Twenty-three routes in the 2026 coastal register touch Split, more than any other port in the country. Five of them carry a vehicle, all five conventional car ferries. The remaining eighteen are foot-passenger craft, and they are the fast ones.
The most connected port, and the narrowest driving option
Split is the gateway with the most to lose from a hire car. Nowhere else in Croatia does one terminal reach so many islands, and nowhere else does bringing a vehicle cut the menu down so sharply. The register is unambiguous about which services will take one, so the list is short enough to print in full.
| Line | Crossing | Where it lands | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 602 | Vis – Split | Vis town | The one Split vehicle line whose full 2026 tariff is published here |
| 604 | Ubli – Vela Luka – Hvar – Split | Hvar town, then Korčula and Lastovo | Register-derived; its per-line timetable is not in the source bundle |
| 631 | Supetar – Split | Supetar, on Brač | The shortest of the five |
| 635 | Stari Grad – Split | Stari Grad, not Hvar town | A separate town from the harbour most drivers are aiming at |
| 636 | Rogač – Split | Rogač, on Šolta | The nearest island to the city |
Against those five sit eighteen foot-passenger services from the same city: state catamarans to Brač, Šolta, Vis, Hvar, Korčula and Lastovo, and the commercial craft that run the summer chain south. A driver cannot use any of them. That is the trade in one sentence, and it is worth more than any comparison of rental desks.
18 of 23
services from Split that a vehicle cannot board
The second cost is the tariff itself, and it is the figure car-hire pages never show. Below is the published 2026 fare for the same journey made two ways: as a person, and as a person with a car. Switch the crossing to either catamaran service and the vehicle rows go blank — that is not missing data, it is the register saying the vessel cannot carry one.
Crossing
Travelling as
Tariff period
The ratio is the point rather than the amount. In season a car under five metres to Vis is €52.00 against €9.10 for its driver walking on, and over five metres it is €88.50. Off-season those become €40.60 and €69.80, against €7.20 on foot. Each figure is one way.
Paying for the car twice in the same week
A Split-based week usually mixes island days with mainland ones. The island days are the problem: the fast boats that make them possible take foot passengers only, so the vehicle either stays behind — hired and unused — or travels on a slower car ferry at a vehicle fare in both directions. There is no third option in the register.
Three island days with the car is six vehicle crossings. Three island days without it is six passenger fares on faster vessels, and on the Hvar catamaran the season fare is €10.00 one way. If the itinerary is mostly islands, the car is not transport, it is storage.
Which does not mean never. A car from Split earns its keep on the mainland: the road north and inland reaches places the register does not serve, and the day-trip page separates the trips that need one from the ones that are quicker by boat. The pattern that works is a car for the days it is the only option, and the terminal for the rest.
Where the five vehicle lines actually put you
The other thing the register settles is landfall. A car ferry goes where the ramp is, not where the harbour promenade is, and on this coast those are not always the same place. Line 631 lands at Supetar on Brač and line 636 at Rogač on Šolta. Line 635 lands at Stari Grad, a separate town from Hvar town, and line 604 is the only vehicle route in the whole register that calls at Hvar town itself.
So a driver’s Split is a shorter list in two senses: fewer services, and fewer destinations within the islands those services reach. A foot passenger picks the boat that goes closest to the address; a driver picks the boat that will take the car and then drives the difference. On the near islands that is a small penalty. On Hvar and Korčula it decides the day.
Common questions
How many Split ferries take a car?
Five of the 23 registered routes touching Split, all of them conventional car ferries: lines 602, 604, 631, 635 and 636.
Can I take a hire car on the fast catamaran to Hvar?
No. Line 9604 and every other catamaran out of Split is a foot-passenger vessel and has no vehicle tariff at all. That is a statement about the ship, not a restriction that lifts in low season.
What does a car cost on the Split ferries?
Where the tariff is published: line 602 to Vis charges €40.60 off-season and €52.00 in season for a car under five metres, one way. The 2026 tariffs for lines 604, 631, 635 and 636 are not in this site's source bundle, so no figure for them appears here.
Is parking the deciding factor?
Not on this page. Parking rules and charges are not in the source bundle, so they are not quoted here. The register alone is enough to make the decision: eighteen of twenty-three services from this city will not carry the car anywhere.
Before booking either, settle where you are sleeping, because it changes the answer. Where to stay in Split covers the bases within reach of the harbour, and the airport page has what the arrival itself looks like across the year.
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What do you need to work out next?
The car is decided. These come next.
Where to stay
Which base makes the car unnecessary?
Twenty-three registered routes leave from one harbour.
Getting around
What if Hvar is the plan?
Sixteen services reach the island; only one takes a car to Hvar town.
When to go
When does the vehicle fare rise?
On 29 May, reverting on 27 September.
Planning
Can I hop islands from here instead?
Eighteen of Split’s 23 services are foot-passenger only.
Ferry data: Agencija za obalni linijski pomorski promet (ZOLPP), 2026 state coastal line register and per-line timetables.