Split
Split is a 1700 year old Roman city that at one point was the retired emperor's palace. Later people moved inside the palace and used the hallways for streets and the rooms for apartments. You can see this layered architecture all over the old palace and it's amazing people are still living in it.
As with Dubrovnik I went against my experience and reserved an apartment on airbnb before we arrived. The man I reserved it with led us to a different apartment inside the palace walls which was fairly ratty and smelled of gas. The next day we went to the bus station to peruse the old ladies (and old men!) apartments for rent and found a man that had one close but outside the old city walls. We moved that day and what a difference! Inside the city walls it's very hectic, the prices are higher, the food is only mediocre and it's hard to find a place to eat. Outside the city walls we had a much nicer apartment closer to the beach, two blocks from the daily market and near a bunch of restaurants that smelled amazing as we walked by.
Location, location, location. When looking at the map it seems like the best apartment would be inside the city walls just like Dubrovnik but in both cities we we had kind of a negative feel. I didn't want that to be our lasting memories of Croatia so we moved and what a difference that makes! Our memories of Split turned out to be much more positive due to our new apartments location.
We swam in the warm Adriatic twice since we were closer to the beach, went to the market every day where we saw a lady selling olive oil from her land on the island of Brac for $1/bottle. I order my olive oil from the same island and I pay $35/bottle in Seattle. Crazy.
Oh and Pašticada is wonderful. Dalmatia is on the sea so most Dalmatian food is seafood, pastas and pizza like Italy but in Split we were able to get the other real Croatian food like wild boar and Pašticada. Very, very nice. And the smoked, cured meats in the market!
So once again just show up and pick a room from one of the locals hawking them at the bus station. It might put you outside your comfort zone but it really is the best way.