Split, Croatia: A Group Trip Guide for Island-Hopping Friends

Why Split works for a group of friends#

Split hits a sweet spot that a lot of other Adriatic destinations don't: it's a real, lived-in city with its own airport, so flights in from most of Europe are direct and often cheap, but it's compact enough that a group can walk from an Old Town apartment to dinner, to a bar, to the waterfront, without ever needing to agree on a taxi. It's also the natural jumping-off point for the islands — Hvar, Brač, Vis, the Pakleni archipelago — so a week in Split can mix city days with full-on boat days without anyone needing to pack up and move hotels.

And because the entire Old Town sits inside a single ancient structure, there's a built-in excuse to just wander for an afternoon before anyone has to agree on a plan.

Things to do together#

Diocletian's Palace — also a Game of Thrones set#

What most visitors call "Old Town Split" is actually Diocletian's Palace, a Roman emperor's retirement complex from around 300 AD that's been continuously inhabited ever since — it's been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Walking through it costs nothing, and the basement substructures beneath the palace were used as a Game of Thrones filming location, standing in for the dungeons where Daenerys kept her dragons chained. HBO filmed scenes in and around Split across three seasons (4, 5 and 6), and the locations are open to the public year-round, so a self-guided GoT walk is an easy, free group activity on day one.

Marjan Hill for the view#

A 20-minute walk from the Old Town gets a group onto Marjan, a forested peninsula park with walking and running trails cut through pine forest. The payoff is Telegrin, the hill's highest point, reached via 314 stone steps, with a 360-degree view over Split, the Adriatic and the islands of Brač, Šolta and Čiovo. It's a good late-afternoon plan — shaded on the way up, and the group gets the view right as the light turns gold.

A day trip to Krka National Park#

Krka is roughly 70-75 km from Split — about an hour each way — and a popular full-day trip, usually several hours at the main Skradinski Buk waterfall area plus the drive. One thing to plan around: swimming directly at Skradinski Buk is currently banned, as the park restricts access to protect the travertine formations. Swimming is possible elsewhere in the park in a few designated zones, but only in-season (roughly June to September) — so it's worth checking the current rules on the official Krka park site before the group packs swimsuits expecting to jump straight in anywhere.

Island-hopping to Hvar, Brač and the Pakleni Islands#

This is the one to build a full day around. Organized boat tours from Split commonly combine Hvar, Brač and the Pakleni Islands into a single roughly 7.5-8 hour itinerary, with swim and snorkel stops at bays along the way — a typical run might be Hvar town around midday, a Pakleni cove for a swim right after, then lunch on Brač in the afternoon. It's an easy day to book as a private group boat if there are enough of you, which turns the whole thing into one shared cost instead of everyone buying separate tickets.

A peka dinner, the slow way#

Peka is the Dalmatian dish worth building an evening around: meat or seafood and vegetables, slow-cooked for hours under a bell-shaped metal lid, traditionally in embers. The catch — and the reason it's a great group meal — is that it can't be ordered on the spot. Most places need it requested in advance, often a full day ahead, because the cooking itself can take close to four hours, and it's typically served as a shared dish for the whole table rather than individual plates. Call ahead on day one, eat together on the last night.

Before you book: what actually matters logistically#

Old Town is car-free. Diocletian's Palace's narrow streets don't allow cars, so nobody is driving into the heart of Split regardless of where the group's apartment or villa is. Most groups park once at the edge of downtown — along the Riva waterfront or further out near the city marina — and walk in from there. If the group is renting a car for island exploring or a Krka run, factor the walk-in from parking into the first night's logistics, not after bags are already packed for the Old Town apartment.

The tourist tax applies per person, per night. Croatia charges a small nightly tourist tax that's added on top of accommodation, and under national law children up to 12 are exempt and those aged 12-18 pay half the rate. Exact per-night figures vary by municipality and season, so it's worth checking current rates for Split specifically when booking rather than assuming last year's number still applies.

Villas beat hotel rooms for a real group. Split and the surrounding coast have no shortage of larger villas and apartments, often with a pool, built for groups rather than couples — and splitting one villa across 6-10 people is reliably cheaper per head than block-booking hotel rooms, especially once everyone's flights land at different times and nobody wants to coordinate separate check-ins.

Splitting the costs without the group-chat spreadsheet#

A Split trip has exactly the kind of costs that get messy fast: one shared villa, one shared boat day, a peka dinner split unevenly because two people ordered drinks the rest didn't. Lumela handles the uneven part directly — a shared cost like the villa can be split with a custom per-person amount instead of a flat even divide, so the person who took the bigger room can simply owe more without anyone doing the math by hand. It also records each expense in its original currency — including EUR, Croatia's currency — and freezes the exchange rate to the group's shared ledger at the moment it's logged, so past balances never shift just because the rate moved later, while still letting everyone view totals back in their own currency. And since a boat day often means the group splits up across islands for a few hours, Lumela's live location sharing and one-tap SOS button are there if anyone needs to find the rest of the group — or needs help — before everyone's back on the same boat home.