location of Split from Kotor, Zadar, Koper
 

we are on a cruise spending a day in Kotor, Zadar, and Koper. Is Split nearby any of these if we only have a day? Do any of these cities need a guide or can be done on own??

Split is closest to Zadar. Use Google Maps to see how to get from Zadar to Split. Or try Rome2Rio.

You can easily explore Kotor and Zadar on your own. I haven't been to Koper proper (see my response to your other post) but I don't think it's very big. The common thing to do in Kotor is to walk the "walls" above the town - really a very steep climb up a bunch of steps behind Kotor. Lots of cruisers make the climb; some personnel from the ship will probably go up with you. The views down are amazing and well worth the climb. There's a small fee to climb, a Euro or two as I recall. (You need Kuna in Croatia for Zadar/Split.)

Is Zadar prettier than Split. Or similar ?

They are different. Zadar has a pleasant but touristy town center with some Roman ruins scattered about in what was the old Roman forum, but it's not that exciting. There are two tourist attractions on the waterfront: a "sea organ" that plays notes based on the wind, and the Sun Salutation, a disc of solar panels on the ground that plays a light show from stored sunlight after it gets dark.

Here are some of my Zadar pictures from last year:

http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,M2...r-croatia.html

Split is a much more substantial port city, and the center of town is built inside the ruins of a a huge old palace, Diocletian's Palace, where there are lots of shops and restaurants.

If you have all day, you can probably take a city bus from Zadar to Split for a few hours - I probably would. Maybe there are boat excursions between the two cities - not sure.

If you fancy a national park, Krka National Park is about an hour from Zadar and is noted for its huge cascading waterfall, Skradinski Buk. There are probably paid tours you can book from Zadar to/from the park - not sure how the timing would work with the constraints of your cruise stop.

If you have a long stop in Zadar, I think you'd be bored just to spend the whole day there, but if you have only 3-4 hours I'd probably just stay in Zadar.

Split is about 2.5 to 3 hours by bus from Zadar, too far for a day trip IMO. Stick to the area, perhaps take a guided tour to Krka National Park as the previous poster suggested.

even though I dont usually take tours from the ship, there is one to Split and it may be worth it since they are responsible for getting us back