SPLIT... plus island life

PART ONE The Aegean isn’t the only European sea to offer sun-kissed cities at the water’s edge: the biggest coastal dot on the Croatian map ensures that the Adriatic repeats the trick. While much bigger than Dubrovnik, Split still lags behind its Dalmatian colleague in profile – an odd situation, given that it offers the same grand combination of history, cuisine, orange-tiled architecture and good flight connectivity from the UK, but less of Dubrovnik’s air of over-tourism.

ESSENTIAL SIGHT Diocletian’s Palace, a vast complex built for said Roman emperor in the fourth century, which still forms the kernel of the Old Town. Of its four main entrances, the Silver Gate still sings most sweetly of the era, in its sequence of archways.

PART TWO Even a non-extended weekend could feature a dash from Split to Brac. The 11-mile ferry crossing to Supetar takes just over an hour and deposits you onto what is the biggest island in Dalmatia. Brac has long been a haven for foodies – the first-century Roman writer Pliny the Elder remarked on the qualities of its wines, olive oil and cheese.

DON’T MISS Zlatni Rat (Golden Horn), a V-shaped beach on the south coast of Brac whose beauty has made it a mustsee location to the point of cliché. It is no less gorgeous for this.

DO IT Regent Holidays (0117 453 0476; regent-holidays.co.uk) offers Split and Brac as a two- or three-night pairing, from £1,160 per person (with flights and ferries).

h Brac to basics: relax on the Dalmatian isle