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PRESENTED BY TOURIST BOARD OF SPLIT

Let’s Split: This year’s must-make city break

What makes the perfect city break? If it’s a combination of captivating culture, breathtaking scenery, a Mediterranean climate, and mouthwatering cuisine, then Split is a city that has it all.

Published: 30 March 2018 08:16 CEST
Let’s Split: This year’s must-make city break

It’s no wonder that it was named the best Croatian destination of 2017. 

Split’s history spans no fewer than 17 centuries, since the Roman Emperor Diocletian — a Croat himself — built his retirement palace on the peninsula near Salona, once the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia.

A city emerged in and around the palace, and miraculously it’s still there today. In fact, it forms around half of Split’s modern-day Old Town. In 1979, Diocletian’s Palace and the city’s historic centre were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Photo: Ante Verzotti

Needless to say and cliché as it sounds, walking through the ancient city is like stepping back in time. The tiny lanes are packed with nooks and interesting crannies, pop-up shops sprout up this way and that, street performers weave their way around sauntering tourists.  

The mark of a great holiday destination, though, isn’t just in its culture, climate, and attractions. It’s also in the cuisine, and there’s no shortage of places to refuel in Split. 

The city offers a wonderful taste of Dalmatian seafood, restaurants serve up superb pasta dishes and risotto, and there’s a great selection of pizzerias (after all, Split is just a stone’s throw across the Adriatic Sea from Italy).

One sip of Croatian wine too, and you’ll be wondering why it isn’t already a staple in your wine rack (in part, because it’s rarely exported — so you better drink your fill while you’re there).

Sports fans can also get their kicks while in the city: Split is Croatia’s capital of sport, with the names of more than 70 Olympic medal winners immortalised on the Olympic Walk of Fame on the seafront.

Photo: Vojko Basic

If you want to get away from the hubbub of the city, the Marjan forest park has kilometres of paths which you can stroll, hike, cycle, or even go for a cross-country run. 

There’s also a seven-month swimming season in Split, lasting from April until late October. Escape for a day at the secluded shingle oasis at Marjan or take a dip at bustling Bačvice with its stretching shoreline just 500 metres from Diocletian’s Palace. 

Beyond Split, there are no fewer than eight UNESCO sites within two hours of the city by ferry, bus, or car. Two more: Plitvice Lakes National Park, a spot of exceptional natural beauty, and Dubrovnik, or ‘King’s Landing’ to fans of HBO’s Game of Thrones, are also within a day’s travel.

Photo: Ante Verzotti

More adventurous travellers can hike nearby mountains Mosor, Kozjak, or Biokovo; raft or cycle around the rural and spectacular Dalmatian Hinterland; or dive into crystal clear waters off neighbouring Dalmatian islands. It’s an expansive area of untouched beauty that ticks all the active traveller’s boxes. 

Events throughout the year

Not a week, or even a day, seems to go by in Split without an event of some kind.

May is marked by Saint Domnio’s Day, a city-wide celebration of Split’s patron saint. The whole town comes out in droves to salute the Christian martyr with a grand and moving procession around the Old Town, culminating at the oldest cathedral in the world, once Diocletian’s mausoleum.

Photo: FMFS archive

Summer in Split kicks off in June with the Mediterranean Film Festival, an annual review of the best films to come out of the region. It’s the rare chance to discover films you may otherwise never have seen, and to watch them at the open air cinema next to the Bačvice Beach in the heart of a pine forest.

Tens of thousands of young people make the pilgrimage to Split in July for Ultra Europe Festival, one of the biggest music events in Europe. Some of the top names in electronic music take to the decks, with every club and bar in town getting in on the action. 

Photo: Ultra Music archive

If electronic music isn’t your thing, the Split Summer Festival from mid-July to mid-August, with its theatre, opera and ballet performances, concerts, and exhibitions, may be more up your street.

Towards the end of August, ancient history enthusiasts can immerse themselves in the days of Diocletian as Roman legions line the city streets, and the Emperor himself (*ahem*) parades through the town and greets the crowd. So take your own toga and experience a snapshot of what life looked like in Split nearly 2000 years ago.

Photo: Ante Verzotti

The season ends in October with Split Film Festival, a presentation of arthouse films, installations, performances, retrospectives, and discussions taking place across the town.

All good things must end and even in Split the summer doesn’t last all year long. But that doesn’t mean the city goes into hibernation.

Split lights up with Advent celebrations in the weeks leading up to Christmas; fairs and concerts, folklore performances, and gastronomic events pepper the city throughout December.

If you’re a fan of a white Christmas, prepare to be disappointed. The average temperature in December hovers around a not entirely unpleasant 15 degrees.

Photo: Maksim Basic

From Scandinavia to Split

Seasonal flights to Split from Scandinavia start in March, and by June are in full swing. SAS has announced that, in high season, there will be no less that 80 flights a week to Split departing from Aarhus, Bergen, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Kristiansand, Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm, and Trondheim. Additionally, the airline is collaborating with charters from Apollo, Ving, and TUI.

Norwegian Air, too, flies to Split from Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Trondheim, Haugesund, Bergen, and Stavanger. Croatia Airlines has also announced a timetable of weekly flights from Copenhagen to Split, while any Finns out there can hop on a Finnair flight for their Croatian fix.

  

This article is produced by The Local Client Studio and sponsored by the Tourist Board of Split, Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board and  Croatian National Tourist Board.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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