Split is the best-placed base on the Croatian coast, and it is not close. A Roman provincial capital sits fifteen minutes inland, a UNESCO-listed island town half an hour west, four islands within an easy crossing, two national parks in reach, and a river canyon twenty five kilometres down the coast. The airport is in the middle of it, the ferry port is in the middle of the city, and the motorway starts above the town.
What follows is what actually fits in a day, with honest timings. Times are one way by car unless stated, and every one of them should have margin added in July and August, when the coast road backs up and the parking at the popular places fills before ten.
Salona and Klis, fifteen minutes inland
Start with the one almost nobody does. Salona, at modern Solin, was the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia and the largest city on this coast, with a population in the tens of thousands. Diocletian was born there, and the palace in Split was his retirement from it. The amphitheatre, the basilicas, the walls and the necropolis lie in open fields you can walk through, and on most mornings you will have long stretches of it to yourself.
Above it, at the head of the pass that carries the road inland, Klis Fortress has been the key to Split for two thousand years. It was held against the Ottomans for decades under Petar Kruzic and eventually lost, and the view from the top explains the whole geography of the city in one glance: the bay, the airport, the islands, and the mountains behind. Television viewers will recognise it as Meereen.
The two pair naturally into one morning, and both are reachable on a city bus if you would rather not hire a car.
Trogir, half an hour west
A walled town on its own small island between the mainland and Ciovo, reached by two bridges, and UNESCO listed since 1997. Greeks from Issa founded it as Tragurion in the third century BC, and because there was nowhere to expand, the street plan has barely moved since the thirteenth.
The reason to make the trip is the west portal of the cathedral of St Lawrence, carved by the master Radovan in 1240 and the finest Romanesque sculpture on the Adriatic. Kamerlengo fortress holds the western corner, the promenade along the channel is where the town eats, and the whole centre takes an afternoon at a slow pace.
Trogir sits five minutes from Split Airport, which makes it the obvious first or last stop of a trip: better than a hotel by the terminal, and a far better way to spend the hours before an evening flight.
Omis and the Cetina canyon, half an hour east
The Cetina cuts out of the mountains to the sea at the one break in this stretch of coast, and that gap made Omis a pirate base in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The corsairs took Venetian shipping and withdrew upriver where the galleys could not follow, which worked for long enough to be remembered.
Today the canyon behind the town is the regional centre for rafting, canyoning and zip lines, the cliffs draw climbers from across Europe, and two fortresses stand above the old quarter: Mirabela on the rock immediately behind it, and Starigrad higher up the ridge. There is a long beach in front of the houses if you want to do nothing instead.
It is the best half day out of Split that needs no boat, and the drive down the coast road is part of the point.
Krka, an hour north
The waterfall day for people who would rather not walk all day. The cascades at Skradinski buk are reached on a flat boardwalk loop of a couple of kilometres, shaded in stretches, and manageable with children and pushchairs.
Two things to know before you go. Swimming below the falls has been banned for several years, so do not plan the day around it. And high season runs on timed tickets that sell out, so buy ahead rather than turning up. Arriving through Skradin on the park boat is the pleasant way in and worth the extra half hour.
Plitvice, two and a half hours inland
Sixteen terraced lakes joined by waterfalls, linked by boardwalks that run just above the surface of the water, with a shuttle bus and an electric boat covering the distances. It is the most famous park in Croatia and the longest day on this list: five hours of driving in total before you have walked anywhere.
Do it if you have three days or more in Split, and do it at opening or in May or late September. Tickets are timed and sell out in summer. If your window is tighter than that, Krka is the better use of the day.
The Blue Cave and Vis, a full day on the water
Day boats leave the Riva for Bisevo, a small island beyond Vis, where light entering through an underwater opening turns the whole chamber blue for a couple of hours around midday. The timing is not negotiable, which is why these days start early, and the cave closes in a swell, which is why the forecast matters.
Most operators build the run into a five- or six-island circuit taking in Vis town, the Pakleni islands and a swim stop or two, at ten to twelve hours with lunch aboard. Book through an agency counter in town if the weather is uncertain: they know which operators cancel in a bura and which push on regardless.
Brac and Hvar, the two easy islands
Brac is the cheap and simple one. The car ferry crosses to Supetar in about fifty minutes for a few euros, no booking, many sailings a day, and the town is white stone with swimming off the rocks either side of the harbour. A bus meets the boat for Bol and Zlatni rat, the sand spit that changes shape with the current, though that turns a half day into a full one.
Hvar is the longer crossing and the busier destination. The fast catamaran reaches Hvar town in about an hour; the car ferry goes to Stari Grad, which is a different place entirely and needs onward transport. Hvar town in August is the liveliest and most expensive place in Dalmatia; Stari Grad and the Pakleni islands are the quieter halves of the same island.
Mostar and Dubrovnik, the long ones
Both are sold as day trips from Split and both are long. Mostar is about three hours each way and crosses into Bosnia and Herzegovina, so everybody in the car needs a passport; the organised days usually add Medugorje or the Kravice waterfalls. Dubrovnik is three hours each way down a spectacular coast road, with the Neum corridor to cross, and it means seeing the old town in the middle of the day when the ships are in.
Neither is a bad day, but both are better as an overnight if the trip allows it. If it does not, take a driver rather than a hire car: three hours each way after a long day is the part people underestimate.
Kastela and the vineyards, if you want the unobvious one
Between Split and Trogir, seven villages run along the bay in a line, each grown around a fortified villa that a landowning family built in the fifteenth or sixteenth century as cover against Ottoman raids. Most visitors pass through them without noticing, because the airport sits in the middle of the strip and everybody is looking at their phone.
The waterfronts at Kastel Stari and Kambelovac are worth an hour, and the vineyards behind them are worth knowing about: the grape grown here as Crljenak Kastelanski turned out, once somebody DNA tested it, to be the same variety as Californian Zinfandel. Several operators build a tour around exactly that, usually paired with Trogir.
Which of these needs a car
Salona, Klis, Trogir and Omis are all reachable by public bus, and Trogir is on the airport line. Krka and Plitvice work by organised minibus and are less stressful that way, because the parking and the timed tickets are somebody else's problem. The islands are ferries and boats, so a car is a liability rather than an asset unless you are staying over.
That leaves the case for hiring a car as the day you want to combine things: Salona with Klis and then inland to Sinj, or Omis with a drive on up the Cetina, or Trogir with the Kastela waterfronts and the vineyards behind them. Hire desks sit at the airport and in the city, and the motorway makes the inland runs faster than the map suggests.
How to order them
With one free day, take Krka if you want water and Trogir if you want a town, or pair Salona and Klis if you want the history that explains Split itself.
With two, put the second on the sea: Brac by public ferry for a cheap half day, or the Blue Cave circuit for a full one.
With three, add Plitvice or Omis, and consider giving the third day to nothing at all. Split rewards a slow morning more than most cities on this coast, and the palace at seven in the morning is a different building from the palace at noon.
