Walk to the Palace for a little morning stroll. Trust me on this one. It may be busy, but it will be a great way to start. Just get situated. This is how I like to start every trip: get lost. Follow some small alleys (avoid dark creepy ones with questionable men lurking).
By the time you get lost and find yourself again, you will have familiarized yourself with the city and its beauty. The Palace is small enough that you can lose yourself, buy some postcards, have a coffee and be back for the free walking tour at 10am.
10am: Walking Tour
The walking tours meet in the centre of the Palace. There is also a tourist centre nearby. I dipped into the centre to pick up some brochures and maps before my tour. The tour is literally 1 kuna (a penny). Now, this doesn't mean it's completely free. As a former guide, I would say: tip your guide. From what I understood, that's how the guides are paid. If your guide is good, tip well.
My guide was Danko, a history student at the university in Zagreb. He was FABULOUS. He was able to give so many stories and recommendations.
11:30am: Ice Cream
You have, no doubt, saturated your mind with information at this point. You deserve a cone of ice cream. The Croatian ice cream was DELICIOUS. Most spots are 7 kuna for a scoop (1 Euro). Ice cream is always a good idea. Eat it by the water.
Noon: Lunch?
I never ate lunch in Croatia. It's a meal that I replace with ice cream or granola bars.
A better use of your time? Head back to the Palace and wipe that ice cream off of your face! Dip into the Cathedral and buy the 'all-inclusive' ticket. The ticket allowed me access to the Cathedral of St. Dominus, the Crypt, the Baptistery, and the bell tower. All were beautiful and well worth the money. I also visited the Temple of Jupiter.
2pm: Market
The green market is located just outside of the Palace and is well worth a look. You can buy some scarves, lavender, lace, or yummy food!
4pm: Ice-cream!
Grab another ice-cream. You deserve it. Don't worry, you will work it off soon enough.
Make your way to Marjan's Hill. You're going to hike up to watch the sunset over the city. There are so many stairs. It's worth it:
6pm: Dinner!
There are many nice restaurants in Split. I didn't visit them. I was on a tight budget. For dinner I would always head back to the Hostel and head with some other packers. We went to Fyffe (everytime) because it was cheap. The service was meh and the food was okay. But the price and location were nice. We enjoyed ourselves.
We always wanted to eat 'traditional' Croatian food, so we got suggestions from the owner of our Hostel, Filip. We ate Pasticada on our first night!
Every night at 8pm, the restaurant in the centre of the Palace has live music. Go.
Order a wine or hot chocolate and just sit on the steps of an ancient palace and enjoy it.
Split was a great place to spend the first days of my trip. I spent more than a day there. If I were you, I would budget 2 days to really get a feel for the place. This is just one way to see it all, quickly. But in my humble opinion, you should slow down while travelling.
Write, read, people watch.
Enjoy the details.
Traveling shouldn't be about how many places you've been, but about what you learned when you were there.
I learned more in Split than I could have ever imagined.
Your pictures are so brilliant! What kind of camera are you using?
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