Split City Highlights Electric Tuk Tuk Tour

The Riva waterfront of Split

The tour starts with a ride along the Riva, the wide seafront promenade that runs beneath the southern wall of Diocletian's Palace. Paved in white stone and lined with palm trees, café terraces and the moorings of the ferry port, the Riva is where Split meets the sea and where locals take their evening stroll. The Venetian-era façades along the palace wall and the view across the harbour to the island of Brač give the first sense of why the city is so photogenic.

Your guide uses the ride to introduce Split's layering of history: the Roman palace at its core, the medieval town that grew inside and around it, the Venetian and Austrian periods and the modern port. A Split city tour that begins on the Riva makes the rest of the route fall into place, because every landmark you see later is visible from here.

Marjan Hill panoramic viewpoint

From the Riva the tuk-tuk climbs the road up Marjan, the forested hill that forms the western end of the Split peninsula. Marjan has been the city's park since the nineteenth century, with pine woods, walking paths and small chapels cut into the rock. The road winds up to a viewpoint where the whole city lies below you: the red roofs of the old town, the bell tower, the ferry port with its white ships and the islands of Brač, Šolta and Hvar on the horizon.

The electric tuk-tuk is the easiest way to reach the Marjan viewpoint, because the climb on foot takes hundreds of steps in the heat. The tour stops here long enough for photos and for the guide to point out what you are looking at. Many guests say the Marjan Hill view is the best in Split, and the early and late departures give the softest light.

Diocletian's Palace

Back in the centre, the tuk-tuk drops you at the edge of the old town for a short guided walk inside Diocletian's Palace. The Roman emperor Diocletian built this fortified palace for his retirement around the year 305, and the whole of Split's old town later grew inside its walls. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and still a living neighbourhood, with homes, shops and squares fitted into the Roman structure.

Your guide leads you through the Peristyle, the palace's colonnaded central court, past the entrance to the cellars that hold up the floor above, and along the narrow lanes between the palace gates. The walk takes around 30 to 40 minutes at an easy pace. Anyone asking whether Diocletian's Palace is worth visiting should know it is not a ruin but the heart of the city, and this is the quickest way to understand it.

Cathedral of St. Domnius and the bell tower

Standing on the Peristyle, you face the Cathedral of St. Domnius, which began as Diocletian's mausoleum and became a church in the seventh century, which makes it among the oldest cathedral buildings still in use. Its octagonal Roman core is wrapped in a Romanesque bell tower, built over several centuries, that rises above every roof in the old town and is the symbol of Split on every postcard.

The tour views the cathedral and the bell tower from outside, with the guide explaining the carved doors, the sphinx brought from Egypt that guards the entrance and the story of the building. Tickets to climb the bell tower or enter the cathedral are not included, but the guide shows you where to buy them if you want to return later in the day.

Pickup and drop-off: hotels and the cruise terminal

The tour includes pickup from your hotel within the city of Split or from the cruise terminal in the port, which is why it is popular with cruise passengers: our driver and guide meet you at the terminal, you see the whole city in two hours and you are dropped back at the ship with time to spare. Guests staying outside the city meet at Trg Franje Tuđmana, a square beside the old town and the Riva.

Departures run every two hours from 08:30 to 18:30, so the tour fits around ferry and cruise schedules, and the fully electric tuk-tuk is open-sided, quiet and allowed on streets where larger vehicles are not. It is wheelchair accessible with advance notice, and seats are arranged so that everyone can hear the guide.