Historic Saint Augustine, Know Before You Go –

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

It took me about 5 several hours to generate from South Florida to Saint Augustine by way of I-95, stopping twice. When for a bathroom break and the following to get gas. The hotel the place I was remaining was just off the 95, quick to obtain. I stayed at the Sensible Stay Inn, a two story hotel with an adequate total of rooms and parking. It has a fitness center, a pool, incredibly hot tub, and laundry home, and serves up very fantastic breakfast selections that contains scrambled eggs, sausages, slice bread, bagel, make your very own waffles, orange juice, milk, coffee, tea, fruits and cereal. Maybe not the best, but improved than a granola bar and a bottle of h2o that we were supplied at an additional hotel.

The resort is near to the Saint Augustine Outlets and while it’s not in the downtown region it was not a extremely prolonged drive. Even Nevertheless it wasn’t my first alternative, I did not thoughts it at all. I was actually additional happy with the choice  when I went into town and observed that parking at all those accommodations appeared a little bit limited. That is surely some thing to keep in mind when hunting for somewhere to stay.

There are other accommodations in the location like the Comfort Inn which is right up coming doorway, Good quality Inn, Purple Roof Inn, Getaway Inn and extra. You can also come across gasoline stations and lots of areas to take in close by.

What to Hope

The Downtown region is wherever most points of interest are. I arrived into city on a Friday afternoon, went to check out-in at the lodge and then frequented the Saint Augustine Retailers. Soon after going to the Retailers I wanted to go to an attraction, but when I checked the attractions, most of them ended up currently shut. By the way, most attractions in Saint Augustine closes concerning at 5:00 and 5:30 PM. I noticed one, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, that was open up till 7:00 PM and made a decision I would go. 

Immediately after driving into the Downtown space the Pirate and Treasure Museum was no longer on my head. I decided I was going to go to the Castillo de San Marcos countrywide Monument alternatively for the reason that there was something so fascinating about the total landscapes, with the blue waters of the Matanzas River in the backdrop. The Pirate and Treasure Museum was basically across the avenue but that was for an additional day.

I necessary to check out and locate someplace to park and I recognized that the left lane was beginning to back up as some individuals ended up trying to get into a nearby parking whole lot while other folks have been in a line waiting to go about the Bridge of Lions which takes you to A1A. I came out of the line and went into the ideal lane in hopes I could find someplace to park. I ended up on a avenue that took me proper into what I imagined was the parking large amount of a hotel, but as I drove in I observed the parking spaces all marked reserved. Later on I realized I was at the again of Flagler University.

I parked for a little bit and got out and took a several photos simply because it had a pretty architectural style and design. Soon after pulling out of the college, just across the avenue was a $10 parking large amount. I immediately pulled in and paid the attendant, it was a fantastic matter far too since it was setting up to fill up. There are numerous parking all-around, but you have to push all around to uncover cheap parking. The parking closest to the primary avenue, Avenida Menendez, are a lot more highly-priced. You may possibly be capable to get some free of charge parking at some of the sights with your ticket invest in, like Ripley’s Think it or Not provided a 3 hours parking pass with the invest in of the entrance ticket. I was capable to tour the attraction and later on go away the motor vehicle there for a bit and arrived again in time to just take off.

Soon after parking, I walked a very little approaches, not as well considerably by means of the back again streets and on to the key but in advance of finding there I couldn’t aid but glimpse around to see what was going on individuals back again streets. I soon realize that St. George avenue is where by almost everything was happening. It is lined with outlets, eateries, and entertainment. I was able to end at Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Product and buy a pistachio cup. Following leaving Tedi’s just on the facet at the corner of Cuna and St. George there was a guy who experienced snakes on exhibit, $10 to hold or pose with a 1 of them for a solitary person and $15 for a team. That was not heading to be me, I am not a massive lover of snakes, so I type of hurried move there and went on to my desired destination.

When I came to the Castillo de San Marcos I was not equipped to go on the within for the reason that it was closed by that time, but I was however ready to tour the outside the house. I was able to stroll around it and observe the cannons that have been lined off in a person spot and study posts about its history. Even while it was not open at the time, it was however a beautiful position to loosen up due to the fact the sunshine was still 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 good and lush lawn. The only point is that the lawn is not facing the water so it may possibly not have the similar impact as sitting down on the waterfront.

Points To DO

There are several issues to do in Saint Augustine, irrespective of me considering there could not have been a whole lot to do there. I will not go into substantially facts about them here for the reason that I have an write-up that checklist points to do in St. Augustine, you can simply click below to discover it, but I will go forward and record some of the spots to check out/things to do

• Lightner Museum
• Ripley’s Believe that it or Not
• Potter’s Wax Museum
• Castillo de San Marcos Countrywide Monument
• Alligator Farm
• The Torture Museum
• St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum
• Fountain of Youth
• The Outdated Jail
• Saint Augustine retailers for some buying
• Do your own self going for walks tour and admire the architecture of some places like Flagler College or university and the church buildings
• Go to The Plaza de La Constitucion park

Having Close to

Receiving close to town in St. Augustine is not really hard because most locations are close by and uncomplicated to get to with your possess car or by Uber. If you materialize to get a hotel in or in the vicinity of downtown, it’s an straightforward wander because all the things is suitable there, apart from for the beach locations and alligator farm. Then there is also the trolley excursions.

There are two kinds of trollies in St. Augustine, there is the Previous Town Trolley Tours and Crimson Practice Excursions. The Outdated Town Trolley provides shuttles that picks you up from your hotel and can take you to the trolley depot, from there you can get your trolley tickets (as properly as attraction tickets at a discounted) and get on to a trolley. You can pick to ride the trolley all day about town or hop on and off as you want. The Aged Town Trolley excursions sells one particular day as properly as two day tickets.

The Pink Coach Tours is a portion of Ripley’s Imagine it or Not and also features guided tours about town making it possible for you to hop on and off all day. You will be in a position to get the prepare from the Ripley’s spot. The Purple Prepare Excursions delivers an all day hop on or off knowledge as perfectly as the Red Practice Categorical working experience which is a 1 hour guided tour that takes you to particular sites.

There is an upside and a downside to taking the trollies. The upside is that you do not have to worry about driving your own car or truck to just about every area and possessing to stress about parking or using a Uber, and the motorists are really professional about the historical past of the city. The downside in my belief is, based on how much aside the stops are you can shell out a good deal of time on the trolley acquiring to the subsequent attraction. For case in point, I spent virtually 2 hrs on the trolley making an attempt to get to my last attraction due to the fact of targeted visitors and also simply because it was the very last quit, quit range 22, only to discover out that the park was only about a 5 minute walk from the trolley depot.

Spots To Take in

Along the waterfront you can locate restaurants these as Meehans’s Iris Pub and Seafood, River & Fort Cafe and Roof Top Lounge as well as Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, just to identify a number of. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a possibility to dine at any of all those on the waterfront, but there are a large amount of locations about that you can find to consume. Along the back streets you can discover little places to eat tucked away, like the Raintree or Drake’s Bistro on San Marco Ave, and St. George Tavern on St. George Road. Then there is generally quickly food restaurants like Bojangles, which by the way experienced some delicious hen wings, Zaxby’s, Burger King, and extra, if you want to get it immediately and go.

What I like the most about Saint Augustine is that even while it is a tiny town, it holds a major historical past and It’s excellent for solo vacationers and even additional so for family members. I would definitely stop by again and I have identified out that the greatest time to check out is in the course of Xmas when the whole city is embellished with lights.