One of the tourist meccas of the Adriatic Sea, Split (pop. 200 000) can be a popular vacation and an even more popular transit spot. The quantity of tourists visiting the city itself and staying for about a few days has reached 210 000 in 2011., while the number of people vacationing with the surrounding coast and islands while just visiting Split has been 1.7 million.
Named prefer that due to its residents who can never agree on anything (j/k, latin name is Spalato), Split is found in the middle of the province of Dalmatia and is surrounded by many other tourist hotspots like Zadar, Makarska and Dubrovnik. You can reach it by:
a) road - either the Highway A1 "Dalmatina" from Zagreb or a smaller coastal road ("Jadranska magistrala") from northwest or southeast. The highway toll is 170 kn (22 ?)
b) train - two daily and something nightly train from Zagreb, that is further connected to everywhere in Europe. One-way ticket from Zagreb is 210 kn (28 ?).
c) plane - the air port "Resnik", located some 15 km away on the other side of Split's bay, is regularly with several international lines from Frankfurt, Barcelona, Brussels, Prague, Istanbul and etc. For cheaper types, RyanAir serves manchester airport in Zadar, which is 2 hours' drive far from Split. The airport is associated with Split by bus and taxi services.
Another option is a ferry from Ancona, Italy. There's also daily ferries to the surrounding islands: Brac, Hvar, Vis, Korcula, Lastovo and Mljet. It will take from 1 to 5 hours to succeed in them. Hvar, at about 2 hours away, houses the famous "Carpe Diem" nightclub should you be into that sort of "elite & popular" thing.
Accomodation: because I live in Split, I have never had the opportunity to try its accommodation, but it is widely accessible everywhere along the city coast, with many different hostels, hotels and apartments. A cheap dorm bed in a hostel cost as little as 150 kn, a private room in a very hotel up to 600 kn. In addition there are many unofficial apartments with less expensive costs, whose owners advertise them personally at the main station (approaching tourists carrying "Sobe/Rooms" signs).
Food: There are many fast-food joints around, where you can possess a small pizza ("pizzeta") for 10 kn, or even the local specialties like cevapi for 15-20 kn (strongly suggested, try "Lozo" a bit away from the center). In lower scale restaurants, a main dish is around 50 kn, while a dinner at a typical place can cost you about 100-150 kn per person. Large fish and crustaceans include the most expensive food around and go for up to 300 kn/kg because Adriatic Sea has been overfished in recent years.
My personal restaurant favorites would be the tavern Pimpinella and restaurant Re Di Mare, a location with moderate prices and nice selection of food, and Fife, a popular tavern around the coast with low prices and quality seafood (although it's really a "tavern", which you can see in its a higher level service).
Split doesn't have most of foreign food, just one Chinese restaurant, possibly a mexican one which I don't know about and that's it. Croatian food, particularly seafood, can make up for the lack of variety, though.
Economy: Croatia isn't poor, it's actually a developed western economy (although lagging behind Slovenia), so don't result in the mistake of comparing it to Macedonia or Kosovo. Social inequality is high, yes, when you are a provider has lost most of its appeal many years ago.
Transport: a cab from the center to any place in the city will cost 30-50 kn. Buses are frequent all over the place, although there are no buses at nights apart from Friday or Saturday. A single bus ticket costs 10 kn, 9 if you decide on it at a newsstand and not inside bus. Ticket checks are fairly frequent.
Sightseeing: Split was made upon an old Roman palace built by Emperor Diocletian in AD 304, that is amazingly well preserved, with ancient stone gates and cellars. You will be confounded by the fact that people actually reside in it, which is a rarity given how old and vulnerable it is. Apart from the palace, there is not excessive to see. There are a nice Maritime along with a Biological museum, several historical museums and galleries (I recommend "Galerija Ivana Mestrovica" too, a museum of the famous Croatian sculptor). To the west, the woody hill Marjan functions as a recreation and relaxation hub.
Beaches: there is certainly only one sand beach in Split, "Bacvice" just to the east of the main promenade and city port ("Riva"), and it's really nice but always hideously packed. Going either further east or west, you will discover several more coves with either gravel beaches, or natural stony coast. The water is clean and there is no danger from sharks or anything (no such species are in Adriatic Sea), although watch out that you don't step on a sea urchin.
Girls: Girls in Split are pretty and also have nice bodies, much like in Roosh's "20 reasons" post. The obesity minute rates are low and one of the lowest in Croatia, although Croatia as a whole does have a problem with more and more fat people. It is also a student town, although a few students will be gone back to smaller towns and islands throughout the summer. Overall, you will see lots of stunners just from walking at work.
Croatian people are one of the tallest around, and average female height is 170 cm or 5'7''), with a lot of variety.
Girls are generally ready to accept at least talking to foreigners and still have some interest in them for exotic value, but dating a foreigner does not confer any special social status. Their overall character is rather Americanized, with quite a lot of bitchiness, princess syndrome and flaking at really dangerous levels. It's not as bad as in Australia, from my experience, however it is definitely worse than in Poland or Slovakia. Sluttiness is moderate (and over you would expect from a nominally Catholic country). To find out no widespread ONS culture yet such as USA (although it does happen), making out and grinding in nightclubs is pretty common.
Basic English is famous by almost all young people, but fluency is less frequent.
Competition: Croatian guys don't have plenty of game yet, although many have good physiques and are tall. Their game usually amounts to Compliment & Cuddle. The few which have quality asshole game usually tidy up, although again it's not as bad mainly because it seems to be in USA and also other places. But you will need solid game to have any results.
Where to go out:
There are 3 main hubs for heading out. One is along the eastern coast, in which you just follow the coast through the main promenade (Riva) until you attain the first cove. There are several nightclubs "Tropic", "Bacvice" etc stacked together and blaring typical western-DJ music. It can be quite a sausage-fest and very packed, although the moment summer goes away, the entire coast goes dead. There is certainly usually no entry fee.
A unique place I have never been to but a lot better reputation is the club "Imperium" there in the port, where salsa evenings are held frequently. Further east down the coast, there are two caffes, then within the next cove the rock club "O'Hara" (a pleasant, somewhat chilled out place in comparison with Bacvice clubs but usually has an entry fee), and then a few more caffes along the coast of Znjan (the first is called "Plaza"), then nothing.
The second thing is in the middle of the city, with low-key rock clubs like "Quasimodo" and turbofolk places like "Mississipi". These places don't see much traffic during summer, but Quasimodo attracts a much more hip/intellectual crowd if you're into that.
Finally, by going to the northern side with the Split peninsula, near the football stadium, you will find several clubs "Vanilla", "Hemingway" and "Plava kava" (note: tiny and too packed for my tastes) which play mostly domestic pop music. Their popularity varies strongly during summer, with boom and off days, while during wintertime they're the main hub with the city. Compared to the coast, the vibe is similar, but there is more open space and it's really a bit more relaxed.
Note that many of these places (on the coast too) have a very dress code and face control, and bouncers can be rather douchey. Girls will always be allowed in, of course. People generally don't start gathering until at least midnight, but then it fills up quickly.
Almost everyone likes going out and spending no less than 2 nights a week clubbing and drinking. It is just a part of national culture. The only difference is type of the club: the lower-educated and less urban people generally prefer "cajke" (turbofolk) music, as the others prefer rock, techno and domestic rock, however sexual habits aren't very different.
A drink at each of those places ranges from 15 kn for a beer, coke or a vodka shot to 30-40 kn for cocktails and the like.
Conclusion: While I don't hold Croatia or Split in a very high regard and am personally disturbed because when Americanized the girls have become, so I prefer to spend my days in Poland or Ukraine, through the summer everyone goes to the sea anyway, and among those places available, Split isn't bad in any respect. I recommend visiting for a few days and looking over if you like it. It might just surprise you.
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