Split right now: Ultra week, listening bars, and seven kinds of tiramisu

I got into Split last week and the whole city already feels like it is holding its breath for the second weekend of July. Every hostel notice board, every bar chalkboard, every second conversation in the palace comes back to the same three letters. Ultra. If you are coming to Split this summer, the festival is the gravity everything else bends around, so let us start there, then get into the food and bars that the city is actually buzzing about right now.

Here is what is hot in Split this summer, from someone standing in it.

Ultra Europe takes over from July 10 to 12

Ultra Europe runs this year on July 10, 11 and 12 at Park Mladeži, about 20 minutes from the old town. It is the biggest edition they have done. Calvin Harris is playing his festival debut, alongside Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Armin van Buuren, John Summit, FISHER, Dom Dolla and a heavy RESISTANCE stage with the likes of Sara Landry and I Hate Models. Gates run until 2am each night, and something like 150,000 people pour through over the weekend.

A few things worth knowing if you are in town for it. Three-day tickets started around €239 and climb as the dates close in, so sort that before you arrive. Beds in the centre book out months ahead and prices roughly double for that week, so if you have not booked, look at Podstrana or Trogir and budget for taxis. And the festival does not actually stop in the city: Destination Ultra carries on across the islands of Brač and Vis in the days after, which is where a lot of people end up for the comedown that is somehow also a rave.

If you are here for Ultra, the trip is really two trips: three nights at Park Mladeži, then the islands. Pack and budget for both versions of yourself.

The food scene quietly got good

The thing locals will actually talk to you about, though, is the food. Split spent years coasting on tourist-trap grilled fish, and in the last couple of seasons a younger crowd of chefs has flipped that.

The opening everyone keeps mentioning is Lui, an all-day place that does artisan baking and brunch in the morning and switches to wood-fired Neapolitan pizza and cocktails at night. The branding is cute, the terrace is draped in vines, and the pizzas come out fast and reliably good, which in this city counts for a lot.

Then there is Parasol on Trg Franje Tuđmana, which is the one that surprised me. Part mid-century bistro, part listening bar, with a proper hi-fi setup playing records, natural wine, and a short menu that runs from a smash burger to tuna tartare. The braised miso cabbage has no business being as good as it is. It feels like its own world rather than another Riva clone.

• Lui for pizza and a night that starts at the table and slides into cocktails.
• Parasol for natural wine, vinyl and food that is actually thought through.
• Bokeria if you want the big, buzzy, two-storey converted-ironworks dinner.
• A tiramisu-only counter near Đardin park doing seven flavours, made fresh daily, to go. The global tiramisu craze landed here and the queue proves it.

Rooftops and the slow-drink crowd

The other shift is upward. Split never really had rooftops and now it has a small scene of them. ZOI sits right on the palace walls above the Riva, doing high-end Mediterranean and tasting menus with the harbour laid out below, open March to October. The pool bar on the fourth floor of the Ambasador is the more relaxed, cocktail-with-a-view version.

If you would rather drink slowly than dance, that is its own trend here now: natural wine bars, listening bars, craft spots like The Daltonist just outside the palace. A few years ago the night was beer buckets or nothing. Now there is a whole lane between the two.

What has not changed, and is better for it

For all the new stuff, the most Split thing you can do this summer costs nothing. Go down to Bačvice in the late afternoon and watch picigin, the local game where people in waist-deep water smack a tiny ball around and dive for it like the World Cup is on the line. The Zbirač bar right there is the spot to watch from. It is daft, it is free, and it is the truest snapshot of the city you will get.

And when the palace bars close around 1 or 2am, the night still moves the same way it always has, down to Bačvice, where Tropic, Vanilla and Zenta run until 4 or 5am. For the proper all-night version, people still catch the catamaran out to Zrće on Pag. None of that is new. It just works.

The one thing I would tell a friend landing in Split this summer: if you are not here for Ultra, come either side of it, not during, because the city is calmer and cheaper. And whenever you come, book Parasol for one dinner, grab a tiramisu, and end the evening at Bačvice watching picigin until the light goes. That little run is Split in 2026 in a nutshell.

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Big festival, long nights, lots of drinking on offer. Pace yourself, keep water on you in the July heat, and look out for the people you came with.