Excursion destinations around Marušići

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.

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!)

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.

At the mountain pass 10 km from Split, at a height of 335 metres, lies the village of Klis with the fortress of the same name. Here, since Byzantine times, the old Croatian counts and the Turks, among others, lived and ruled. That is why a mosque still stands today in the upper part of the fortress, though it has been converted into the castle church. Anyone arriving by car will be able to catch sight of the fortress from the road as it rises majestically in the mountains — but the reverse view, down from the castle walls over the all but endless coast, is a good deal more impressive still!

The former pirates' nest of Omiš seems to claw at the wall in the steep gorge of the river Cetina. The two halves of the town on opposite sides of the slope are joined by a bridge, and down by the river one finds one of the few sandy beaches in Dalmatia. Although the Cetina flows quite calmly here, only a few kilometres upstream you can take wild rafting trips. Anyone preferring a thrill of another kind will find it in Omiš as well: the town is a duty-free zone — what you buy here is tax-free!