Split is where the Dalmatian islands begin, and almost everybody who comes here ends up on a boat. The city's passenger port sits on the eastern arm of the harbour, five minutes from the palace, with the coach station and the railway platforms in a row beside it, so an island day and a journey inland both start from the same few hundred metres of quay.
What confuses people is not the distance but the choice. There are two quite different kinds of boat, several operators, and on two of the islands the ferry arrives at a different town from the one most visitors are picturing. Get those three things right and the rest is timetables.
Car ferries and catamarans are different trips
The first decision is the kind of boat, and it usually makes itself.
Car ferries are the big white ships that open at the stern and swallow vehicles. They are slower, cheaper for a foot passenger, run all year, and they are the only way to take a car to an island. On most routes they arrive at the working harbour town on the side of the island facing Split, which is not always where visitors want to be.
Catamarans are foot passengers only. They are faster, dock in the town centres rather than the car-ferry berths, and they make it possible to chain islands together down the coast without returning to Split between each one. In summer their seats sell out.
Jadrolinija, the national line and the country's largest shipping company by passengers, runs both kinds. Kapetan Luka Krilo runs catamarans, and TP Line also sails to Hvar. Everything is listed under ferries.
Brac: the easy one
The car ferry to Supetar takes about 50 minutes and runs many times a day. It is the simplest island crossing from Split and the cheapest thing most visitors will do all week: a few euros as a foot passenger, no drama, and a white stone harbour town with swimming off the rocks either side of it when you arrive.
The complication is Bol. The famous beach at Zlatni rat, a spit of shingle that changes shape with the current, is on the far side of the island from Supetar. You can take the car ferry and then a bus across Brac, which turns a half day into a full one, or take a catamaran that sails to Bol directly when the season's timetable offers it. If Zlatni rat is the point of the trip, check for the direct boat first.
Hvar: two towns, two boats
Hvar is where most mistakes happen, because the island has two ports that a map makes look interchangeable.
The car ferry goes to Stari Grad, on the north coast, in about two hours. Stari Grad is one of the oldest towns in Croatia and worth a visit in its own right, but it is not Hvar town, which is a bus ride or a taxi away across the island.
The catamarans go to Hvar town itself, the harbour with the fortress above it, in roughly 50 minutes to an hour. That is the Hvar most people mean: the waterfront, the square, the boats to the Pakleni islands and the nightlife.
So the rule is simple. On foot and heading for Hvar town, take a catamaran. Bringing a car, take the ferry to Stari Grad and drive across. Arriving in Stari Grad on foot expecting the Hvar town waterfront is the error that eats an afternoon.
Vis: further out, and worth it
Vis is the most distant of the regular islands and feels it: it was a closed military zone for decades, and its villages kept a quieter pace than Hvar's. The car ferry takes a little over two hours; the catamaran is considerably quicker. Vis is also the jumping-off point for Bisevo and the Blue Cave, though the easier way to see the cave from Split is on one of the day boats listed under boat tours, which run the whole circuit and time the cave for the hours when the light works.
Treat Vis as an overnight rather than a day trip if you can. The return crossing leaves little time on the island once the journey out is counted, and the island rewards the slower pace: Vis town and Komiza on the far side are two different harbours, a bus ride apart.
Solta: the one nobody mentions
Solta is the closest island to Split and the least visited, which is its argument. The car ferry to Rogac takes about an hour. There is no famous beach and no big town, just olive groves, small harbours and the kind of quiet the busier islands lost years ago. For a visitor staying a week in Split who wants one day that feels nothing like the city, Solta is the answer.
Chaining islands down the coast
The catamarans make a one-way trip down the coast possible. Kapetan Luka Krilo publishes a route map from Split to Hvar, Vis, Supetar and Bol on Brac, Korcula, Mljet and on to Dubrovnik, with fares that start under nine euros for the shortest hops and rise to about twenty for the far end. That turns Split and Dubrovnik into the two ends of one journey rather than a return trip, with an island or two in between and no backtracking.
It needs planning in summer. Each leg is a separate booking on a boat that fills, so the order is: fix the nights on each island, then book every catamaran at once.
Wind, weather and the off season
The sea between Split and the islands is sheltered for most of the summer, but not all of it. The bura, the cold wind that comes down off the mountains from the north east, can arrive fast and blow hard, and when it does the fast catamarans are the first boats to stop. Car ferries are bigger and usually keep going, so on a windy morning the slower crossing is the one that sails. Check with the operator on the day rather than the evening before, and do not plan a tight connection to a flight around an island return in unsettled weather.
The schedule changes with the season as well. Car ferries to Brac, Hvar, Vis and Solta run all year, because people live on the islands and need them. The catamaran network is a summer creation: it is at its fullest from June to September, thins out through the shoulder months and shrinks to the essential routes in winter. A plan built on a July timetable will not work in November, so look at the dates you are actually travelling.
Buying tickets and getting on
Catamarans: book ahead in season. Seats are reserved and the popular summer sailings sell out, especially the morning boats to Hvar town. Online is easiest; the kiosks along the quay also sell them.
Car ferries as a foot passenger: buy the ticket before you board, from the kiosk or online. On all but the busiest summer departures there is room.
Car ferries with a car: this is the one that catches people out. In July and August the vehicle deck on the popular sailings fills well before departure, and being early matters as much as holding a ticket. Arrive well ahead of the sailing, join the lane for your route, and have a plan for the next departure if you do not make it. If you are leaving the car in Split instead, the Railway Station Car Park sits on the quay about ten metres from the ferry gates.
Public ferries versus excursion boats
The last trap is the simplest. The public ferries and catamarans leave from the passenger port on the eastern arm of the harbour. The excursion boats, the Blue Lagoon days, the Blue Cave speedboats, the sunset cruises, leave from along the Riva in front of the palace. They are different businesses in different places, and the touts on the Riva are selling the second kind.
If you want a scheduled crossing to an island town, you want the passenger port and a ticket from the operator. If you want a day on the water with swim stops and lunch, look at boat tours and book with an operator whose boat and route you can check. The Split Ferry Port page explains the layout of the quay.
A sensible first island
With one free day and no car: Brac, by car ferry to Supetar, or by catamaran to Bol if you want the beach.
For the island most people picture: Hvar town, by catamaran, with the Pakleni islands a short boat ride beyond it.
With two or three nights to spare: Vis, for the pace and for the Blue Cave.
For a day that feels nothing like Split: Solta.
And for a trip that ends somewhere else: a chain of catamarans down the coast, booked all at once.
