Twenty-three of the 68 routes in Croatia’s 2026 state ferry register touch Split, the largest network on the coast. Only ten are state lines. The other thirteen are commercial services with no public service obligation, so Split’s winter timetable is smaller than Zadar’s.
Ten lines in February, twenty-three in August
Split is the ferry capital of the Adriatic and the register agrees — no other port comes close on volume. What the register also shows, and what the volume figure hides, is how much of that network is seasonal. Thirteen of the twenty-three services are commercial lines run by Jadrolinija, Kapetan Luka, TP Line, Bura Line and Krilo Shipping Company without a public service obligation. They exist because July exists.
| Operator | Routes touching Split | Of those, carry vehicles | Register status |
|---|---|---|---|
| State line | 10 | 5 | State, all year |
| Kapetan Luka (Krilo) | 4 | 0 | Commercial, no public service obligation |
| TP Line | 4 | 0 | Commercial, no public service obligation |
| Bura Line | 2 | 0 | Commercial, no public service obligation |
| Jadrolinija | 2 | 0 | Commercial, no public service obligation |
| Krilo Shipping Company | 1 | 0 | Commercial, no public service obligation |
Every vehicle service out of Split is a state line: 602 to Vis, 604 to Hvar via Vela Luka, 631 to Supetar, 635 to Stari Grad, 636 to Rogač. Every commercial service, without exception, is a foot-passenger catamaran. That is the single most useful sentence on this page for anyone with a hire car, and it reduces a twenty-three-route network to a five-route one the moment you decide to bring the vehicle.
It also means the fast, frequent, direct half of the network — the through-boats down to Korčula, Mljet and Dubrovnik — is closed to drivers entirely. The Split to Hvar corridor is the clearest case: sixteen services, thirteen reaching Hvar town, and only one of the two vehicle lines docking there.
The airport does the same thing, harder
The seasonal pattern in the ferry register repeats in the DZS airport figures, and Split shows it more sharply than anywhere. November 2025 traffic was 62,250 passengers. June 2025 was around 578,000. Zagreb, by contrast, carried 337,851 in the same November, more than five times Split’s.
578,000
passengers through Split airport in June 2025, against 62,250 in November
The practical reading for an off-season trip is that Split does not simply get quieter, it gets structurally smaller: fewer flights in, thirteen fewer boats out. Neither of those is a reason to avoid it, but planning a March visit on a July-shaped itinerary is the most common way a Dalmatian trip goes wrong. Zagreb is the airport that does not do this.
The sea, month by month
Split is one of only three Croatian stations with a published sea-temperature normal, which makes its figures unusually load-bearing. The peak is August at 23.6 °C, not July at 23.2 °C. The more useful number is October: 19.3 °C, which is warmer than June’s 21.1 °C by less than two degrees and warmer than May’s 17.3 °C outright.
Split (Marjan): mean monthly sea temperature, °C. Source: DHMZ (meteo.hr), climate normals 1971–2000.
The lag between air and sea is what the strip shows best. Air temperature peaks in July at 25.7 °C and falls to 16.8 °C by October; the sea peaks a month later and is still at 19.3 °C when the air has dropped nine degrees. October swimming in Split is a real proposition on the published normals, and October sunbathing largely is not.
What the long series adds
The 1971–2000 normals are one dataset. Split Marjan also has a much longer record, 1948–2024, and the two should never be mixed in the same table — but the long series answers the shoulder-season question more directly. On that record September delivers 17 days reaching 25 °C and October delivers 1. July averages 353.3 hours of sunshine, and November takes 115.5 mm of rain.
The two records agree on the shape and differ on the level, which is why they are kept apart. On the 1971–2000 normals September gives 15.4 days reaching 25 °C and October 1.3; on the 1948–2024 series the same months give 17 and 1. Either way the cliff is in the same place. What the long series adds is a rainfall figure for the month most people assume is still coastal weather: 115.5 mm in November, against 25.5 mm in July on the 1971–2000 record.
Seventeen warm days against October’s single one is the sharpest statement of where the Dalmatian season ends. It ends in September, not in October, and it ends abruptly. The ferry register says the same thing in a different currency: the commercial half of Split’s network exists for the months in which those warm days exist, and disappears with them. Air, sea and timetable all turn within a few weeks of each other, which is why the shoulder season here is narrower than the temperature curve alone suggests. For the month-level detail across the coast, see the monthly figures.
What do you need to work out next?
The network and the calendar both shrink. Next questions.
Where to stay
Where to stay if you sail early?
Ten of Split’s 23 routes are state lines that run all year.
Getting around
Which Split boat reaches Hvar town?
Thirteen of sixteen do; only one of those takes a car.
When to go
When does Split’s sea peak?
23.6 °C in August, and still 19.3 °C in October.
Planning
Where do the big ships actually dock?
Split airport moved roughly 578,000 passengers in June 2025 and 62,250 in November.
Ferry data: Agencija za obalni linijski pomorski promet (ZOLPP), 2026 state coastal line register and per-line timetables. Climate data: DHMZ (meteo.hr), climate normals 1971–2000. Climate data: DHMZ (meteo.hr), Split Marjan station, 1948–2024. Passenger figures: Državni zavod za statistiku (DZS), monthly airport traffic releases.