The Best Tours in Split: An Honest Comparison of Every Way to See the City

The Short Answer

If you have one day in Split and want to understand the city, book a guided walk of Diocletian's Palace in the morning and something with wheels in the late afternoon. The palace rewards a guide, because most of what matters there is invisible without one, and the rest of Split is spread across a hill that no walking guide will ever take you up.

If you have three days or more, give one entire day to a boat trip out to the islands. It is the thing you cannot do anywhere else and the thing everybody remembers. Keep your city tours short and let the sea have the day.

If you have half a day, which usually means you came off a ship, do not attempt an island. You will spend the day watching a clock. Stay in Split and see all of it instead, which is genuinely possible in three hours if you are not on foot.

And if anyone in your group cannot walk far, cannot walk uphill, or cannot do either in August, decide that first and pick the tour second. It rules out more of this list than budget does.

• One day: a guided palace walk, then something on wheels
• Three days or more: give one whole day to the islands
• Half a day or a port stop: stay in Split and see all of it
• Heat, hills and knees decide more bookings here than money does

Our Bias, Declared

We run Tuk tuk tours in Split, which means we have an obvious interest in the conclusion of an article called best tours in Split, and you should read everything below knowing that. What we can offer instead of neutrality is accuracy, because we watch every kind of tour in this city leave in the morning and come back in the evening, most days from April to November, and we talk to people ten minutes after they have finished one and do our best so our customers can be satisfied.

So here is our own tour in one honest sentence, before anything else on this page. It is a good answer if you have between one and three hours, if you want the parts of Split that are not inside the old town, and if you would rather not climb a hill in the heat to get to them. It is the wrong answer if what you want is an hour of Roman history inside the palace walls, or a day swimming off a boat. Those are both on this page too, and for some trips they beat us comfortably.

• We run tours here, so read the whole page with that in mind
• We have put our own tours in the middle of the list, not the top
• Tuk tuk suits one to three hours and the city outside the walls
• It does not replace a palace guide or a day on the water

The Free Walking Tour

Split has several tip based walking tours that leave from the Riva or from just outside the Golden Gate, usually late morning and early evening, and they are a better product than the word free suggests. The guides are mostly local, often students or history graduates, and they work for tips, which turns out to be a strong incentive to be interesting.

The two things to know before you stand in the group. The first is that it is not free in practice and should not be treated that way, because ten to fifteen euros a person is the normal tip and the guide is paying for their own licence out of it. The second is that in July and August these groups can be thirty or forty people, which in a lane three metres wide means the back half hears the sea and the crowd rather than the guide. If you are not comfortable about standing at the front, go in the evening or in shoulder season, when the same tour with twelve people is a different experience entirely.

• Genuinely good value and a strong first hour in the city
• Budget ten to fifteen euros a person, it is not free
• Summer groups can hit thirty or forty people, so stand at the front
• The evening departures are smaller and cooler than the midday ones

A Paid Palace Tour, Which Is the One People Skip

This is the booking most visitors do not make and the one we would argue hardest for. A small group or private guide inside Diocletian's Palace, typically ninety minutes to two hours, usually including the substructures underneath, is the single best thing you can buy in Split for understanding what you are looking at.

The reason is that the palace does not explain itself. It is not a ruin with signs, it is a living neighbourhood built inside and on top of a Roman imperial residence, with laundry hanging off fourth century walls and a bar in a room that was part of an emperor's private quarters. Walk it alone and it is a beautiful maze of stone. Walk it with somebody who can tell you which wall is original, where the sea used to come to, and what the cellars were actually for, and the whole city rearranges itself in your head. Twenty five euros or so for that is the best value on this page.

Our guide to what is ticketed and what is free inside the palace is worth reading first, because a good chunk of the palace costs nothing to walk through and people do not always realise which parts those are.

• The best value booking in Split for understanding the city
• Ninety minutes to two hours, usually including the cellars
• Small group or private both work, private is better with children
• Much of the palace is free to walk, so know what you are paying for

Boat Trips to the Islands

If you only book one thing in Split and you have the day to spare, make it this. Split is the ferry capital of the Adriatic and the islands in front of it are the reason people come back to Croatia.

There are three shapes of island trip and the price gap between them buys very different days. The large catamaran and cruiser tours take sixty to a hundred people, cost the least, and involve a lot of queueing to get on and off. The small speedboat trips take ten to twelve people, cost considerably more, go faster, reach coves the big boats cannot enter, and are what most people mean when they say the boat day was the best day of the trip. Private charter is the third option and, split between six or eight people, is closer to the small group price than it sounds, with the enormous advantage that you choose where to stop and how long to swim.

The usual destinations are Hvar and the Pakleni islands, Brač for Bol and Zlatni Rat, Šolta and the Blue Lagoon, and Vis with the Blue Cave. If you are sorting between them, our day trips guide sets out what each one actually involves.

• The best single day out from Split, by a distance
• Small boat with ten or twelve people beats the big catamaran
• Private charter split between six is cheaper than people assume
• Hvar and the Pakleni islands for a first trip, Šolta for a quieter one

The Blue Cave Day, Specifically

It is the most sold excursion on this coast so it deserves its own paragraph, and our view is that it is worth doing once, with your eyes open about what the day is.

It is about twelve hours. The cave itself is spectacular and you are inside it for roughly ten minutes, transferred in on a small local boat, often after a long wait in a queue of other small boats. In high season, leaving at seven in the morning and getting back at seven in the evening is normal. The sea decides whether it happens at all, and it is cancelled often enough that you should never book it for your last day.

So: worth it if you have five days or more, if the forecast is calm, and if you genuinely want the boat day as much as the cave. Not worth it on a three day trip, not worth it with small children, and not worth it if a long stretch on open water is going to be endured rather than enjoyed.

• Around twelve hours, most of it on the water
• The cave itself is about ten minutes, after a queue
• Cancelled by weather often, so never book it for your last day
• Once in a lifetime, but not on a short trip or with small children

Krka, Plitvice and the Coach Days

Krka national park is about an hour from Split and makes a comfortable day or half day, with waterfalls you walk above on boardwalks and a scale that suits a family. It is the one inland trip we would send almost anybody on. Do check the current rules on swimming before you promise anybody a swim, because that has changed in recent years and people still arrive expecting the photograph they saw online.

Plitvice is the more famous park and the more difficult trip from here. It is a long way north, and a day tour from Split turns into roughly three hours on a coach in each direction for a few hours in the park, mostly in the middle of the day, which is when it is busiest. It is a wonderful place and it is the wrong place to see from Split. Do it from Zadar, or as a stop on a drive between Split and Zagreb, or leave it for another trip.

Trogir and Šibenik are the quiet winners in this category. Trogir is twenty five minutes away, it is a small walled town on an island with a cathedral doorway worth the journey on its own, and a half day there is easier and better than most full day coach trips.

• Krka: an hour away, easy, the best inland day from Split
• Check the swimming rules at Krka before promising anybody a swim
• Plitvice: beautiful, but six hours on a coach from Split
• Trogir in a half day beats most full day excursions

The Active Ones

Sea kayaking around Marjan is the best of these and one of the few tours that shows you a side of Split you cannot see any other way, which is the city from the water at the level of the water. Two or three hours, a swim stop in a cove under the pines, and you are back in town for lunch.

Rafting on the Cetina at Omiš is a half day and is considerably gentler than the photographs suggest, which is a good thing if you are bringing a nervous teenager and a disappointment if you wanted whitewater. The same valley has ziplines and canyoning, both well run.

• Kayaking around Marjan: the best active half day here
• Rafting at Omiš is gentler than it looks, which suits families
• Ziplines and canyoning in the same valley, both well run

Food, Wine and Konoba Tours

This category has grown fast and it splits cleanly into two. The good version is a small group walking between the green market, the fish market and two or three konobas with somebody who explains what “soparnik” is, why the “peka” is really good bread, and which fish are actually local in which month. Three hours, you eat properly, and you learn how to order for the rest of the week, which is the part that keeps paying.

The other version is a bar crawl with a food label on it. Both are sold using the same photographs, so read the itinerary rather than the headline and check how many stops actually involve food. If you would rather just eat well without a guide, our Split food guide covers the same ground for the price of reading it.

• The good ones cover the markets, not just the restaurants
• Three hours and you learn how to order for the rest of the week
• Read the itinerary, some are bar crawls with a food label
• Or skip it and use our food guide, which costs nothing

The Hop On Hop Off Bus

We are going to be blunt about this one, because visitors ask us about it constantly and it is the wrong product for this city. Hop on hop off buses work in large, spread out capitals where the sights are four kilometres apart. Split is neither large nor spread out.

The historic centre is pedestrianised, so the bus cannot go anywhere near the part of town you came to see, which means you get off at the edge and walk in, exactly as you would have anyway. The route misses the places that actually justify wheels, which are the Marjan ridge lookouts and the coves on the far side of the hill. And you pay for a full day of a service you will use twice. Walk the centre and put the money towards something that reaches the parts you cannot walk to.

• Split is too small and too pedestrianised for this to work
• The bus cannot enter the old town, so you walk in anyway
• It misses the Marjan lookouts, which are the reason to have wheels
• Spend the money on something that reaches what you cannot walk to

Tuk Tuk Tours, and When They Are the Wrong Booking

Now ours, in the middle of the list where it belongs. A tuk tuk tour is a small open vehicle with a guide driving it, an hour to two hours, moving between the places in Split that are spread out, uphill, or both: the west coast road, Sustipan, the coves under Marjan, Poljud, and the Vidilica terrace and the ridge lookouts above the city. It stops wherever you want a photograph, it collects you from your door, and nobody in the group has to walk up anything.

It solves one specific problem, which is that the best of Split is not in the old town and is genuinely awkward to reach without a car. We wrote a whole piece on the places here you cannot easily reach on foot, and that list is the entire reason this kind of tour exists in this city.

When it is the wrong booking, honestly: if you want depth on Roman history, book the palace guide instead, because we drive past the walls rather than through them. If you have a full free day and good weather, the boat beats us. If you are twenty four and travelling on eleven euros a day, walk up Marjan at seven in the morning, it is free and the view is the same one. And if it is pouring, move the booking, because an open vehicle in Dalmatian rain is exactly what it sounds like.

When it is the right booking: a port day, a first afternoon when you want to work out the shape of the city, a group that cannot split across two taxis, anybody with a knee, a hip or a stroller, and an evening timed to the sunset, which is the one we would book ourselves.

• Built for the spread out, uphill parts of Split, not the old town
• One to two hours, door pick up, stops wherever you want one
• Wrong choice for deep palace history or a full day on the water
• Right choice for port days, groups, sunsets and anybody with a knee

Private or Group, and What the Difference Actually Buys

The price gap between a group ticket and a private booking looks large and what it buys is not really exclusivity, it is control of the clock. On a group tour you leave at the advertised time, you stop where the itinerary says, and you get back when eleven other people are ready. On a private one you leave when the light is right, you stay at the viewpoint an extra fifteen minutes because it is worth it, and you skip the stop that does not interest you.

The arithmetic matters here. Anything priced per person costs the same either way, so two people rarely gain by going private. Four or more, and especially six or more, the private version often works out close to the same money and is a considerably better day. If your group is above six, read the section on transport in our celebrations guide, because at that size the logistics stop being a detail and start being the whole plan.

• What you buy is control of the timing, not privacy
• For two people, group tickets are usually the sensible choice
• From four or six up, private often costs about the same
• Above six people, transport becomes the thing that decides the day

What Things Cost, Roughly

Prices move every season so treat these as the shape of the market rather than a quote, and check the current figure before you plan a budget around it.

A tip based walking tour costs you the tip, so ten to fifteen euros a person. A guided palace tour sits around twenty to thirty. City tours on wheels, ours included, run from roughly forty to ninety a person depending on length and what is included. A big boat island day is usually somewhere between fifty and ninety, a small boat day between a hundred and a hundred and fifty, and a Blue Cave day sits at the top of that range. Krka is generally in the fifties and sixties before the park ticket, which is separate and is the part people forget.

The thing worth saying about value is that the cheapest tours in Split are not the bad ones. The free walking tour is excellent. The expensive mistake is not overpaying for a good tour, it is paying full price for a twelve hour day you did not have the time to absorb.

• Walking tour: the tip, around ten to fifteen a person
• Palace guide: roughly twenty to thirty, and the best value here
• City tours on wheels: forty to ninety depending on length
• Island days: fifty to ninety on a big boat, more on a small one

How to Fit Tours Into One, Two or Three Days

With one day, book two things at most and leave the middle of the day alone. A palace walk at nine, lunch, a swim, then the city and the viewpoints in the last two hours of light. That is a full day and it is the shape our one day in Split itinerary follows.

With two days, add the sea. Day one is the city, day two is a boat, and nothing else is booked. Our two day itinerary does exactly this and the reason it works is the empty space in it.

With three days, you can have the city, an island and one inland day, and that is the point at which Split starts feeling like a holiday rather than a list. The three day version sets it out properly. Beyond three days, book less rather than more, because the best hours here are usually the unplanned ones.

The one rule underneath all of this is that you cannot book a long excursion on the day you arrive or the day you leave, and almost everybody tries.

• One day: two bookings maximum, and leave the middle open
• Two days: the city, then a boat, and nothing else booked
• Three days: city, island, one inland day, then stop booking
• Never put a twelve hour excursion on an arrival or departure day

Booking, Weather and the Cancellation Question

In July and August, book the things that have limited capacity as soon as you know your dates, which means small boats, private guides and anything for a group above four. Everything else can wait until you arrive, and there is a real advantage in waiting, because you can look at the sky first.

In shoulder season you can book most things a day or two ahead, and in May, June, September and early October you will have a better tour for it, because the same trip with eight people instead of forty is a different trip.

On cancellation, read the policy for anything on the water, since sea conditions cancel boat days regularly and a good operator will move you or refund you without an argument. Keep a flexible day in the middle of your trip as the place to move a cancelled boat to. And for anything open to the sky, ask what happens in rain before you pay, not after.

• High season: book small boats, private guides and group tours early
• Everything else can wait until you can see the forecast
• Always check the weather policy for anything on the water
• Keep one flexible day in the middle to move a cancelled trip to

What We Would Tell a Friend

Book two things, not six. Make one of them a guided hour inside the palace, because it changes how you see every lane you walk down afterwards for the rest of the week. Make the other one the sea, on the smallest boat you can afford, on the calmest day of your trip.

Then, if you have a spare afternoon or a couple of hours before dinner, go and look at Split from above, from the ridge on Marjan, in the last hour of light. Walk up if your legs and the temperature agree, because it is free and the view is identical. Come with us if they do not, or if you would rather arrive with a cold drink already in your hand and somebody else worrying about the road. That is the whole of our pitch and we are comfortable with how small it is.

Everything else on this page is optional, and the best hour of your trip will almost certainly be one you did not book.

• Two bookings is usually right, six is always wrong
• The palace with a guide, and the sea on the smallest boat you can afford
• The Marjan ridge at sunset, on foot or on wheels, is the free one
• Leave room for the hour you did not plan, it is usually the best one