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Split Croatia

We spent months planning our honeymoon and decided to start our journey in Split Croatia. When I first starting telling everyone about our honeymoon plans to Croatia, they thought we were crazy!! At the time no one had really heard of Croatia but now it’s considered one of the top destinations for Europe!! Split has so much history, architecture, and culture which makes it a great place to start your Croatian Adventure!!

History of Split
What to do in Split
How long should you stay in Split?
Where to stay in Split?
How to get around Split?
Other Croatia Adventures

History of Split

In the 4th century, the Roman Emperor Diocletian decided to build his retirement palace along the coast of Croatia. Once he died, other Roman Emperors would visit Diocletian’s Palace on occasion but by the 6th century it was basically abandoned. By the 7th century, some of the nearby villagers decided to move into Diocletian’s Palace. The palace walls provided protection, so they slowly turned the palace into a well protected town. As the town grew in numbers, more buildings were needed. Diocletian’s large walkways were narrowed to make more room for houses and Diocletian’s gardens were destroyed so the people could build houses on the land. They built and they transformed the palace into a city, now known as Split.  Split is now the second largest city in Croatia. It has some of the best preserved Roman architecture in the world and it’s absolutely gorgeous!!

What to do in Split?

Well obviously you have to visit Diocletian’s Palace and Old Town Split (which is basically the same thing, remember the palace turned into a town)!! We spent our first day just walking around looking at all of the architecture and the little shops!! We ended our first evening with some gelato and a walk along the Riva. Such a pretty evening!!

On your second day in Split I recommend Split Walking Tours. We booked our tickets in advance just to be safe, you hate to get there and find out they’re sold out.  We learned a lot about the history of Croatia, Split, and Diocletian from our tour guide.  After our tour we walked to Marajan Hill, the popular scenic overlook of Split. You can put “Marajan Hill Stairs” in your google maps and it will take you there.  It took us about 10-15 minutes to take the stairs to the top, so it’s not too long. It’s definitely worth the view!! There’s also a little cafe at the top called Vidilica, a nice place to grab a little bite to eat while enjoying the view. We walked around town a little more and then headed back to our AirBnB. Just around the corner of our AirBnB was a little brewery (Mandrill Nano Brewery) that we decided to check out. Neil loves to try new beers so we thought it’d be fun to try some local Croatian beer.

How long should you stay in Split??

We stayed in Split for 2 nights, which was plenty of time to see all of the major highlights at a good pace. We weren’t rushed and we felt like we got to see everything we wanted to see.

Where to stay??

We stayed at an AirBnB a few blocks away from Old Town Split (link here to the AirBnB we booked).  It was the perfect location!! Staying in the walls can be expensive so we saved lots of money by staying about 5 minutes away. Also our host showed us some local restaurants with authentic Croatian food and she even taught us a few Croatian terms!!

How to get around Split??

We took a taxi from the airport to our AirBnB and then a ferry from Split to our next destination.  Getting around Split was easy, we walked everywhere!! Everything we wanted to see was within walking distance of our AirBnB. There’s no need to rent a car. I’m glad we didn’t even try to rent a car because parking would’ve been impossible!!

Where to next??

I recommend travelling to Korcula and Dubrovnik after your stay in Split.

Other Honeymoon Posts

Korcula, Croatia
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Santorini, Greece
Engelberg, Switzerland