There are two realistic ways to get to Split from Italy: the overnight ferry from Ancona, which sails year-round and lands you in the middle of the city at breakfast time, or the drive around the top of the Adriatic via Trieste and Slovenia — roughly eight hours of motorway from Bologna. Flying usually means a connection and costs you the day. Since Croatia joined both Schengen and the euro in January 2023, there are no border checks and no money to change: the crossing is quieter than it has ever been. Here is how each option actually feels.
The overnight ferry from Ancona
This is the classic, and still the best. Jadrolinija runs the Ancona–Split line all year, leaving Ancona in the evening and arriving in Split the next morning. You board after dinner, you wake up as the ship comes past the islands, and you walk off into the old town — no transfer, no taxi, no airport. Book a cabin rather than a deck seat if you want to actually sleep; on the summer sailings the cheap seats fill with people who have decided the deck is a bed. In high season, book ahead, especially with a vehicle.
Seasonal lines: Pescara and further south
In summer the map gets friendlier. Additional operators and seasonal routes appear from Ancona and from Pescara, some of them fast catamarans that hop via Hvar before Split, and the schedules change from year to year. Treat every summer line as provisional: check the operator’s current timetable before you build a holiday around it, and remember that fast craft are more weather-sensitive than the big overnight ships. Out of season, Ancona is the dependable one.
Driving around the Adriatic
If you would rather keep the car, the drive is genuinely easy: up to Trieste, across Slovenia, then south on Croatia’s A1 motorway, which runs almost to Split’s doorstep. From Venice or Bologna, plan on seven to nine hours with stops. You will need a Slovenian vignette for the motorway there and you will pay tolls on the A1 in Croatia — both trivial to arrange, both cheaper than a ferry cabin for a family. It is a beautiful, boring drive: karst, tunnels, and then suddenly the sea.
Should you bring the car at all?
Honest answer: probably not, unless you are continuing somewhere rural. Split’s old town is a pedestrian maze — cars stop at the edge of it, and parking inside the centre is scarce and expensive in season. Nearly everything a visitor wants is either walkable or reachable by ferry and bus; our guide to getting around Split without a car covers the rest. Bring the car if the road trip is the holiday. Leave it at home if Split is the holiday.
Arriving at Split’s port
Split has the rare luxury of a ferry terminal that is genuinely in town. You step off the ship onto the quay and the palace bell tower is a few minutes’ walk away, past the Riva. Buses and the train station are right there; so are the island ferries, if Italy is only your first leg — see our Split ferry port guide for how to read the terminal. Arriving by sea is also the honest way to see this city for the first time: white stone, palms, mountain behind.
A word about cost and timing
Fares move with the season and the operator, so we will not invent numbers here: the pattern is that late spring and autumn are cheap and calm, July and August cost more and sell out. The overnight ferry has a hidden saving — it is a night’s travel and a night’s accommodation in one, which makes it better value than it first looks. For the full picture of every route into the city, including flights, see getting to Split from Europe.
Where to land
However you come, the last stretch should be short. Our apartments sit in Veli Varoš, the old fishermen’s quarter at the edge of the old town — a few minutes on foot from the ferry terminal, which matters more than you would think when you have arrived off a night crossing with luggage. Drop the bags, walk out for coffee, and let the crossing turn into a holiday.