Here I am as usual, posting on my blog months after going abroad. I believe I said this before, but there’s nothing like a pandemic to get you to catch up on things you’ve been wanting to do for months. Also, how is this pandemic still not over yet? Am I the only one who thought this would be a 3-week thing and we’d go back to lectures in April 2020 like nothing happened? Here we are in February 2021 and I think I’ll be 30 by the time we get to go clubbing again. Anyway, this is not a Corona post, it is a travel blog. So let’s get to it.
Just a quick disclaimer: This trip was back in August 2020, so yes, I travelled during the pandemic. We wore masks most of the time there and got tested when we got back. Obviously we took our masks off for some of the pictures (don’t come at me). Also, considering this post is 6 months late, I had to go on my instagram for a few of the pictures, hence why some have place tags, writing on them or look like they have filters on (guilty as charged).
Day 1: Arrival in Split
We arrived in Split on a Saturday evening and, after having moved everything into the small apartment room we had rented for the week, decided on a place to go out for dinner. Now, if you have been reading my blogs for a while, you’ll know that my boyfriend is intolerant to gluten, so choosing a restaurant on holiday is not a 5 minute deal for us, it takes much more thought and preparation. Well, if you know ME, you’ll know I made a list of all the gluten-free restaurants in Split weeks before we even boarded the plane. So here’s a heads-up that all the places we went to eat at, had gluten free options (at least the ones I’m tagging).
Following a recommendation from the apartment owner and several positive online reviews, we decided to go to Šug. And boy, we were not disappointed. I think it’s fair to say, this was one of the best places we ate at during the whole trip. This small restaurant has a romantic outside seating area and a variety of affordable dishes that tasted incredible. The waiting staff was also extremely lovely and knowledgeable about allergens and the dishes they were serving (our dishes came with a quick explanation of what ingredients were in them and how they had been prepared for that particular dish).
I’ll leave a few pictures here for you to get an idea of how it was like:
Day 2: Beach Day at Kasjuni Beach
Following a good night’s sleep, we woke up to a blue sky and a lot of sunshine. If this didn’t call for a day at the beach, I wouldn’t know what else would.
The apartment owner had recommended a few beaches in Split to us, one of them being Kasjuni Beach on the left hand side of the city, near the Marjan Forest Park. We decided to get an Uber there, as the beach was a bit far away for us to walk and were positively surprised with two things, which turned out to be quite common in Split: a lot of the Uber/Taxi drivers are female and the rides were extremely cheap. I’m talking 2,00€ for a 15 minute car ride.
We spent the entire day at Kasjuni Beach. We did eat there, but the one place we went to eat at, is not one that I can recommend (Joe’s Beach Lounge & Bar). I suppose the place is fine if you’re not allergic or intolerant to anything, but the food is expensive and rather underwhelming. We also had some cocktails, which were fine, but not more than that. Also, make sure you buy those little swimming shoes (the ones that prevent you from stepping into sea urchins) before you go there, because there’s nothing except this one Lounge/Bar place at the entire beach. Not even one person sells these shoes there (and trust me, we looked).
Day 3: Exploring Split City Centre
On our third day on the Croatian coast, we decided it was time to actually explore the city centre, specifically Split’s old town. We went to see Diocletian’s Palace, walked through the intertwining streets of the old city centre, as well as along the promenade with its cafes and restaurants. For lunch, we stopped by Maka Maka Açai & Poke Bar, our second favourite restaurant in Split. We liked it so much, that we went back there on our final day to grab some more Açai bowls before heading to the airport. Split’s city centre was extremely beautiful, with street musicians playing near the tourist attractions and I was surprised that we weren’t the only tourists there, although there honestly weren’t that many due to obvious reasons. I think, however, that one day is enough to see all of Split, which is why we went to other cities for the next three days to see something new.
Day 4: Krka National Park and Wine Tasting in Skradin
The Krka National Park is considered a must see for anyone visiting Split. Considering it is quite close, there’s no real excuse not to go. You can book trips with getyourguide and similar tourist agencies that will organise tours all around Croatia for you and it is, even during Corona, a great chance to meet other people and enjoy a combination of touristic attractions without the hassle of having to organise it yourself. So that’s what we did. We booked a trip to the Krka National Park and a vine tasting in Skradin, which is a city (or village?) just down the Krka River. I won’t try to glamorise something that really wasn’t glamorous (that’s what Instagram is for), but the weather was… yeah it was kind of shit. It rained most of the day and the rain in combination with a cold wind made me shudder like a chihuahua for most of the trip. Don’t get me wrong, the park is beautiful and the waterfalls that it is known for are definitely worth seeing, specially because you can swim quite closely to them, but mother nature was just not on my side that day, so we couldn’t really appreciate the park in its full glory. The upside to the terrible weather (and the pandemic), was that the park was almost empty, which made it much easier to explore it without bumping into other people. If you do decide to go, make sure you take your swimming clothes, a towel and maybe even your own lunch, because the food there is an absolute rip-off.
After having spent approximately three hours at the park, we took a ferry boat down the Krka River, which took us to Skradin, where we would have our wine tasting. The Ante Sladić Vino vinery did a really good job in organising the vine tasting. We had five different types of wine and got some bread and cheese for snacking in-between. It was great fun!
In the evening we went to Step By Step Bistro for some gluten-free, quinoa based pizza. The food there was really good, although I admit a bit pricey.
Day 5: Hvar Island
Another day, another place to explore. And what is a summer in Croatia without a little bit of island hopping? Although Hvar isn’t the closest island to Split, the one hour ferry ride is not too long and for me personally, this was the most beautiful place of all the ones we saw during our trip. I wasn’t sure at first what there was to do on Hvar, but with enough research, I came across the following blog, which gave us more than enough inspo for our day on Hvar:
https://www.thecommonwanderer.com/blog/hvar-town-things-to-do
We started off with a walk along the old town, St. Stephens Cathedral, St. Stephens Square, went all the way up to the Hvar fortress that gives you a beautiful view over the island and the marina, before we went to Pokonji Dol beach. I can’t express enough how beautiful the island is. Definitely worth going!!
When we got back to Split in the evening we grabbed some gluten-free burgers at Toto’s Burger Bar. Unfortunately their sweet potato fries were not gluten free, so Philip ended up eating two burgers. The food was great though, and considering it was gluten free, it was actually quite cheap.
Day 6: Brač Island
Now this was the island I was looking forward to the most before going. The Zlatni Rat beach (Golden Horn Beach in English) on the island of Brač is one of the better known beaches not only in Croatia, but in all of Europe. It is shaped like a horn and extends towards Hvar island, which is just south of Brač. The sand on Zlatni Rat is completely white and the water is cristal clear. To get to Zlatni Rat, you can usually get a ferry directly from Split to the city of Bol, from where you can walk to the beach (app. 20 minutes). If you’re as smart as me and decide to go travel during a pandemic, forget the direct ferry. Instead, we had to take a ferry from Split to Supertar, which is on the north of the Brač island. From there, we had planned to take a public bus to Bol, which is on the south side of Brač. This bus would’ve taken us 1h one way. Luckily, there were taxis at the Ferry Station which would take a group of tourists directly to the Golden Horn Beach from Supertar and, considering it didn’t have to stop in every village on the way, would only take 25 minutes. We were more than willing to throw away any plans we’d made and take a taxi with 5 other people (when I say taxi, I mean one of these taxi mini vans) for only 10 EUR per person one way.
The beach was almost empty when we got there, which gave us plenty of options on where to lie down. Now if you clicked on the hyperlink above and have seen the shape of the beach, you need to know that the sand is not completely even. The beach is almost shaped like a little hill, with the centre of the sandy part being the highest point and sloping downward to its left and right. This way you tend to have one side that is extremely windy and the other side being protected from the wind because of the sand hill. So my advice here is, make sure to check out both sides before you put your towels down and I’ll assure you, you’ll have a much more relaxing experience.
I think I must’ve really liked the beach because I completely forgot to take any pictures, apart from the one you can see below. There’s also a variety of food stands on the beach that offer tasty and affordable snacks. We spent most of our day lying in the sun and swimming until we took another taxi van back to Supertar, from which our ferry departed back to Split. We did take the opportunity to look around Supertar as well and were not disappointed at all. One thing we didn’t do, and in hindsight we probably should have, was to visit the Bol town, as it was only 20 minutes away from the beach. A group of elderly British women, who shared the taxi van with us, had gone to Bol and told us how beautiful the small town was. Maybe next time…
Day 7: The Final Day
We decided to make the most of our last day in Split, since our flight back home was only in the evening. Philip has gotten used to having to go brunching with me at least once on every trip we take. This trip was no exception. We had a lovely brunch at Ćiri Biri Bela, a hotel and cafe which offers – you guessed it – gluten free meals. This is another place in Split I highly recommend for a meal out. Their outside eating area, as well as the inside area, is very nicely furnished and just overall cosy for a breakfast or brunch date.
We also had one more thing we had wanted to do in Split but didn’t manage to before our final day: Marjan Hill. In my head this was going to be somewhat like the Barcelona Bunkers – a great spot for a sunrise or sunset – but we never really managed to make it there for either of those, so we just went in the middle of the day. I will say it’s very different from the Bunkers, because the Hill is connected to the Marjan Forest Park I mentioned in Day 1 and therefore has a lot more green to it, but it was extremely nice. It’s a good place to see the city from the top and maybe even for a nice date with a bottle of wine and a setting sun.
We went on to revisit our favourite places in the Split town center, before getting another dose of delicious Açai bowls at Maka Maka and heading to the airport to get back home.
A foreigner abroad 
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