Excursion destinations around Marina

The Catholic diocese of Šibenik lies at a central point of the Dalmatian coast and gives over 50,000 people a home. The town's most important building, the cathedral of St James, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and in another respect too one sees the legacy of culture in Šibenik every night: Nikola Tesla's alternating-current generator made Šibenik the first town in the world to be lit by electricity. Today that is taken for granted — and so Šibenik also enjoys the reputation of being a holiday town worth seeing. Not unjustly, by the way!

The famous waterfalls of the Krka national park are only one of the attractions that nature puts on display in the grounds of the nature park: the countless lakes, islands, cascades, hills and walking trails, along with a varied flora and fauna, would easily have sufficed for five parks. If you want to let the wealth of Dalmatian nature work on you in a particularly relaxed way, you should join one of the boat trips and let yourself be rocked past the loveliest corners of the park.

Only since the 1960s have tourists tentatively begun to open up Primošten; before that at most day visitors travelled here to take home an impression of the picturesque old town. But the good red wine Babić and the warmth of the 1,700 inhabitants added to the town's good reputation, so that today ever more guests are drawn over the causeway onto the peninsula. One more reason to feel at ease here, above all on holiday: the island lies at the centre of the "dry cape" — a region with particularly little rainfall.

Anyone who speaks of Trogir means the old town core on the peninsula in front of Čiovo, which is on the World Heritage list. Here cathedral follows palace follows monastery, and in front of the promenade the young race about in motorboats as they do elsewhere in cars. Entirely unimpressed by this, young women design clothes for their own boutiques, café owners blend flavours of ice cream that have to be tastier and more original than the competition's, and groups of tourists are led through the narrow streets. If you leave the main routes and accept having to turn back several times because of unexpected dead ends, there is a good chance you will find the tastiest and cheapest pizzeria in town! (About 12 square metres of floor space, a small glass counter, sparse seating in the courtyard in front. — More shall not be revealed!)

On a narrow coastal strip between the country road and the sea, between Trogir and Split, lies the town of Kaštela, which grew together out of the settlements around thirteen fortifications, seven of which still stand today. The individual districts are named after their respective kaštela, the town after the road that runs through it, and the fortresses themselves largely after their builders. That makes it easy for strangers to find their bearings and to reach quickly the castle that interests them most — though making that choice is hard indeed!

Who gets to live in a museum? The lucky ones who were allowed to make their homes above the shops in the former stables and noble chambers of Diocletian's Palace do, more or less. For the city's most famous building is not some tourist gathering point guarded by grim security staff, but to this day the pulsing heart of the city. More than one visitor has to be told that they have long since been standing inside Diocletian's Palace while still poring over their street map in search of it. Just as relaxed as Split is about its World Heritage, so easy-going is life in the metropolis: inexpensive restaurants, well-tended beaches, cafés with a dreamlike sea view and a rich cultural offering make the "I'm coming back here" decision very easy on the first visit already.

Like a desert of karst, over 100 island summits rise from the sea and offer a grey-green contrast to the deep blue of the Adriatic. The Kornati national park was established to protect these singular and characteristic formations and to preserve their unbuilt naturalness. What is often overlooked in the process: the islands of the archipelago acquired their distinctive look only through systematic clearance. For before the Illyrians built their ships here, the Kornati were lushly overgrown — so (an irony of history!) the region became a natural wonder precisely because of an environmental sin.