The lifeline of Dalmatia and the largest city on the Adriatic coast delights every visitor with its lavish beauty and magnificent history. Today, Split represents the urban center of Croatia’s southern regions, while its history dates back to Roman times.
Located at the foot of the Marjan slope, it is the biggest city on the Adriatic coast, but also is a university and cultural centre. Even though today Split is the urban centre of Dalmatia, the old town centre with Diocletian's palace maintains its charm, and aside from antique buildings and monuments from other historical periods, it has memorials to artists such as Marko Marulić and Ivo Tijardović, who lived and worked here, celebrating Split with their work even outside Croatia's borders.Besides the many beaches in the surroundings, the most famous is the legendary Bačvice, a sandy beach located almost right in the centre of the city, a popular place for swimming with people from Split at any time, day and night. The energy of Split can be felt in all its parts, however the heart and soul of the city is best encountered on the always sunny waterfront, the city's promenade, along which is the main ferry port.In the eastern part of the Riva, along the walls of old Diocletian's palace, one of the biggest and best kept palaces from the Roman period, is the picturesque city market (Pazar). Here you can feel best Split's breathing and its temperamental and direct population. If you find yourself in Split during the summer, you can enjoy the rich cultural and entertainment life, because there in Split, together with its shops, courtyards and other spaces, are turned into a big stage under the blue skies. Besides a large number of other events, the traditional Split summer festival will entertain you with its choice of drama, opera and concerts for every taste. Split is a sports metropolis. In 1979 it was host to the Mediterranean games and from here come the famous tennis players Goran Ivanišević and Mario Ančić, the basketball players Dino Rađa and Toni Kukoč. The inhabitants of Split love every type of sport, and as the town is located beside the sea – understandably – they are also great fans of football.For those into mountaineering or just an outing into the countryside, there is the Marjan hill above Split, a popular place for outings among the people of Split, under which there is one more attractive beach – Kašuni. Many people from Split love to go to the neighbouring islands of Ćiovo and Šolta, where many have holiday homes.
The town of Trogir is probably more popular as a cultural historical centre than as a typical tourist one, which is not surprising given that Trogir with its old town centre, stone streets, diverse buildings, and unique Radovan's portal, due to beauty and uniqueness, it was included on UNESCO's list of world cultural heritage. That is the reason why Trogir hasn't developed exactly in the sense of tourism, so you won't find big hotel or tourist complexes here, which infact makes it maybe even more attractive. Apart from the beautiful architecture, what gives Trogir its special charm is how many tourists adoringly look at the town's attraction or enjoy sitting in a terrace on the wide waterfront, observing the sea and the small boats.Its not unusual to meet artists here, painters who, bring their easels to the waterfront, and paint, capturing the beauty of Trogir's walls on their canvases. Something completely different is the neighbouring island Čiovo, which is joined to Trogir with a bridge. Čiovo through a narrow channel jealously observes the beauty of Trogir and tries to impress with its trumps – tourists. The large number of people from Split recognise the convenience of Čiovo, and many have holiday homes here. There are a large number of beautiful beaches among whom the most popular are Milićevo, Bok, Bušinci and Bijela beach at Okrug Gornji, the beach Slatine at the same named place, the Kava beach at Okrug Donji. For those who tend towards exploring, there are beautiful sandy and pebbled beaches on the islands Drvenik Veli and Mali, to which you can arrive by small boat or with the ferry line from Split which stops in Trogir. North of Trogir are a few smaller places which are mainly orientated towards tourism, and the biggest among them are Marina, Seget and Vinišće. Apart from beautiful beaches among which you can find sandy ones in the shade of pine trees, here is a modern, equipped marina for sailors. Between Trogir and Split is the unique administrative centre Kaštel, which is formed from seven smaller settlements that extend along the Kaštel bay.As its name suggests, here are built seven castles, fortresses - Sućurac, Gomilica, Kambelovac, Lukšić, Kaštel Stari, Kaštel Novi and Kaštel Štafilić – around whom formed settlements. The castles were mainly built in the period between the 14th and 16th century, and the majority of them today are well preserved, offering a special charm for these small places. The castles until recently were unused in a tourist sense because of their unfavourable position between Split and Trogir, but also because of the industries which developed in the middle of the last century in the Kaštel bay. Today the situation is somewhat better so that here private accomodation has developed and the fact that the airport is nearby helps too.
