Historic Saint Augustine, Know Before You Go –
Saint Augustine is a smaller city situated 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 first uncovered and claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon in 1513 who named it La Florida , but issues did not operate 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 several hours to push from South Florida to Saint Augustine by way of I-95, stopping 2 times. After for a lavatory crack and the future to get gas. The hotel in which I was staying was just off the 95, straightforward to come across. I stayed at the Smart Keep Inn, a two story lodge with an ample amount of money of rooms and parking. It has a fitness center, a pool, hot tub, and laundry area, and serves up incredibly superior breakfast decisions that incorporates scrambled eggs, sausages, slice bread, bagel, make your very own waffles, orange juice, milk, espresso, tea, fruits and cereal. Maybe not the finest, but superior than a granola bar and a bottle of water that we were supplied at yet another hotel.
The hotel is near to the Saint Augustine Stores and even though it is not in the downtown region it was not a incredibly very long push. Even Nevertheless it was not my to start with decision, I didn’t mind it at all. I was in fact extra delighted with the choice when I went into city and noticed that parking at those resorts seemed a little bit tight. That is certainly something to continue to keep in intellect when searching for somewhere to remain.
There are other resorts in the area like the Comfort Inn which is suitable upcoming door, Quality Inn, Purple Roof Inn, Holiday getaway Inn and far more. You can also locate fuel stations and lots of sites to try to eat nearby.
What to Anticipate
The Downtown space is where most points of interest are. I came into town on a Friday afternoon, went to check-in at the lodge and then frequented the Saint Augustine Outlets. Following checking out the Retailers I wished to go to an attraction, but when I checked the sights, most of them ended up presently closed. By the way, most attractions in Saint Augustine closes amongst at 5:00 and 5:30 PM. I observed one, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, that was open up until finally 7:00 PM and made the decision I would go.
Right after driving into the Downtown place the Pirate and Treasure Museum was no for a longer time on my brain. I made a decision I was heading to go to the Castillo de San Marcos nationwide Monument as a substitute simply because there was a thing so charming about the whole surroundings, with the blue waters of the Matanzas River in the backdrop. The Pirate and Treasure Museum was actually across the street but that was for a further day.
I wanted to test and locate somewhere to park and I found that the still left lane was starting to again up as some folks ended up attempting to get into a close by parking lot whilst other folks were being in a line waiting to go above the Bridge of Lions which normally takes you to A1A. I arrived out of the line and went into the right lane in hopes I could come across someplace to park. I ended up on a street that took me suitable into what I believed was the parking good deal of a lodge, but as I drove in I seen the parking areas all marked reserved. Afterwards I understood I was at the back of Flagler College.
I parked for a bit and received out and took a couple of pictures for the reason that it experienced a charming architectural style and design. Immediately after pulling out of the college, just across the avenue was a $10 parking ton. I immediately pulled in and compensated the attendant, it was a good point also because it was starting up to fill up. There are various parking close to, but you have to generate all around to come across inexpensive parking. The parking closest to the main road, Avenida Menendez, are far more high priced. You may perhaps be capable to get some totally free parking at some of the points of interest with your ticket purchase, like Ripley’s Think it or Not available a 3 several hours parking move with the purchase of the entrance ticket. I was able to tour the attraction and afterwards depart the auto there for a bit and arrived again in time to take off.
Soon after parking, I walked a small methods, not far too far via the back streets and on to the principal but before receiving there I could not assistance but appear around to see what was likely on these again streets. I shortly recognize that St. George avenue is wherever everything was happening. It is lined with outlets, eateries, and leisure. I was able to prevent at Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Product and purchase a pistachio cup. Right after leaving Tedi’s just on the aspect at the corner of Cuna and St. George there was a person who had snakes on screen, $10 to maintain or pose with a a single of them for a one man or woman and $15 for a group. That was not heading to be me, I am not a massive fan of snakes, so I kind of hurried pass there and went on to my desired destination.
When I arrived to the Castillo de San Marcos I was not able to go on the within simply because it was shut by that time, but I was nevertheless capable to tour the outdoors. I was ready to walk all-around it and notice the cannons that were lined off in a single space and study content articles about its record. Even although it was not open at the time, it was nonetheless a gorgeous area to chill out simply because the sun 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 wonderful and lush lawn. The only point is that the lawn is not going through the h2o so it may perhaps not have the similar outcome as sitting down on the waterfront.
Items To DO
There are many items to do in Saint Augustine, in spite of me pondering there might not have been a lot to do there. I will not go into a lot aspects about them here mainly because I have an write-up that list items to do in St. Augustine, you can click in this article to come across it, but I will go ahead and listing some of the places to visit/matters to do
- Lightner Museum
- Ripley’s Imagine 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 Previous Jail
- Saint Augustine stores for some searching
- Do your very own self going for walks tour and admire the architecture of some destinations like Flagler College and the church buildings
- Pay a visit to The Plaza de La Constitucion park
Finding All around
Receiving around town in St. Augustine is not really hard mainly because most spots are close by and simple to get to with your individual car or truck or by Uber. If you occur to get a lodge in or near downtown, it is an uncomplicated walk due to the fact every little thing is appropriate there, except for the seashores and alligator farm. Then there is also the trolley excursions.
There are two styles of trollies in St. Augustine, there is the Previous City Trolley Tours and Red Train Tours. The Outdated City Trolley gives shuttles that picks you up from your lodge and normally takes you to the trolley depot, from there you can invest in your trolley tickets (as very well as attraction tickets at a low cost) and get on to a trolley. You can choose to trip the trolley all day all around town or hop on and off as you wish. The Previous Town Trolley excursions sells one day as properly as two day tickets.
The Pink Prepare Tours is a part of Ripley’s Believe it or Not and also presents guided excursions around town allowing for you to hop on and off all working day. You will be able to get the prepare from the Ripley’s site. The Crimson Practice Tours features an all working day hop on or off working experience as well as the Pink Coach Convey experience which is a 1 hour guided tour that requires you to particular web sites.
There is an upside and a draw back to using the trollies. The upside is that you really do not have to fret about driving your personal auto to every locale and getting to fret about parking or having a Uber, and the drivers are extremely knowledgeable about the historical past of the town. The downside in my belief is, dependent on how considerably apart the stops are you can commit a great deal of time on the trolley having to the subsequent attraction. For illustration, I expended practically 2 hrs on the trolley hoping to get to my final attraction mainly because of visitors and also since it was the previous prevent, cease range 22, only to discover out that the park was only about a 5 minute walk from the trolley depot.
Sites To Try to eat
Along the waterfront you can obtain eating places these kinds of as Meehans’s Iris Pub and Seafood, River & Fort Restaurant and Roof Top Lounge as perfectly as Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, just to name a couple. However, I did not get a chance to dine at any of these on the waterfront, but there are a great deal of spots about that you can locate to try to eat. Together the back streets you can find smaller dining places tucked away, like the Raintree or Drake’s Bistro on San Marco Ave, and St. George Tavern on St. George Road. Then there is often rapidly foodstuff dining places like Bojangles, which by the way had some tasty chicken wings, Zaxby’s, Burger King, and far more, if you want to get it quickly and go.
What I like the most about Saint Augustine is that even while it’s a smaller town, it holds a huge heritage and It’s terrific for solo travelers and even much more so for family members. I would absolutely visit once more and I have found out that the finest time to go to is through Christmas when the whole metropolis is decorated with lights.