topic Re: St. Augustine in Travel

St. Augustine

Travel61 — Tue, 31 May 2022 10:51:40 GMT

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on a long weekend trip to st. Augustine Florida? Never been there was thinking of visiting that area but don't know much about it. Are the beaches good, things to do plentiful? I would appreciate any suggestions or comments anyone has thank you hope you all have a great week.

Re: St. Augustine

Miss Pepsi — Tue, 31 May 2022 11:24:02 GMT

I live near there and retired from the National Park Service in St. Augustine a year ago. My daughter lives in St. Augustine and I would be happy to help. Downtown is not walking distance to the beach. The beaches are nice and as long as you have 4 wheel drive you can drive on them at various points.

If the beach is more your thing, stay on Anastasia Island, if you think you might want to do more down town type things get a room downtown where your parking will be included in your stay and then you can always drive over to the beach.

There is lots of shopping and of course lots of history. The Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is there, Flagler College that you can tour and is AMAZING. if you have kids there is an excellent Pirate museum and the oldest school house. Lots of cute little shops, A cute Little Christmas store, a couple of wine shops, a distillery. Lightner museum is something to take in. This is all downtown and Very walkable as driving downtown is nuts. There are also Trolly's you can take, hop on and hop off and get a quick history of the town.

Hope that helps, but feel free to ask more questions. Oh and make room reservatoins IN ADVANCE as St Augustine is always busy.

Re: St. Augustine

Mombo1 — Tue, 31 May 2022 11:40:40 GMT

@Travel61 wrote:
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on a long weekend trip to st. Augustine Florida? Never been there was thinking of visiting that area but don't know much about it. Are the beaches good, things to do plentiful? I would appreciate any suggestions or comments anyone has thank you hope you all have a great week.

@Travel61 @Miss Pepsi St. Augustine is beautiful location. @Miss Pepsi had many great recommendations. I used to live in Palm Coast for a few years. My parents lived there for 20 years. It was about 25 miles from St. Augustine. We spent many days visiting and enjoying the history, restaurants, and numerous attractions. There is a good site you could visit to get some ideas as to what you would like to see. It is :

Busy Tourist St. Augustine Florida. Enjoy your trip!

Re: St. Augustine

drizzellla — Tue, 31 May 2022 11:45:33 GMT

As @Miss Pepsi said the tour of Flagler College is well worth it.

My cousin has a house near Flagler College so we took the tour. There were at least 20 of us taking the tour in the middle of the week in March. A beautiful campus.

Re: St. Augustine

BarbiHollywood — Tue, 31 May 2022 12:18:42 GMT

There is also a nice winery tour. I think it's St. Sebastian. St. Augustine is a very nice getaway. Harry's is an excellent restaurant right on the main street (can't recall the street name but it's in the hub of everything).

Re: St. Augustine

millieshops — Tue, 31 May 2022 12:18:42 GMT

@Travel61 So glad you asked and @Miss Pepsi so pleased for your great information. I live hours south of St. Augustine,but haven't been there since the 1980's. I just postponed a trip nprth I was hoping to make and have been foraging for a car trip in Florida. I remember the beauty of St. Augustine along the coast, but little about the interior. Needless to say, it's undoubtedly different from my rxperience!

@Travel61 Be sure to take the advice about reservations - I certainly will bevcause in the parts of Florida I'm familiar with, we're not seeing much of a slowdown even in former average years. there was lots of availability and many bargains to be had.

Re: St. Augustine

skatting44 — Tue, 31 May 2022 12:18:44 GMT

Stayed at the Casa Monica Resort some yrs ago . Had a wonderful time sightseeing

Re: St. Augustine

LindaSal — Tue, 31 May 2022 13:05:00 GMT

Good information on this thread. DH and I were just discussing finding a nice resort in a beach area to take a vacation at in Florida. Good question @Travel61 , looking forward to more responses.

Re: St. Augustine

TVLand — Tue, 31 May 2022 14:33:10 GMT

I agree with the comments regarding St Augustine....I'm not familiar with the beaches...but ....to other suggestions I would recommend going to Cathedral Basilica...beautiful....also there is a shuttle/ trolley...which is very convenient to get around even to outskirts of the main area..I bought a 2 day pass...easy off and on...lots of drop off and pick up spots...enjoy..this is a favorite of mine ...I have been there a few times over the years...my oldest son got married at the Cathedral...

Re: St. Augustine

Zhills — Tue, 31 May 2022 18:48:23 GMT

St. Augustine is a favorite get away for Floridians! It is a unique place and an escape from every day life!

Re: St. Augustine

Travel61 — Tue, 31 May 2022 22:47:39 GMT

Thank you all so very much for the suggestions. I have made a note of everything that was suggested here and plan to do some thorough investigating. We thought about staying on the beach and we'll see how that goes as far as getting reservations. Sounds like a very charming and unique place to visit. Thank you again for all the input. Hopefully this too will be a favorite place of mine to do repeat visits.

Re: St. Augustine

birdQ13 — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:06:19 GMT

We spent 5 nights there in Nov 2019 loved it. Shuttled by tram thru all the wonderful old history stops. Interesting but under-reported connections to civil rights incidents in the 60s. Drove over to tour very nice lighthouse and picnic at the beach. Don't miss Alligator Farm Park at feeding time, a hoot.

Re: St. Augustine

ceekay — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 13:06:03 GMT

@Travel61 - Don't forget to eat!! We particularly like the Columbia Restaurant, the Conch House, and A1A Ale Works. We stayed in Vilano Beach last time we were there and drove down to St Augustine and parked near the fort and then walked. We have also taken the red trolley. I highly recommend touring Flagler College. Hope you have a fun time if you decide to go.

Re: St. Augustine

Daisy Sunflower — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 06:36:53 GMT

Re: St. Augustine

CatsyCline — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 22:39:17 GMT

Bars:

Tradewinds Lounge - '70s dive style with Bar Bands - Loud, FUN! you can feel 25 again. just about everyone in there is over 50. Bouncers are a hoot!

Teeny Martini Bar - fun for girls nite

Restaurant:

Beaches at Vilano (4 stars on Trip Advisor)

Saltwater Cowboys used to be good, but recent reviews are poor. pretty setting though.

Fountain of Youth: Touristy, a Park with Historic features, if you are daring you can drink the water. it didnt work for me!