Split
Croatia
A Roman emperor’s palace that became a living city
Photo by Matthias Mullie on Unsplash
Photos by Donna Spearman, Avery Meeker, mana5280 and Spencer Davis on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Croatia
May to June, September to October
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 116mm in Nov
Where it is
43.51°N, 16.44°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Explore Diocletian’s Palace cellars
- Climb the cathedral bell tower
- Hike or cycle Marjan Hill
- Ferry to Hvar for a day
- Swim at Bačvice and watch picigin
- Take a Blue Cave boat tour
Split travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Croatia
Mid-rangeEuro since 2023. Split is meaningfully cheaper than Dubrovnik and makes a better base for island hopping.
ATMs & cards
Zagrebačka banka, PBZ and OTP machines are the good ones. Skip the Euronet machines lining the Riva. Decline conversion.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- machines along the Riva
Use these instead
- Zagrebačka banka
- PBZ
- OTP
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Croatia
Very safeSafe city. Ferry ports get chaotic in August — arrive early and book vehicle ferries ahead. Watch your footing on the polished palace stone when wet.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (6 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Bačvice — at closing time
- Bag snatching in the palace alleys in high season
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Croatia visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Croatia
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for inland forest areas
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Coastal towns have clinics geared to the tourist season; islands are thinner, and serious cases go to Split or Zagreb.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodEat konoba-style away from the Riva — peka, grilled fish and šporki makaruli. The green market and fish market just outside the palace walls are worth a morning.
Nightlife
Livelier and cheaper than Dubrovnik, and the jumping-off point for the island parties on Hvar and Pag.
- Diocletian's Palace — bars in Roman cellars and courtyards
- Bačvice — the beach, and the late clubs
- Riva — the evening promenade before any of it
Closing: Bars 01:00 in the palace, Bačvice until 05:00.
A beer in a bar: €3–5
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- From the airport
- Split airport to the town €30–40, Zagreb airport to the centre €20–30
- Against a taxi
- Well under the street taxis, which is why the taxi drivers protested about it for years.
On the islands supply collapses out of season — in November a car may be twenty minutes away or nowhere.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Zagreb — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Croatia
Why these are Croatia's numbers and not Split's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 72% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at about the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Split, so these are medians for all of Croatia. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Croatia, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Croatian
- HelloDobar danDO-bar dan
- PleaseMolimMO-leem
- Thank youHvalaHVA-la
- Yes / NoDa / Neda / neh
4 more phrases
- Excuse meOprostiteo-PROS-ti-teh
- How much is it?Koliko košta?KO-li-ko KOSH-ta
- The bill, pleaseRačun, molimRA-choon
- Cheers!Živjeli!ZHIV-yeh-li
Religion
Catholic
Strongly Catholic, particularly along the coast and in Dalmatia. Sunday Mass fills churches that are otherwise full of tourists.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Cover shoulders and knees to enter churches
- Greet with dobar dan on entering shops and restaurants
- Take coffee slowly — a kava can last an hour and that is the point
- Try the local wine rather than defaulting to Italian
Don't
- Do not call Croatia part of the Balkans casually, and avoid glib talk about the 1990s war
- Do not wear swimwear away from the beach; several coastal towns fine it
- Do not tip more than rounding up
- Do not compare Croatian to Serbian in company
Where to stay in Split
No Holistay rentals in Split yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Split on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Split SPU
40 minfrom the airport· 12 km as the crow flies
Airport bus to the harbour, 40 min.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
