What's there to do in Split?

What’s there to do in Split?

If you ask me that question, I’d say just sit down in the promenade and enjoy the freaking view. Why do we always have to do so many extra activities, why can’t it just be about enjoying the moment? Yes you see that, I have make everything sound profound; even this!

Split is scenic, calm yet lively, clean and generally one of the best cities in Croatia but there’s something that you’ll notice after visiting Split for a day or two; that’s the realization that there isn’t much to do in Split! I know that came as shock to me too, but if that’s the case why is split so famous then?

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Well first of all because it's an awesome city. It's cultural, historic, cheap, beautiful and clean. Not to mention it has some of the nicest people ever. There are certain activities that one can do in Split itself and the rest are in the surrounding destinations.

Old town of Split

We did this one on the first day that we arrived, the entire old town looks like a scene from a medieval movie, and it’s sensational. When we were taking a walk through the secret pathways of the old town, or admiring the architecture, in every moment we got a different vibe. It was like one second we felt like we were in Rome, the other split felt like the south of France and in the next we felt like we were back home. It was surreal really, even though Split is unique in many senses; it still had a lot in common with other destinations in many other senses. I will go through the different landmarks that are seen in Split’s old town and give a little historical background for each.

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Before going to Croatia I was aware that a few of the famous series “Game of Thrones” were located in Croatia; for example King’s Landing is located in the city of Dubrovnik. However I didn’t know that they even filmed in Split! Yes one of my favorite cities was also filmed in Split. While visiting these locations I got so excited, I mean it's so cool to go to all these locations and even though I don’t identify as a hardcore Game of Thrones fan, I still enjoyed the realization.

Some streets in Split were used to film certain scenes of Game of Thrones and the basement of the Diocletian’s palace was where the dragons were being kept. If you are interested to read more about the key locations and sets of Game of Thrones, check out this article on the bored panda. I personally found it entertaining.

Diocletian’s Palace

The Diocletian’s Palace is one of the most important ruins of the Roman Empire. There aren’t that many remains left of the Roman Empire in the Adriatic coast today and the Diocletian’s palace is one of the few ones. The entire area of the palace and it’s surrounding fortress covers the area of over 30, 000 m2.

(You can see from the iphone camera quality that this was taken by me)

So who was Diocletian? He was a Roman emperor that came from a really poor background, he worked hard all his life and climbed the military ranks and became an emperor. He ruled from 284 BC to 305 BC before voluntarily retiring. He then settled on the then called “Illyrian” province of Rome. Today of course we all know that Illyrian province belongs to Croatia.

The remains don’t only include the palace but also the surrounding housing which were intended for the military staff of the retired emperor. Today cafes, restaurants, shops and even hotels have been created in the middle of all these ruins. It kinda gives it a very aesthetic vibe, given they have persevered the original architecture. Apart from the Diocletian’s palace, the rest of the structures in Split don’t go back to the Roman Era.

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So that’s a little history background because you don’t wanna be the tourist that just poses in front of the historic and old building without knowing it’s story. Every building, every landmark and every statue tells a story and it’s important for us to learn about them if we truly want to capture the essence of the city.

There is this thing about historical sites, they are either a sight to visit but not you are not allowed to access or a museum. That’s not the case when it comes to the old town of Split. The historical sites are infused with restaurants, cafes, shops and are packed with people like me and you. I don’t know about you but that certainly gave me the feeling of re living history.

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(Basement of the Palace where Game of Thrones was filmed)

I read up online that about 3000 people live today within the confines of the palace! If you are a little more curious and follow some of the unusual paths, you’ll see it for yourself.

Cathedral of Saint Domnius

To be honest I'm not really as excited as I was before when it comes to visiting more cathedrals. Yes they are majestic, complex and exalted but everywhere I go there’s a cathedral that everyone says it's a “must see” and I don’t know I guess I'm a little skeptical now.

However this cathedral was entirely something else. It consists of a church and a bell tower which is named after Saint Domnius. Domnius was a Bishop in Salona which was a roman city and the capital of Dalmatia region. Salona now is located in around Solin, which is basically a city really nearby Split.

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The Cathedral of Saint Domnius is the oldest cathedral in the world that is still in use in it’s original form! That’s crazy, that means that this church is the same as it was thousands of years ago, we’re walking the same steps!

All of this aside, my favorite thing was the bell tower. Upon paying 20 Kunas you could go up the bell tower and enjoy the spectacular view that it offered from up above. We were like okay it's just a bunch of stairs so why not, little did we know… first of all if you’re claustrophobic this place is not for you. Remember the whole thing about this church being original and untouched? Well turns out that the staircase to heaven was also paved with a lot of difficulties. The stairs were steep, narrow and dark. I mean narrow as if only a small person could pass through and so steep that you felt like you were climbing a hill. To be honest it was more like crawling than climbing. Yes you can see how athletic I am, yes I know. The view above was worth the climb, it felt like we were in the hunchback of Notre Dame. You know he used to go up the bell tower and ring the church bell. This place was something like that but about 100 times more beautiful. The view above was majestic, we stayed there about 15 minutes or so, not just cause of the beauty but also because we were dreading having to go down.

(The view from the bell tower, pretty crazy right? )

This is the one place I would urge you to go in the old town, it’s absolutely worth it. The interiors of the church needed a separate ticket; we were pretty tired and decided to ditch it.

If you aren’t a big fan of discovering these landmarks alone, there are also a lot of guided tours which you can take part in. They aren’t expensive and it can be fun to meet other tourists. There are walking tours, Segway tours and a Game of thrones tour (that’s for the hardcore GOT fans).

Take a walk and discover Split’s neighborhoods

That was probably the most enjoyable and effortless thing we did on our first day in split. The neighborhoods in Split are so aesthetically pleasing. Strolling along these narrow streets and alleys is bound to steal your heart; plus you will undoubtedly find a lot of Instagram worthy scenes. We walked through staircases, narrow alleys, more staircases and when we got tired we sipped on ice coffees and licked our melting ice creams. It was truly bliss. I will attach some of the cute pictures we took of these places.

(discovering split's neighborhoods)

Take a walk in the promenade

This article sure doesn’t have a lot of walking/strolling recommendations. If you aren’t a person that enjoys walking, you’re probably not gonna like Split, since a lot of the activities include a whole a lot of walking in the city. The promenade of Split is quite iconic; it’s one of the city’s main sights. I guess it could even be considered a landmark. We literally walked through the promenade every day and night, mostly because it connects the city together and also because it's beautiful. We watched the football matches there; we went to a lot of restaurants there and generally enjoyed sitting and sipping on our delicious Croatian beers there. Well it was mostly me sitting and drinking my beer, my friends were a lot more active.

Climb Marjan hill and enjoy the view

As you can already guess, this again includes a lot of climbing and going up a flight of stairs. We went here to watch the sunset but we miscalculated and reached a little later than the actual sunset. From the split Promenade we had to go up for about 15 minutes or so, there are quite a few stairs but it’s not so narrow like the other ones. The climbing up part wasn’t so exhausting, you keep going up and once you look down you see this beautiful town with the coast stretching beneath your feet; you'll get motivated to go even further. Once we got up there, there was a really nice bar at the top. They had these comfortable chairs where people were sitting on and enjoying the view. We didn’t sit at the bar, we just checked out the view, took a bunch of pictures and then came down to grab some dinner. Apparently there are a lot of churches on Marjan hill; we didn’t check those out since by the time we reached up it was pretty dark.

Haggle with street vendors in Split's market

Well haggling is definitely a hobby to some but it's mostly customary in this market. Split's market is called Pazar and it's a green market. It's similar to the one we went to in Zagreb but maybe a little smaller. All of the products are fresh and cheap. In Croatia the variety of fruits and vegetables is insane! It's surely a vegetarian's heaven. The prices are really cheap and if you're in Split for a couple of days be sure to go here and get your daily dose of cellulose and vitamins.

This is the address: Ul. Stari pazar 8, 21000, Split, Croatia.

These are so far the only things can come to my mind about Split but if I remember more activities that you can do in the city besides going to the beach of course, I’ll add them. In the next entries I want to take a look at Split’s nightlife, the restaurants, the best beaches and the best islands nearby.

I really hope you enjoy this piece and let me know what you think.

Did you know Split was actually one of the locations the famous Game of Thrones was filmed in? Want to know were the other shooting locations? Take a look at this post describing 10 different countries that can be spotted in the background of the iconic series.

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