Split is a harbour and a plan.
Which island day gets you into the Blue Cave. Whether Krka beats Plitvice on a Tuesday. What the cellars under the palace actually hold. Every tour that leaves Split, reviewed and ranked.
The days the Riva empties for.
By eight in the morning the waterfront is a queue of skippers calling island names. These are the six that fill first, and the best version of each.
Split by budget: Riva stroll to private skipper.
Every tour on the site sorted by what it actually costs. The cheap end of Dalmatia is not the disappointing end.
Palace walks, olive oil and wine tastings, sea kayaks and the short hops up the coast.
The standard island day: shared boat, five stops, lunch and a skipper who knows the coves.
Private speedboats, national-park days with tickets included, and the long runs to Dubrovnik and Mostar.
Five islands, one cave, and the boat you actually want.
All 80 Blue Cave tours →
Nearly every Split boat day sells the same names — Biševo, Vis, Hvar, the Pakleni coves, Šolta. What separates them is the hull, the head count and whether you reach the cave before the queue does.
Blue Cave, Vis and the five-island run
Out to Biševo early, into the cave in a rowed tender, then Stiniva, the Pakleni coves and a late Hvar hour before the run home.
Blue Lagoon, Šolta and a slow lunch
Twenty minutes of open water and the sea turns to glass over the sand off Šolta. Swim, eat, doze, and be back for the evening on the Riva.
Hvar, Brač and the Pakleni islands
Zlatni rat before the wind turns, a Pakleni cove for the swim, then long enough in Hvar town to climb to the fortress and still make the boat.
What the Dalmatian coast books most.
Every review →Ranked by the number of travellers who have actually been and left a verdict — and what each one is worth its day for.
1
Krka Waterfalls Trip with Boat Cruise and Swimming
Krka waterfalls and a river boat cruise from Skradin, plus Primošten beach time, all guided from Split for about $31 per person.
From · $31
Read our review →2
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $45.95
3
Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour
from $111.26
4
Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tour
from $44
5
Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour
from $109
6
Blue Lagoon & 3 Islands Cruise with Lunch from Split
from $78.6
7
Blue Cave and Hvar Tour – 5 Islands Tour from Split and Trogir
from $120.93
8
Old Town and Diocletian Palace Walking Tour
from $17
Diocletian built a retirement villa. Split still lives in it.
The old town is not next to the palace, it IS the palace: an emperor’s AD 305 walls with apartments, bars and a cathedral grown into them. The cellars underneath held a dragon on television and a fish market before that.
Krka and Plitvice both start from Split. They are not the same day.
Krka is an hour away and built for a hot afternoon — boardwalks, a boat, and the falls at Skradinski buk (swimming there has been off-limits since 2021). Plitvice is three hours each way and worth every one of them for the terraces.
The cave, the fortress and the canyon nobody else has.
Boat trips and old stones are Mediterranean staples. A cave that glows from underneath, a fortress that played Meereen, and a river you can raft before lunch belong to this coast.
The Blue Cave
The Modra špilja glows because the light comes in below the waterline and bounces off a white stone floor. It only works mid-morning, only in calm water, and only from a small tender rowed in through an opening barely taller than a person. Rough sea closes it outright, which is why every skipper checks the forecast before promising it.
- 1Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,150 reviews
- 2Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,320 reviews
- 3Blue Cave and Hvar Tour – 5 Islands Tour from Split and Trogir★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,815 reviews
Meereen and the Dragon Pit
Klis, the fortress in the pass behind Split, played Meereen; the cellars under Diocletian’s palace played the room where the dragons were chained. Both are real places with a thousand years of their own history, and the tours that cover them are worth taking for the ridge view and the vaulting even if you have never seen an episode.
- 1Split Game of Thrones Tour: City of Dragons★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 556 reviews
- 2Game of Thrones Tour with Diocletian’s Palace Cellar★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 545 reviews
- 3City Walking Tour w/ Game of Thrones Locations★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 318 reviews
The Cetina Canyon
Half an hour inland the Cetina cuts a limestone canyon that runs cold all summer. The rafting stretch is gentle enough for a first timer and still throws in cliff jumps and a swim through a cave. It runs roughly April to October and the water level decides how lively the day gets.
- 1Cetina River Rafting with Cliff Jumping and Cave Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,219 reviews
- 2Half-Day Rafting Experience on Cetina River with Cliff Jumping and more★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 940 reviews
- 3From Split or Omiš: Rafting, Cliff Jumping, & Cave Exploring★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 841 reviews
Book these before you fly into Split.
Most of Dalmatia can be arranged from a Riva kiosk the night before. These cannot: they run on park ticket releases, twelve-seat boats and a sea that decides for itself.
- 01Plitvice Lakes National Park Guided TourNational-park entry is timed and sold in advance; summer morning slots go weeks out, and a tour without tickets included leaves you queueing.
- 02Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourThe cave takes small tenders in daily slots and closes when the sea gets up. Boats that hold a slot sell out first.
- 03Cetina River Rafting with Cliff Jumping and Cave TourThe Cetina runs roughly April to October and the morning departures fill first, when the canyon is still in shade.
Inland Dalmatia presses its own oil and pours its own plavac.
Twenty minutes from the Riva the coast turns agricultural: olive terraces above Klis, plavac mali vines on the slopes behind Omiš, and konobas where the peka comes out of the ashes at the hour they said it would.
- 1Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tourfrom $45.95
- 2Krka Waterfalls, Food & Wine Tasting Tourfrom $44
- 3Krka National Park Tour with tour Guide & Wine tasting from Split & Trogirfrom $50.79
When the bura blows, the boats stay tied to the Riva.
The bura is the cold northeasterly that comes over the mountains and flattens a day’s sailing; in high summer the afternoon maestral does its own smaller version. Skippers cancel, ferries thin out, and the answer is inland and uphill: the palace cellars, the fortress in the pass, a konoba with a wine list.
By destination — where the boat or bus goes
The Blue Lagoon122 tours
Blue Cave & Vis80 tours
Hvar98 tours- Brač47 tours
Trogir153 tours
Krka93 tours
Plitvice59 tours
Mostar26 tours
Dubrovnik60 tours- Every destination →
A week in Split, in the order that works.
The palace
The CetinaFresh off the Split waterfront.
All recent →
Private VIP Brac and Hvar Day Trip from Split
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Private Transfer From or To the Split Airport
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Brač Half Day Beach Party Transfer to Olife Beach Club
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Private Transfer from Split to Zagreb, Hotel-to-hotel, English-speaking driver
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Private ”Game of Thrones” Walking Tour in Split (entrance tickets included)
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Three Islands Boat Tour from Split with Lunch and Drinks Included
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Split to Dubrovnik Private Transfer with Stop in Ston
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Private Escape to Blue cave and islands from Split
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