Sunny Split: the perfect place for a blissfull beach city trip

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Are you looking for a city trip that you can combine with relaxing at the beach? Located somewhere around the middle of the long coastline of Croatia, Split is the right place to be! With more than 2600 hours of sunshine per year, a sunny city trip is more or less guaranteed in Split. Relax & enjoy!

City life

Split is a vibrant midsize Croatian city filled with narrow winding streets and alleys, full of restaurants and bars. People sitting outside, the temperature stays pleasant the whole evening. It’s already a lot of fun just to walk around the centre or sit down for some good old people watching.

Enjoy a tasty dinner, buy an ice cream, have a drink in one of the lively bars, go dancing all night, stroll along the market stalls just outside the city gate for a souvenir or the promenade… whatever you are in the mood for. Plenty of great places: Figa, Bokeria, Mazzgoon, Pikulece, Kod Sfinge, Galerija Food, Zinfandel, Noor Bar, La Bodega, Antique Bar, etc.

Tours in/around Split

Guided tours can be a great way to see and hear more than you would on your own. Besides it is smart to book activities in advance, to look forward to, not to spend too mch time organizing during your trip and not to miss out on anything great! Check out the following websites for tons of options:

• Get Your Guide
• Viator

Beach life

Located at the beautiful crystal clear Adriatic Sea, Split is the ideal spot to relax at the beach. You only need to choose which beach you want to go to. Enough choice!

• Trstenik beach (Radisson Blu)
• Znjan beach, Bacvice beach (central city beach, nightlife)
• Kastelet, Kasjuni and Bene beaches (all three close to Marjan Hill)
• Firule beach
• Stobrec usce beach (estuary)
• Jezinac beach
• Strozanac beach (Le Meridien Lav)
• Podstrana beach

For more details, check out this external article about the 10 Best Beaches in Split.

Tip: water shoes

Most of the beaches in Croatia/Split are gravel (nasty little stones). Therefore I would highly recommend bringing or buying water shoes. The souvenir shop on the corner just outside the lobby entrance of Le Meridien Lav sells water shoes in all kinds of colours for a reasonable price. Or get them at one of the market stalls between the city gate and bus stop for example.

The average Croatian supermarkets usually do not sell water shoes, only at hypermarkets (very large supermarkets), I understood because Croatians are used to the gravel beaches from childhood.

Speed boat trip 

Looking for that ultimate holiday feeling, getting into the relaxed vacation mode? Take a full or half-day speed boat trip from Split (or Trogir if you prefer). It’s so much fun, this boat trip was really one of the best things we did in Croatia!

Ventos Nautic offers exciting and very affordable boat trips on the Adriatic Sea, for example the half-day Three island speed boat trip to the Blue Lagoon (snorkeling), Maslinca (Solta island) and Duga Bay (Civio island).

The half-day boat trip can be done from 09:00h to 14:00h or from 15:00h to 20:00h. You will be in a small group (max. 6 passengers) yet for a very reasonable price: only € 55 per person! See also my earlier blog post Charming Croatia: affordable three island boat trip from Trogir. Contact: Ventos Nautic travel agency, tel. +385 99 2987 344 or +385 92 1755 615, info@ventos-nautic.com, ventos-nautic.com. Enjoy!

Beyond Split

Do you have more time than only a long weekend and/or would like to go out of the city to see a bit more of Croatia? The surroundings of Split offer plenty of possibilities for fun day trips; for example visit the UNESCO harbour town Trogir, National Park Krka or drive the Makarska Riviera (southwards). Split is also a great base to visit nearby Dalmatian islands such as Hvar or Brac by ferry or catamaran.

Hotel life

Le Meridian Lav Split is definitely my favourite hotel in the area! This five stars hotel includes six restaurants and bars tennis courts, several pools, a private yacht club, spa, gym and an awesome city view!

Especially the outdoor infinity pool, beach, garden and sunbeds are super pleasant. This place totally got us relaxed. What a blissfull place to be. Cheers to that!

OK, you pay €14 for a sandwich and € 8 for a glass of wine. But once you have a glass, simply buy a chilled bottle at the souvenir shop and refill. With each of us having this super comfy big lounge couch to ourselves, we just did not want to leave anymore. I just loved the view and atmosphere!

The 200HVR Day Spa fee and parking are included in hotel room rate. Le Meridien Lav is located at a 20 min drive south of the old city centre of Split, direct bus connection is also available (bus 60, 13 HVR).

Prefer something smaller and/or closer to or inside the city centre of Split? Consider staying at:

• ID Regal Residence
• Radisson Blu Resort & Spa
• B&B Splendida Palace

When to go

April, May, June, September and October are the best months to go. July and August can be pretty hot, although the sea wind is usually giving some relief. You may want to do something active in the morning, and go to the beach in the afternoon, once it gets too warm to basically do more than catching sunrays and swimming. Chill!

How to reach

Split international airport (SPU) is actually located about 20km from Split, on the west side of Kastela Bay, in the direction of Trogir. KLM, easyJet, Vueling, Iberia, Transavia, TUI, LOT, Lufthansa, Finnair, Aer Lingus, Aeroflot, airBaltic, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines and British Airways are some of the airlines that offer (seasonal or regular) direct connections with Split.

Skyscanner is a good tool to check and to compare flight possibilities and prices.

Map Split

This map includes places and spots mentioned in this article (and more). This one is ‘smartphone friendly’; you can easily use it via the Google Maps app. Click the icon at the top left to open the menu and see the categories. To adapt the map to your own preferences and interests, (de)select a category. Via Google Drive you can copy the map to your own My Google Maps account.

I hope you will find this article helpful and useful. What is your favorite place in Croatia? Or sunny city trip destination?

I wrote several articles about Croatia. Check out the Croatia Blog Archives. More to come in the future!

Another Croatian city that I would like to visit is Zagreb. Have you ever been there? Seems like fun!

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Last Updated on 01/06/2023 by Elisa Flitter Fever