegrin, the highest point at about 178 metres, past small medieval chapels and hermitages cut into the rock.

The rest of the peninsula is laced with walking and cycling paths and fringed with rocky beaches, from Kašjuni on the south side to Bene on the northern shore, which are calmer and clearer than Bačvice. It's easy to spend half a day here.

TipWalk up for sunset, when the islands turn blue and the city lights come on below.

Half an hour west of Split, Trogir is a tiny walled town on an island between the mainland and the island of Čiovo, linked to both by bridges. Its compact grid of streets dates back to the Greek settlers who founded it, and its Romanesque and Renaissance buildings are so well preserved that the whole historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The highlight is the Cathedral of St Lawrence, whose main portal, carved by the master Radovan in the thirteenth century, crowds Adam and Eve, saints, lions, labouring peasants and sea creatures into one extraordinary doorway.

Walk the waterfront promenade to the Kamerlengo Fortress at the western tip, and climb its walls for views back over the town. Trogir is close to Split airport, so it also makes a good first or last night.

TipLocal buses run frequently from Split, and in summer small boats link Trogir and Split along the coast.

The Krka River cuts a deep canyon through the limestone on its way to the sea near Šibenik, and along the way it tumbles over a series of travertine barriers, built up over millennia as minerals settle on moss and plants. The most famous is Skradinski buk, a broad, many-tiered cascade of white water and green pools, circled by a wooden walkway and old watermills. Further upstream, park boats run to Visovac, a tiny island with a Franciscan monastery, and to Roški slap, a wider series of falls with smaller cascades known locally as the necklaces.

The park is about an hour and a half's drive north of Split. The two usual entrances for Skradinski buk are Lozovac, from which a park bus descends to the falls, and the riverside town of Skradin, from which park boats run upstream; both are included in the ticket from April to October. Swimming is no longer allowed at Skradinski buk; in summer it is permitted only at designated spots elsewhere in the park.

TipIn 2026, adult tickets for all sites cost 40 euros from June to September (30 euros after 3pm), 20 euros in April, May and October, and 7 euros in winter. Buying online in advance saves queuing in summer; check the park's webshop for current conditions.

Perched on a narrow ridge above the pass that leads from the coast into the interior, Klis has guarded the approach to Split since at least the early Middle Ages. Croatian kings held it; later, a small band of defenders known as the Uskoks resisted the Ottomans here for years before it fell in 1537. The Venetians recaptured it more than a century later, and the walls you see today are layered with the work of all of them.

The climb up through its three tiers of ramparts rewards you with sweeping views over Split, the islands and the mountains behind. It was used as the city of Meereen in Game of Thrones. Klis is only about twenty minutes from Split by car or local bus.

TipAfterwards, try spit-roast lamb at one of the grill restaurants in the village below, a local speciality.

About 25 kilometres south-east of Split, the Cetina River breaks through a dramatic gap in the coastal mountains and meets the sea at Omiš. The town was once a notorious pirate base, whose light, fast ships preyed on passing traffic, Venetian galleys included, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Two fortresses watch over it: Mirabela, just above the old town, and Fortica, high on the cliff, which is a much stiffer climb but gives a magnificent view down the coast.

Upstream, the river winds through a deep green canyon. In summer this is the region's adventure hub, with rafting, canyoning, kayaking and long ziplines across the gorge, as well as gentler boat trips to riverside restaurants serving trout and frog legs.

TipRafting is gentlest and most reliable in summer, when the river level is controlled by upstream dams; book with a licensed operator.

Croatia's most photographed beach is a long tongue of fine pebbles jutting out into the channel from the south coast of Brač, near the small town of Bol. Its tip shifts with the wind and currents, sometimes pointing east, sometimes west. Pine woods behind the beach give shade, and the steady afternoon breeze funnelling between Brač and Hvar makes it one of the best windsurfing and kitesurfing spots on the Adriatic.

Bol itself is a pretty harbour town with a Dominican monastery on its eastern point. Above it rises Vidova gora, at about 780 metres the highest peak on any Adriatic island, reached by a long hike or a winding road, with a famous view straight down on Zlatni Rat.

TipDirect catamarans from Split reach Bol in about an hour; the car ferry goes to Supetar on the north side, about 40 minutes' drive away.

Hvar town sits on a deep bay on the island's western end, its marble-paved St Stephen's Square opening straight onto the harbour, the largest square in Dalmatia. Around it lie a Renaissance cathedral, the Arsenal, whose upper floor holds one of the oldest public theatres in Europe, opened in 1612, and lanes that climb towards the Spanish Fortress, or Fortica. From its walls the view takes in the town, the harbour full of yachts and the scattered Pakleni Islands offshore.

Hvar has a reputation for summer parties and expensive yachts, but outside the busiest weeks it is a lovely, relaxed place, with lavender fields, vineyards and quieter towns like Stari Grad, one of the oldest towns in Europe, and Jelsa elsewhere on the island. Taxi boats from the harbour run out to the Pakleni Islands, where coves of clear water and simple restaurants make for an easy beach day.

TipThe catamaran to Hvar town carries foot passengers only; drivers take the car ferry to Stari Grad, about 20 minutes away by road.