Split's Blue Lagoon Day Boat to Krknjaši Bay in October

Krknjaši Bay and the two islets

Blue Lagoon Croatia (Krknjaši Bay, off Drvenik Veli) has no gate and no entry charge, so the crossing is the whole cost of a visit. Excursion boats and catamarans raft up on mooring buoys across the middle of the bay, each one putting a big group in the water at once, and swimmers stand waist-deep a long way out from the shore.

The colour comes from two low islets that close the bay. Krknjaš Veli and Krknjaš Mali (the east tip of Drvenik Veli) are bare rock and low maquis scrub, with pale limestone shelves at the waterline and a narrow channel of deeper blue running between them. Neither has anything built on it, and nobody controls who lands.

For fish, swim the edges where the pale sand shelves into dark Posidonia seagrass. Saddled and white seabream work that margin, hermit crabs and starfish sit out on the open sand, and an octopus will be holding one of the cracks in the rock. Snorkellers go in straight from the boats. The seagrass is protected, and anchoring on it is not allowed.

Boats out of Matejuška and the Lazareta piers

Matejuška pier, at the western end of Split's Riva, is where the group speedboats and tour RIBs muster. It is still a working fishermen's slipway, with orange-hulled wooden boats up on the hard, RIBs and speedboats rafted along the breakwater and Marjan hill behind it. People sit out on the concrete at dusk.

Licensed operators rent boats along the Riva next to it, and a day speedboat charter runs €200 to €300. The bigger catamarans go from the Obala Lazareta piers, a few hundred metres east.

The line 606 ferry and Drvenik Veli village

Jadrolinija line 606 (the Trogir Soline ramp, then Drvenik Mali and Drvenik Veli) is the only way in that is not a tour, and foot passengers do not need to book. It runs three sailings a day each way, and that timetable is what your whole visit has to fit. The boat is a small white-and-blue car ferry taking a dozen cars and foot passengers on an open deck, with Trogir's bell tower receding astern.

It lands in Drvenik Veli village, where the lagoon is still a walk or a taxi boat from the quay. Most visitors take a boat trip instead.

Konoba Jere (Crljenica 16, Drvenik Veli) is on the waterfront where the ferry comes in, its drinks terrace out on the quay with fishing boats tied a metre away. The upper dining level looks down the inlet between stone walls and blue shutters. Hours run 08:00 to late and the band is €€. This is the village's dependable all-day kitchen and the fallback when the lagoon venues have shut.

Church of sv. Juraj, above the village harbour, is the island's one piece of real heritage. The 16th-century Gothic shell is plain, a gabled façade with a single bell opening and cypresses alongside it. Inside there are Baroque wooden altars and altarpieces by the Venetian painter Antonio Grapinelli. Getting into the interior is informal and often only possible around services. Fifteen minutes is enough.

Solinska Bay, on the south coast of Drvenik Veli, is the island's other swim, a sheltered cove with a sandy strip and low pines leaning over the water. It is the standard second stop on speedboat trips, and since nothing is built on it and nothing is on shore, bring water and your own shade.

Lunch on the bay

Skoy Restaurant & Beach (Krknjaši 64) is the only polished venue on the bay, all pale timber and rope, with cream daybeds and canvas parasols set straight onto the stones and pines standing behind them. The dining terrace is open-fronted and looks across the lagoon. Beach and lounge bar run 09:00 to 22:00, the restaurant 12:00 to 20:00, and the band is €€€. Most tour boats drop people here for lunch. Reserve by phone or WhatsApp; the beach also takes private events. Check it is still trading before you rely on it late in October.

Konoba Krknjaši, in the olive grove immediately behind the lagoon beach, is a low stone room with vine-shaded wooden tables, a hand-painted sign and whole fish going onto an open charcoal grill. A local fishing family runs it and serves what their boat landed that morning. There is no pavement outside, just sand and olive roots. It opens daily 13:00 to 20:00, the band is €€, and cash is the safe assumption. Groups have to call ahead on +385 21 893 073. The kitchen is seasonal, so phone before you plan a late-October lunch around it.

Where else the day boats stop

Vela Rina (Drvenik Mali) is the neighbouring island's one proper beach venue, holding the Rina Mare restaurant and the Vela Beach Bar on a sand beach with a low white building behind it. The 90-seat restaurant terrace is at sea level, loungers sit under umbrellas, and five mooring buoys are laid off the beach for arriving boats to pick up. Restaurant and beach bar run 08:00 to 00:00 in season, with a €€€ band, and a golf cart does the transfer up from the harbour. The season runs 25 May to 25 October.

Maslinica and Martinis Marchi castle (Maslinica bay, Šolta) is the upmarket stop on the same day-boat route. The castle is a restored Venetian fortified residence of 1708 in pale stone at the head of the bay, now a hotel with vaulted dining rooms, a terrace over the basin and a 50-berth marina on the pontoons below it. Seven small islets are scattered across the mouth of the bay. The band is €€€€, and dinner needs reserving ahead.

Trogir on the way

Trogir old town (the UNESCO core and the Riva) is the nearest real town to the lagoon and the shorter crossing. It is a walled island of pale limestone lanes barely two metres wide, with a Venetian loggia on the main square and a palm-lined Riva where yachts moor stern-to against the sea wall. You can walk in at any hour, though guided groups bunch up at the cathedral square. A morning here with an afternoon swim is the best-value version of this day.

Cathedral of St Lawrence, on the main square, is the single most worthwhile paid sight in the area. Radovan's carved Romanesque west portal sits under a deep stone porch, and the three-storey Gothic-Renaissance bell tower rises over the square. A tight stone stair climbs to an open belfry looking across terracotta roofs to the sea. Cathedral and tower are €3 to €5 each. The stair takes small groups only, so climb it early, before the tour groups land and the cramped belfry congests. Hours shorten off-season and shift around services.

Kamerlengo Fortress, on the Trogir waterfront, is a square 15th-century Venetian block of honey-coloured stone, hollow and roofless inside, with an open-air stage set in it. The wall walk and corner tower look over the Čiovo channel, which is the water your boat leaves through. Entry is €5, and 20 minutes covers it. It opens daily 09:00 to 21:00 in season, with shorter hours October to May, so check before an autumn visit.

Trogir Town Museum (Garagnin-Fanfogna Palace, by the northern town gate) is cheap and informative, an 18th-century palace that joins Romanesque and Gothic houses, with a stone lapidarium in the courtyard, a library and period rooms covering the town from its founding to the 20th century. Entry is €3 to €4. From October to May it opens Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 14:00, which shuts it before most boat trips get back, so take it in before you sail.

Timing your crossing

Boarding at Matejuška runs from 07:00 to 08:00, and the full-day cruises run 480 minutes.

The anchorage sets the limit at the lagoon. Between 20 and 30 boats sit comfortably on the buoys before the bay feels packed, and it fills at midday, so an early boat buys you the water before the raft builds. Once it has, be at Solinska Bay.

Best time to go in October

The day boats run seven days a week, and the main trips list their season as 2 October 2026 to 31 October 2027. They are booking steadily, so take a place before you travel.

Early in the month is the safer half for a sit-down lunch, because Vela Rina's season ends inside October. The crossings depend on the weather, so keep a spare day for a blown-out morning.

Is it worth it

It suits a swimmer who will give a whole day to a boat for one long swim in open water. What it asks for is the crossing and a lunch plan that survives a closed konoba.

Before you go

Phone the two lagoon kitchens before you travel, and check the October hours at the fortress and the museum. The boat is the thing to book ahead.

See the Split guide and the Split hotel search.