Split, Croatia. Travel Guide to Split.
Our original plan was to skip Split, but we ended up staying there for two nights.
Getting to Split From Plitvace National Park
From Plitvace you can catch a direct bus to Split. It costs 180kuna (+ luggage costs, probably about 10 kuna) and takes about 6 hours. As we were waiting for the bus from Plitvace to Split a taxi came. It cost 200 Kuna and took less than 4 hours. It is worth the extra 10-20 Kuna.
We hadn’t booked any accommodation and we arrived on Friday. Apparently all the Sail Croatia ‘tours’ (party boats) leave on the Saturday, and it was also a Croatian holiday weekend (St Mary or something like that), so every hostel we tried was fully booked.
We ended up stumbling upon a lady who had a friend who had an apartment for rent. She charged us 200Kuna per person, per night (there’s 3 of us). It was close to the city, 2 bedrooms and a couple of fold out couches, clothes washing machine and fully stocked kitchen (minus food). I have a feeling we could have bartered a little but I think it was a pretty good deal. You could very comfortably fit 6 people, although there is only one bathroom.
Contact Mirna. 0959046890. mirnasmajo@gmail.com. Her English is quite good and she is very nice.
Getting to the Beach in Split, Croatia
The beach close to town is easy to find and as such, very crowded. From the bus station, head SSE. Walk on the east side of the park. It will lead you to the beach.
Map of Split, Croatia, Bus station to beach.
Unlike other beaches in Croatia that I’ve seen so far, this one is a sand beach.
Getting to the Sphinx’s
There are two original Egyptian Sphinxes in Split. Nowhere near as big as the one in Egypt, but impressive none the less. The one in front of Jupiters Temple has no head, and the other is located in Peristal Square, which seems to be ‘unharmed.’
Map of Split Croatia, Bus Station to Sphinxes, and therefore, Old Town.
Headless Sphinx. Split, Croatia
Where to Get the Best Ice-cream in Split, Croatia
It wasn’t surprising that Split is a little more expensive than the Northern parts of Croatia, after all, it is a tourist town.
Get the Latest Survive Travel Books FREE! Click Here to Get Them.For some reason we decided to hunt down the best deal for icecream. Not because of the 1 or 2 Kunas we would save, but mainly because we did not appreciate that we would have to pay extra for the cone.
We ended up stumbling upon this place. 7Kuna for the ice cream, including the cone, and they also dip it in chocolate for you, no extra charge. Good flavors too. A waffle cone cost 2 kuna extra. It’s hard to explain directions so you’re just going to have to look at the map.
Best ice cream in Split, Croatia
Getting to the Islands off Split
There are a number of islands off the coast of Split. Originally we were going to go to three of them, but we ended up only doing one. This was because we wanted to go on from the islands to Dubrovnic, and the ferries that do this on leave on certain days (Tues, Thurs and Sat), so it was not good for us.
Getting to any of the islands is easy enough. Just go to the ferry terminal and buy the ticket.
Getting to Brac Island
The island we went to was Brac. There are a few ferries each day. We caught the 1030. It took about 40-50 minutes to reach the island and cost 33 Kuna (one way). From there, we took a bus to Bol, the main part with the famous beach. It costs 50 Kuna return and they time the bus leaving with the ferry arrival. The bus left at 1145 and took about an hour to get to Bol. So the whole journey ended up being about 2.5 hours. Then we spent a couple of hours on the island and had to go back to get the 1800 ferry.
Bol, Brac Island, Split
In my opinion, I would not recommend doing it, unless you really love to just be on a different beach. It is not worth the effort (in my mind). I do recommend going to at least one island, and I didn’t get to see the others, but I would say that Brac is not the one to go to. Apparently Hvar is the party island (and the biggest with the most to do). If I were to do it again, I’d go to Korcula.
If I Had More Time
There is one thing I wanted to do but didn’t get a chance to, which was to climb the big hill and get a view of the city. I mean the one with the jesus cross on it.
You could also climb the bell tower to get the view (15 kuna).
Next Stop… Makarska
I’d never even heard of Makarska before getting to Split, but we didn’t wanted to go on a bus all the way to Dubrovnik, so we picked it as a good halfway destination. It turned out to be one of my favorite destinations in Croatia.
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