Split or Venice?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and value for money with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Split if swimming is the point of the trip: the sea is right at the centre, with 87 beaches nearby and protected country within reach for days out.
Choose Venice if you want museums and monuments packed into walking distance, with attractions and 3 theme parks within reach to keep children occupied. It is the stronger city for sightseeing on foot and for a family stay.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Split leads by 4 points.4
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 69 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 87 | 20 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 4 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 4 km |
Places to eat. Venice leads by 7 points.7
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 45 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 268 | 750 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 15 | 10 |
Museums & heritage. Venice leads by 20 points.20
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 18 | 57 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 16 | 45 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 89 | 79 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
Nightlife. Split leads by 6 points.6
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 35 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 379 | 342 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 263 | 306 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 69 | 89 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 23 | 3 |
Nature & day trips. Split leads by 21 points.21
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 17 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 9 | 4 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 62 | 70 |
| Park area within 2 km | 30 hectares | 15 hectares |
Good for families. Venice leads by 31 points.31
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 26 | 57 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 9 | 72 |
| Park area within 2 km | 30 hectares | 15 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Venice leads by 41 points.41
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 83 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 43 | 464 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Split leads by 12 points.12
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 68 |
| Price level global | 48.5 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €138 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Split leads by 3 points.3
| Split | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 66 |
| Monthly daytime high | 10.7 °C to 31 °C | 8 °C to 30.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 25 mm to 117 mm | 36 mm to 106 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 2 |
Where they differ
Split is the better base for getting out of the city. Around 9% of the land near it is protected against 4% around Venice, and it has about twice as much park space close to the centre, so green space and day trips are part of an ordinary day rather than an expedition.
Venice packs many more notable places within walking distance of its centre, so sightseeing needs little planning. For families it also has many more tourist attractions near the centre, plus 3 theme parks within reach where Split has none.
Where they are alike
Weather is where the two are closest. Both are mild in winter and hot in summer, with Split's daytime highs running 11-31°C across the year and Venice's 8-30°C, and each has two months with 40mm of rain or less.
Both also give four months of sea at 21°C or more. Evenings compare closely: about as many places to drink near the centre in each, though Split has far more nightclubs. Venice has more restaurants near its centre, Split a wider spread of kitchens.
Which traveller are you?
If your days are built around swimming, take Split. The sea is at the centre, 87 beaches are within reach, and four months are warm enough in the water to use them without planning around the forecast.
If you want museums and monuments and prefer to walk between them, take Venice. It has roughly three times as many museums and far more notable places within walking distance, so a short stay loses little time in transit.
Families split by what they want. Venice suits those who want attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach; Split suits those who want park space and open country instead, with more protected land around the city.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €138 and €155, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Split or Venice. A heavily visited city can sit further from its own national average than the gap between the two figures, so this tells you nothing reliable about which trip will cost more.
Split's 87 beaches and warm sea look best in the driest, hottest months, which are also when the coast is fullest. Venice's compactness cuts both ways: everything within walking distance means everyone walks the same ground, and with little protected land nearby there is less space to escape to.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Treviso / S. Angelo (26.1 km from centre).
Split peaks from June to September: highs of 31°C in July and August with the sea at 25°C, and July is the driest month at 25mm. September keeps the water warm, though rain returns at 82mm.
Venice is at its best in June and July, with highs of 28-30°C and 65-75mm of rain. Its shoulder months are wetter than Split's, 91mm in May and 106mm in September, so allow for time indoors either side of midsummer.
Getting there
| Flying from | Split | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 30 m €88-160 SPU · 12 km | 2 h 0 m €46-119 1 stop VCE · 7 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 5 m €169-225 SPU · 12 km | 1 h 40 m €68-109 VCE · 7 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 10 m €186-201 1 stop SPU · 12 km | 1 h 45 m €190-215 1 stop VCE · 7 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 45 m €169-224 SPU · 12 km | 1 h 20 m €136-186 1 stop VCE · 7 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 5 m €294 SPU · 12 km | 1 h 10 m €81-119 VCE · 7 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 15 m €233-281 SPU · 12 km | 1 h 10 m €65-121 VCE · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 40 m no fares SPU · 12 km | 2 h 20 m €102-159 VCE · 7 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 5 m €108-177 SPU · 12 km | 1 h 45 m €41-56 VCE · 7 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 25 m no fares SPU · 12 km | 1 h 5 m €268-289 VCE · 7 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 9 h 0 m no fares SPU · 12 km | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 7 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Split | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Croatian | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 0 m | 2 m |
| Main airport | Split Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre70 non-stop destinations | Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre98 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Split | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 160,577 | 250,369 |
| People per km² | – | 602 |
| Museums within 10 km | 11 | 52 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 31 | 46 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Split or Venice somewhere new.