Historic Saint Augustine, Know Before You Go –
Saint Augustine is a small town located in Northeast Florida just south of Jacksonville and about 1.5 hrs. south of the Florida/Georgia Stateline. It is thought to be the oldest city in the United States. It was to start with found and claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon in 1513 who named it La Florida , but factors did not function out for Ponce de Leon as he prepared. It was later rediscovered and renamed St. Augustine, by Juan Mendez Aviles in 1565.
It took me about 5 several hours to travel from South Florida to Saint Augustine by way of I-95, halting 2 times. As soon as for a bathroom break and the following to get fuel. The resort exactly where I was keeping was just off the 95, quick to obtain. I stayed at the Sensible Remain Inn, a two tale resort with an adequate amount of money of rooms and parking. It has a fitness center, a pool, warm tub, and laundry space, and serves up very great breakfast selections that consists of scrambled eggs, sausages, slice bread, bagel, make your have waffles, orange juice, milk, espresso, tea, fruits and cereal. Possibly not the finest, but improved than a granola bar and a bottle of drinking water that we were being presented at an additional lodge.
The resort is near to the Saint Augustine Stores and although it’s not in the downtown space it was not a quite long push. Even While it was not my first choice, I didn’t thoughts it at all. I was truly much more happy with the choice when I went into town and noticed that parking at all those resorts appeared a little bit limited. That is surely one thing to maintain in thoughts when looking for somewhere to continue to be.
There are other accommodations in the place like the Ease and comfort Inn which is appropriate up coming doorway, Quality Inn, Purple Roof Inn, Holiday getaway Inn and more. You can also obtain fuel stations and plenty of locations to try to eat nearby.
What to Expect
The Downtown spot is the place most points of interest are. I arrived into city on a Friday afternoon, went to look at-in at the hotel and then visited the Saint Augustine Retailers. Just after going to the Stores I wished to go to an attraction, but when I checked the sights, most of them were being now closed. By the way, most points of interest in Saint Augustine closes amongst at 5:00 and 5:30 PM. I observed one, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, that was open up right up until 7:00 PM and made a decision I would go.
Just after driving into the Downtown spot the Pirate and Treasure Museum was no more time on my mind. I resolved I was likely to go to the Castillo de San Marcos countrywide Monument instead due to the fact there was a thing so charming about the complete landscapes, with the blue waters of the Matanzas River in the backdrop. The Pirate and Treasure Museum was practically across the road but that was for an additional day.
I essential to consider and uncover somewhere to park and I recognized that the still left lane was beginning to back up as some people ended up hoping to get into a close by parking large amount though many others have been in a line ready to go over the Bridge of Lions which will take you to A1A. I came out of the line and went into the ideal lane in hopes I could uncover someplace to park. I ended up on a street that took me proper into what I considered was the parking ton of a lodge, but as I drove in I observed the parking spaces all marked reserved. Later I understood I was at the back of Flagler Faculty.
I parked for a bit and obtained out and took a several shots simply because it experienced a beautiful architectural style and design. Right after pulling out of the faculty, just throughout the avenue was a $10 parking great deal. I quickly pulled in and compensated the attendant, it was a good thing too since it was starting up to fill up. There are several parking all around, but you have to generate about to locate inexpensive parking. The parking closest to the principal street, Avenida Menendez, are more high priced. You may perhaps be ready to get some free of charge parking at some of the sights with your ticket purchase, like Ripley’s Believe that it or Not made available a 3 several hours parking go with the obtain of the entrance ticket. I was ready to tour the attraction and later on go away the vehicle there for a little bit and came back again in time to acquire off.
Soon after parking, I walked a small means, not much too far via the back streets and on to the principal but just before finding there I could not assistance but seem close to to see what was going on individuals again streets. I shortly recognize that St. George road is wherever every thing was happening. It is lined with stores, eateries, and entertainment. I was ready to cease at Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Product and acquire a pistachio cup. Immediately after leaving Tedi’s just on the aspect at the corner of Cuna and St. George there was a gentleman who experienced snakes on exhibit, $10 to keep or pose with a a single of them for a one individual and $15 for a group. That wasn’t going to be me, I am not a significant enthusiast of snakes, so I form of hurried pass there and went on to my location.
When I arrived to the Castillo de San Marcos I was not ready to go on the inside since it was shut by that time, but I was however in a position to tour the outside the house. I was able to wander all over it and observe the cannons that were being lined off in a person place and examine posts about its historical past. Even nevertheless it was not open up at the time, it was continue to a wonderful put to take it easy since the solar was continue to 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 garden. The only matter is that the garden is not facing the drinking water so it could not have the same influence as sitting on the waterfront.
Items To DO
There are a lot of things to do in Saint Augustine, even with me pondering there may perhaps not have been a good deal to do there. I will not go into significantly specifics about them here because I have an post that record points to do in St. Augustine, you can simply click here to obtain it, but I will go forward and listing some of the spots to stop by/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 Old Jail
- Saint Augustine shops for some searching
- Do your very own self walking tour and admire the architecture of some places like Flagler University and the churches
- Check out The Plaza de La Constitucion park
Obtaining All-around
Receiving all around town in St. Augustine isn’t challenging mainly because most areas are shut by and simple to get to with your individual motor vehicle or by Uber. If you happen to get a hotel in or near downtown, it’s an quick stroll simply because all the things is correct there, apart from for the seashores and alligator farm. Then there is also the trolley tours.
There are two sorts of trollies in St. Augustine, there is the Old City Trolley Excursions and Crimson Educate Tours. The Old Town Trolley provides shuttles that picks you up from your hotel and normally takes you to the trolley depot, from there you can get your trolley tickets (as nicely as attraction tickets at a price reduction) and get on to a trolley. You can pick to experience the trolley all working day all around city or hop on and off as you would like. The Outdated Town Trolley excursions sells a single working day as perfectly as two working day tickets.
The Red Teach Tours is a component of Ripley’s Believe it or Not and also delivers guided excursions about town allowing you to hop on and off all working day. You will be ready to get the prepare from the Ripley’s place. The Red Educate Tours offers an all day hop on or off working experience as nicely as the Crimson Prepare Express practical experience which is a one hour guided tour that can take you to selected web-sites.
There is an upside and a downside to getting the trollies. The upside is that you really do not have to fear about driving your personal car to every place and owning to worry about parking or getting a Uber, and the motorists are very educated about the historical past of the city. The downside in my viewpoint is, based on how considerably aside the stops are you can shell out a ton of time on the trolley obtaining to the future attraction. For case in point, I put in just about 2 hours on the trolley making an attempt to get to my previous attraction simply because of targeted traffic and also because it was the very last prevent, halt amount 22, only to uncover out that the park was only about a 5 minute walk from the trolley depot.
Sites To Consume
Together the waterfront you can locate eating places this sort of as Meehans’s Iris Pub and Seafood, River & Fort Restaurant and Roof Prime Lounge as effectively 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 individuals on the waterfront, but there are a large amount of areas all-around that you can uncover to consume. Together the back streets you can obtain small eating places tucked away, like the Raintree or Drake’s Bistro on San Marco Ave, and St. George Tavern on St. George Avenue. Then there is normally rapidly food items places to eat like Bojangles, which by the way experienced some delicious hen wings, Zaxby’s, Burger King, and a lot more, if you want to get it speedily and go.
What I like the most about Saint Augustine is that even even though it is a compact town, it retains a big heritage and It is good for solo tourists and even more so for families. I would unquestionably visit yet again and I have uncovered out that the best time to go to is through Xmas when the entire metropolis is adorned with lights.
