A Few Hours in Split: What to Do Before Your Ferry or Flight

The Short Answer

If you have two hours, leave your bags near the port and walk the palace and the Riva. That is enough to see the heart of Split properly, and you will be back at the pier with time to spare.

If you have three hours, do the same, and add the part of Split that sits on the hill and around the peninsula: the viewpoints, the pine woods and the small beaches. You will not reach those on foot and still make a boat, so you need wheels for that hour.

If you have four or five hours, add a long lunch and a swim. Bačvice beach is a short walk from the port, and an hour in the sea before a ferry is the best thing you can do for yourself in July.

And if you have less than two hours once you have taken off the time you need at the port, do not try to see anything in particular. Get a coffee on the Riva, watch the boats, and walk through the palace once. That is a perfectly good way to spend ninety minutes in Split.

• Two hours: the palace and the Riva on foot
• Three hours: add the viewpoints and the peninsula, with wheels
• Four or five hours: add lunch and a swim at Bačvice
• Under two usable hours: coffee, the Riva and one walk through the palace

Work Backwards From Your Boat

Before you plan anything, work out when you actually need to be back. In summer Jadrolinija asks passengers with a reservation to be at the port about an hour before a catamaran leaves, and about half an hour in the quieter months. That hour is not generous padding. In July the queues, the crowds on the quay and the hunt for the right boat all take real time.

The boat is also not always where you expect it. Catamarans in Split load from different piers on different days, so check the departure boards when you arrive rather than walking to wherever it left from last time. The walk from one end of the quay to the other is longer than it looks when you are pulling a suitcase.

If you have not bought your ticket, buy it before you do anything else. The popular summer sailings to Hvar and Brač sell out, and discovering that at twenty minutes to departure is how a pleasant few hours in Split becomes an unplanned night in it.

So take the time between now and your departure, remove an hour, and that is the time you really have. Everything below is planned around that number.

• In summer, be back at the port about an hour before a catamaran leaves
• Check the departure board, because boats load from different piers
• Buy your ticket first, before you do anything else
• Your real free time is your departure time minus an hour

Where to Leave Your Bags

There is no left luggage inside the ferry terminal itself, which catches a lot of people out. What there is, is a cluster of options a couple of minutes away. The main bus station sits right next to the port and has a traditional left luggage office, a garderoba, and there are small left luggage shops in the streets between the bus station and the old town. The train station, also beside the port, has coin lockers that suit smaller bags.

Prices vary more than you would expect. Some places charge by the hour and some charge one price for the day, so for three hours the cheapest option is not always the obvious one. Ask before you hand anything over.

Whatever you do, do not bring a wheeled suitcase into the old town. The palace streets are polished limestone, worn smooth over centuries, with steps in unexpected places and crowds that do not part for luggage. Wheels are miserable on it, and so is everybody behind you.

Keep your passport, tickets, cash, chargers and anything valuable with you, and take a photograph of your receipt and of the opening hours on the door. Closing time matters if your boat is the last one of the evening.

• There is no luggage storage inside the ferry terminal
• The bus station next to the port has a left luggage office
• Small left luggage shops nearby charge by the hour or by the day
• Never roll a suitcase through the palace streets
• Check the closing time if you are on an evening boat

Coming Straight From the Airport

Split Airport is about twenty five kilometres west of the city, so the first part of your few hours is spent getting in. The airport shuttle bus is the easiest option for anybody heading to a ferry. It leaves from right outside arrivals and drops you at the main bus station, next to the port, so you arrive exactly where your bags and your boat will be. In summer it runs frequently through the day, the journey takes around half an hour in normal traffic, and the fare is around eight to ten euros depending on the season.

A taxi, Uber or Bolt is quicker door to door and makes sense for a group sharing the fare. The cheap local bus is a fine way into Split on a relaxed day and the wrong way on a day with a boat to catch.

The thing to allow for is August. The road between the airport and the city is the busiest on this part of the coast in peak season, and half an hour can become a lot longer at the wrong time of day. If your plane lands late and your boat is tight, go straight to the port and see the city another day. Our guide to getting around Split has the full detail on every option.

• The airport shuttle drops you at the bus station next to the port
• Allow around half an hour, and more in August traffic
• Taxis and ride apps are quicker and good value for groups
• If the plane is late and the boat is tight, go straight to the port

Two Hours: The Palace and the Riva

From the port, the walls of Diocletian's Palace are only a few minutes away along the waterfront. Go in through the Bronze Gate, the small door in the middle of the palace's sea front, and you come up through the vaulted halls underneath the palace into the heart of it.

From there, everything that matters is close together. The Peristyle, the colonnaded square where the emperor once appeared to his court. The cathedral, built around his own mausoleum. The narrow lanes towards the Golden Gate, and the statue of Grgur Ninski outside it, whose big toe has been rubbed gold by people touching it for luck. You can walk all of that slowly in an hour, and our complete guide to Diocletian's Palace will tell you what you are looking at.

Spend the second hour on the Riva, the palm lined promenade in front of the palace. Walk it end to end, sit down for a coffee, and watch the ferries you are about to join. It is the most Split thing you can do and it costs the price of a coffee.

If you want to buy one ticket, make it the cathedral bell tower. It is steep and narrow, but it is the best view of the old town and the harbour you will get without leaving the palace, and you can pick out your own boat from the top.

• Enter through the Bronze Gate on the waterfront
• The Peristyle, cathedral and Golden Gate are a short walk apart
• Leave an hour for a slow coffee on the Riva
• Climb the bell tower if you want one ticket worth buying

Three Hours: Add the Split You Cannot Walk To

The old town is only a small part of Split. The rest of the city spreads around the Marjan peninsula to the west: the Vidilica terrace with its view over the whole harbour, the pine woods, Sustipan park on its headland, and quiet little beaches like Kašjuni on the far side of the hill. These are the places people describe when they get home, and they are exactly the places you cannot reach on foot with a boat to catch. We wrote a whole article about the places in Split you cannot easily reach on foot for that reason.

To see them in an hour or so, you need wheels. A taxi works if you know where you want to go and are happy to arrange the way back yourself. A guided ride works better if you want somebody else to handle the route, the stops and the timing, which on a day with a fixed departure is most of the point.

This is where we should say plainly that we run tuk tuk tours, and that this is the situation they suit best. There is more on that at the end of this article, and a fair comparison of every kind of tour in the city in our honest guide to the best tours in Split.

• Marjan, Vidilica, Sustipan and Kašjuni are too far to walk with a boat to catch
• A taxi works if you know exactly where you are going
• A guided ride takes care of the route and the clock for you
• Walk the palace first, then ride out to the peninsula

Four or Five Hours: Lunch and a Swim

With four or five hours you can do something most people passing through never think of, which is swim. Bačvice, the city's best known beach, is a short walk east of the port and the bus station. It is shallow, sandy by Split standards, busy, and home to picigin, the local game of keeping a small ball in the air while standing in knee deep water. Twenty minutes of watching it explains Split better than a museum.

Pack a towel and a swimsuit in your day bag, not in the suitcase you have just locked away. Nobody on a catamaran will mind that your hair is still wet.

Then eat properly. The restaurants directly on the Riva sell the view and charge for it, and you can do a lot better a street or two back. Look for a konoba, the small family places serving grilled fish, black risotto and pašticada, and read our local guide to where to eat in Split before you sit down anywhere.

With five hours you can put all three together: the palace, a ride out to the peninsula, lunch and a swim, and still be back at the pier an hour early. That is a very good day, and the people who do it often wish they had booked a night here instead.

• Bačvice beach is a short walk from the port
• Keep a towel and swimsuit in your day bag, not your suitcase
• Eat a street or two back from the Riva, not on it
• Five hours is enough for the palace, the peninsula, lunch and a swim

Checked Out, With a Flight Tonight

The other version of this problem is the last day. The apartment wants the keys back at ten, the flight is at nine in the evening, and there is a whole day in between with a suitcase attached to it.

Ask your accommodation first whether they will hold your bags after checkout, because plenty will, and it is the easiest option of all. If they will not, leave the bags at the bus station or a left luggage shop near the port. The airport shuttle leaves from the same place, so at the end of the day you collect your bags and step straight onto the bus.

Then spend the day exactly as above, with the swim saved for the late afternoon, when it does the most good before a long journey. And work backwards from the flight the same way you would from a boat. In summer we would leave the city around three hours before departure: half an hour or more on the road, extra for August traffic, and the rest for an airport that gets very busy on summer evenings.

• Ask your accommodation whether they will hold bags after checkout
• Otherwise leave bags near the bus station, where the airport shuttle leaves
• Save the swim for late afternoon, before the journey
• In summer, leave the city about three hours before your flight

What We Would Not Try

An island or a national park. Krka, Trogir, Hvar and the Blue Cave are all wonderful, and every one of them is a day. Squeezed into a gap before a ferry, each turns into an afternoon of watching the clock. Our day trips from Split guide is there for when you come back with a full day.

Walking up Marjan at midday in July with a boat at four. It looks close on the map. It is a steep climb in full sun, and the heat coming off the stone steps is serious. Go up with wheels, or early in the morning, or on another visit.

The restaurant nearest the pier. There are exceptions, but on the whole, the closer a table is to the ferries, the more you pay for less.

Cutting the port hour down to half an hour to fit in one more thing. Of all the ways to spoil a trip to the islands, this is the most common and the least necessary.

• Do not try an island, Krka or Trogir in a gap before a boat
• Do not walk up Marjan at midday in summer
• Do not eat at the table closest to the ferries
• Do not shave time off the hour you need at the port

Summer Heat and Cruise Ship Days

Most people with a few hours in Split are here in summer, and the heat changes the plan. In July and August the old town is at its best before eleven in the morning and after six in the evening. In between, the stone holds the heat and the lanes fill up. If your window falls in the middle of the day, put the swim and a shaded lunch in it and do the walking either side.

The crowds follow a pattern too. On days when cruise ships are in, the palace fills with groups from mid morning, and the Peristyle can be hard to move through. Do it the other way round from the crowd, the waterfront first and the palace later, and you will miss the worst of it.

For more on handling a hot day here, read our guide to Split in July and August. And if you have come off a cruise ship rather than a plane or a bus, our Split cruise port guide is written for your day specifically.

• In summer, walk before eleven and after six
• Put the swim and a shaded lunch in the hottest hours
• On cruise ship days, do the waterfront first and the palace later
• Carry water, a hat and sunscreen, even for a short walk

If You Want Us to Handle the Clock

We are a tuk tuk tour company, so read this section knowing that. For somebody with a few hours in Split and a departure they cannot miss, we think a short private ride is genuinely one of the best uses of the time, and here is why, as plainly as we can put it.

Our tours are short enough to fit the gap. The Classic Tour is eighty minutes and the See Everything Tour is two hours, and if your gap falls in the evening, the Romantic Night Ride is sixty. We can pick you up at the ferry port, which takes the walk and the guesswork out of the start. The route goes out to the peninsula, the viewpoints and the beaches, which are the parts of Split you would otherwise miss entirely. The tuk tuk has a roof, which matters more than it sounds in July, and every tour includes an ice cold drink.

On luggage, the honest answer is that it depends. A couple of small bags with two of you is usually fine. Four people with four suitcases is not, because the space that would hold them is where your legs go. Message us before you book, tell us how many people and how many bags, and we will tell you straight away whether it works.

Tell us when your boat or your flight leaves when you book, and we will plan the timing around it rather than the other way round.

And when not to book us. If you have less than two usable hours, do not. Walk the palace, have a coffee on the Riva and get to the port early. If you have already seen the peninsula on an earlier visit, spend the time at Bačvice instead. A tour squeezed into a gap that is too small makes for a worse day, and we would rather you came back and did it properly.

• Tours of sixty, eighty or one hundred and twenty minutes
• Pick up from the ferry port
• A roof over your head and an ice cold drink included
• Travelling with bags? Ask us first, it depends on the size and how many of you there are
• Tell us your departure time and we plan around it
• Under two usable hours, skip the tour and walk the palace

What We Would Tell a Friend

Leave the bags at the bus station, not in the old town and not in your hands. Work out your real time by taking an hour off your departure. Walk the palace and the Riva first. If you have three hours, go out to the peninsula, because that is the Split people remember. If you have more, swim at Bačvice and eat a street back from the water.

And do not spend the whole time sitting in the terminal. Split is a few minutes away, and a few hours of it is enough to make most people come back for a week.