Historic Saint Augustine, Know Before You Go –

Saint Augustine is a smaller city located in Northeast Florida just south of Jacksonville and about 1.5 hrs. south of the Florida/Georgia Stateline. It is considered to be the oldest city in the United States. It was first found and claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon in 1513 who named it La Florida , but things did not function out for Ponce de Leon as he planned. It was later rediscovered and renamed St. Augustine, by Juan Mendez Aviles in 1565.

It took me about 5 hrs to generate from South Florida to Saint Augustine through I-95, stopping twice. The moment for a rest room break and the following to get gasoline. The lodge the place I was staying was just off the 95, effortless to find. I stayed at the Intelligent Continue to be Inn, a two story lodge with an enough quantity of rooms and parking. It has a fitness center, a pool, incredibly hot tub, and laundry room, and serves up incredibly fantastic breakfast alternatives that incorporates scrambled eggs, sausages, slice bread, bagel, make your have waffles, orange juice, milk, coffee, tea, fruits and cereal. It’s possible not the very best, but far better than a granola bar and a bottle of drinking water that we ended up made available at an additional hotel.

The resort is close to the Saint Augustine Retailers and even though it’s not in the downtown area it was not a pretty very long push. Even While it was not my 1st preference, I did not intellect it at all. I was really far more pleased with the choice  when I went into town and observed that parking at those people resorts appeared a bit restricted. That is certainly a thing to keep in mind when seeking for somewhere to keep.

There are other accommodations in the location like the Comfort Inn which is correct next door, Good quality Inn, Red Roof Inn, Vacation Inn and extra. You can also locate gasoline stations and heaps of destinations to try to eat nearby.

What to Anticipate

The Downtown place is wherever most points of interest are. I came into city on a Friday afternoon, went to look at-in at the hotel and then visited the Saint Augustine Retailers. After going to the Shops I wished to go to an attraction, but when I checked the sights, most of them had been now closed. By the way, most sights in Saint Augustine closes in between at 5:00 and 5:30 PM. I saw a single, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, that was open up until finally 7:00 PM and resolved I would go. 

Following driving into the Downtown region the Pirate and Treasure Museum was no extended on my intellect. I determined I was likely to go to the Castillo de San Marcos nationwide Monument as a substitute mainly because there was a little something so captivating about the total landscapes, with the blue waters of the Matanzas River in the backdrop. The Pirate and Treasure Museum was actually throughout the road but that was for one more day.

I essential to try out and uncover somewhere to park and I recognized that the still left lane was starting off to again up as some men and women ended up hoping to get into a nearby parking whole lot even though many others had been in a line ready to go around the Bridge of Lions which can take you to A1A. I came out of the line and went into the proper lane in hopes I could uncover somewhere to park. I ended up on a avenue that took me ideal into what I believed was the parking good deal of a hotel, but as I drove in I discovered the parking areas all marked reserved. Afterwards I understood I was at the back of Flagler College or university.

I parked for a bit and obtained out and took a handful of images for the reason that it had a attractive architectural layout. Immediately after pulling out of the school, just across the street was a $10 parking good deal. I right away pulled in and paid out the attendant, it was a superior detail far too because it was beginning to fill up. There are quite a few parking all over, but you have to generate all-around to locate affordable parking. The parking closest to the major avenue, Avenida Menendez, are more highly-priced. You might be equipped to get some no cost parking at some of the sights with your ticket acquire, like Ripley’s Believe it or Not presented a 3 hours parking go with the buy of the entrance ticket. I was in a position to tour the attraction and later on leave the auto there for a little bit and arrived back in time to consider off.

Just after parking, I walked a tiny strategies, not as well considerably as a result of the back again streets and on to the primary but ahead of obtaining there I couldn’t help but seem all around to see what was heading on those again streets. I soon know that St. George avenue is exactly where almost everything was occurring. It is lined with retailers, eateries, and leisure. I was capable to halt at Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Cream and order a pistachio cup. Following leaving Tedi’s just on the aspect at the corner of Cuna and St. George there was a guy who had snakes on display screen, $10 to keep or pose with a a single of them for a solitary man or woman and $15 for a group. That was not going to be me, I am not a large lover of snakes, so I sort of hurried move there and went on to my destination.

When I arrived to the Castillo de San Marcos I was not able to go on the inside of because it was closed by that time, but I was nevertheless equipped to tour the outside. I was ready to walk about it and notice the cannons that were being lined off in just one region and study article content about its heritage. Even though it was not open at the time, it was nevertheless a gorgeous spot to loosen up because the solar was however up and the breeze that was blowing in from the Matanzas River felt so excellent. You can sit on any of the seats onsite or on the nice and lush lawn. The only factor is that the lawn is not struggling with the drinking water so it may perhaps not have the identical outcome as sitting on the waterfront.

Things To DO

There are many items to do in Saint Augustine, despite me imagining there may perhaps not have been a ton to do there. I will not go into much details about them below since I have an short article that listing items to do in St. Augustine, you can click on listed here to obtain it, but I will go ahead and listing some of the areas to visit/points to do

• Lightner Museum
• Ripley’s Believe it or Not
• Potter’s Wax Museum
• Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
• Alligator Farm
• The Torture Museum
• St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum
• Fountain of Youth
• The Outdated Jail
• Saint Augustine outlets for some searching
• Do your personal self strolling tour and admire the architecture of some destinations like Flagler College or university and the churches
• Pay a visit to The Plaza de La Constitucion park

Acquiring All over

Having all over town in St. Augustine is not challenging since most sites are near by and easy to get to with your very own car or truck or by Uber. If you transpire to get a hotel in or close to downtown, it’s an effortless wander due to the fact every little thing is right there, except for the beaches and alligator farm. Then there is also the trolley tours.

There are two forms of trollies in St. Augustine, there is the Old City Trolley Tours and Purple Educate Excursions. The Previous Town Trolley presents shuttles that picks you up from your lodge and usually takes you to the trolley depot, from there you can acquire your trolley tickets (as nicely as attraction tickets at a discount) and get on to a trolley. You can decide on to ride the trolley all working day close to city or hop on and off as you want. The Aged City Trolley tours sells one particular day as very well as two working day tickets.

The Pink Teach Tours is a section of Ripley’s Feel it or Not and also provides guided excursions about city making it possible for you to hop on and off all working day. You will be capable to get the practice from the Ripley’s location. The Red Teach Excursions offers an all day hop on or off practical experience as perfectly as the Red Educate Specific knowledge which is a one hour guided tour that normally takes you to selected internet sites.

There is an upside and a draw back to using the trollies. The upside is that you really don’t have to stress about driving your have automobile to each place and acquiring to fret about parking or taking a Uber, and the motorists are incredibly proficient about the heritage of the town. The draw back in my impression is, dependent on how far apart the stops are you can expend a large amount of time on the trolley obtaining to the up coming attraction. For case in point, I invested virtually 2 hrs on the trolley seeking to get to my last attraction mainly because of site visitors and also simply because it was the last stop, cease range 22, only to come across out that the park was only about a 5 minute stroll from the trolley depot.

Sites To Try to eat

Alongside the waterfront you can obtain restaurants these as Meehans’s Iris Pub and Seafood, River & Fort Cafe and Roof Major Lounge as perfectly as Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, just to title a couple of. Sadly, I did not get a probability to dine at any of those on the waterfront, but there are a large amount of areas all-around that you can come across to consume. Along the back streets you can locate small eating places tucked absent, like the Raintree or Drake’s Bistro on San Marco Ave, and St. George Tavern on St. George Avenue. Then there is generally speedy food stuff dining establishments like Bojangles, which by the way had some tasty chicken wings, Zaxby’s, Burger King, and far more, if you want to get it immediately and go.

What I like the most about Saint Augustine is that even nevertheless it’s a small town, it retains a large record and It’s great for solo vacationers and even additional so for family members. I would absolutely go to once again and I have found out that the most effective time to take a look at is all through Christmas when the total city is decorated with lights.