Historic Saint Augustine, Know Before You Go –

Saint Augustine is a little city situated 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 town in the United States. It was initial discovered and claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon in 1513 who named it La Florida , but factors did not operate out for Ponce de Leon as he prepared. It was later on rediscovered and renamed St. Augustine, by Juan Mendez Aviles in 1565.

It took me about 5 hours to push from South Florida to Saint Augustine via I-95, halting twice. As soon as for a bathroom break and the next to get gas. The hotel in which I was staying was just off the 95, easy to come across. I stayed at the Sensible Continue to be Inn, a two story hotel with an suitable quantity of rooms and parking. It has a gymnasium, a pool, scorching tub, and laundry area, and serves up pretty good breakfast decisions that contains scrambled eggs, sausages, slice bread, bagel, make your individual waffles, orange juice, milk, espresso, tea, fruits and cereal. Perhaps not the best, but improved than a granola bar and a bottle of h2o that we were provided at a different lodge.

The resort is close to the Saint Augustine Shops and whilst it’s not in the downtown area it was not a incredibly extended generate. Even Nevertheless it wasn’t my very first alternative, I didn’t brain it at all. I was in fact much more happy with the choice  when I went into town and saw that parking at all those hotels appeared a little bit restricted. That is definitely anything to continue to keep in brain when wanting for somewhere to stay.

There are other accommodations in the location like the Convenience Inn which is ideal next doorway, Good quality Inn, Purple Roof Inn, Holiday break Inn and far more. You can also uncover gasoline stations and a lot of locations to try to eat nearby.

What to Expect

The Downtown location is wherever most sights are. I came into town on a Friday afternoon, went to check-in at the resort and then frequented the Saint Augustine Shops. After viewing the Outlets I desired to go to an attraction, but when I checked the sights, most of them were presently shut. By the way, most sights in Saint Augustine closes in between at 5:00 and 5:30 PM. I saw 1, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, that was open right until 7:00 PM and determined I would go. 

Following driving into the Downtown area the Pirate and Treasure Museum was no longer on my intellect. I determined I was heading to go to the Castillo de San Marcos nationwide Monument in its place because there was something so fascinating about the total surroundings, with the blue waters of the Matanzas River in the backdrop. The Pirate and Treasure Museum was pretty much across the road but that was for another working day.

I desired to test and come across somewhere to park and I noticed that the left lane was starting off to again up as some persons ended up trying to get into a nearby parking large amount although other people were being in a line ready to go about the Bridge of Lions which can take you to A1A. I arrived out of the line and went into the suitable lane in hopes I could locate someplace to park. I finished up on a road that took me appropriate into what I thought was the parking good deal of a lodge, but as I drove in I noticed the parking spaces all marked reserved. Later on I recognized I was at the back again of Flagler Faculty.

I parked for a little bit and received out and took a couple pics since it had a wonderful architectural design. After pulling out of the faculty, just throughout the street was a $10 parking large amount. I quickly pulled in and compensated the attendant, it was a excellent matter far too for the reason that it was setting up to fill up. There are numerous parking about, but you have to generate all around to come across affordable parking. The parking closest to the major road, Avenida Menendez, are more high priced. You may possibly be capable to get some free of charge parking at some of the sights with your ticket obtain, like Ripley’s Consider it or Not presented a 3 hours parking move with the buy of the entrance ticket. I was able to tour the attraction and later on go away the motor vehicle there for a bit and arrived back again in time to consider off.

Just after parking, I walked a tiny ways, not as well far via the back again streets and on to the primary but in advance of finding there I could not support but glimpse close to to see what was heading on those again streets. I quickly know that St. George street is the place anything was taking place. It is lined with outlets, eateries, and amusement. I was capable to stop at Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Cream and purchase a pistachio cup. Immediately after leaving Tedi’s just on the facet at the corner of Cuna and St. George there was a guy who had snakes on screen, $10 to maintain or pose with a 1 of them for a one person and $15 for a team. That was not going to be me, I am not a major admirer of snakes, so I type of hurried go there and went on to my place.

When I arrived to the Castillo de San Marcos I was not capable to go on the inside because it was closed by that time, but I was even now ready to tour the outside the house. I was in a position to wander around it and notice the cannons that have been lined off in one space and study posts about its record. Even however it was not open up at the time, it was continue to a wonderful put to relax due to the fact the sun was still up and the breeze that was blowing in from the Matanzas River felt so good. You can sit on any of the seats onsite or on the great and lush garden. The only issue is that the lawn is not going through the water so it may possibly not have the identical impact as sitting down on the waterfront.

Points To DO

There are many items to do in Saint Augustine, irrespective of me pondering there may perhaps not have been a ton to do there. I will not go into considerably information about them right here due to the fact I have an report that listing issues to do in St. Augustine, you can click on below to discover it, but I will go forward and checklist some of the areas to stop by/items 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 Aged Jail
• Saint Augustine stores for some searching
• Do your own self going for walks tour and admire the architecture of some places like Flagler Faculty and the church buildings
• Pay a visit to The Plaza de La Constitucion park

Getting Close to

Obtaining close to city in St. Augustine isn’t tough for the reason that most sites are near by and effortless to get to with your very own auto or by Uber. If you transpire to get a hotel in or in close proximity to downtown, it’s an quick wander since everything is right there, other than 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 Outdated Town Trolley Excursions and Pink Practice Tours. The Aged City Trolley gives shuttles that picks you up from your lodge and usually takes you to the trolley depot, from there you can buy your trolley tickets (as nicely as attraction tickets at a lower price) and get on to a trolley. You can decide on to ride the trolley all day about town or hop on and off as you want. The Outdated Town Trolley tours sells 1 day as properly as two day tickets.

The Red Educate Excursions is a aspect of Ripley’s Feel it or Not and also presents guided excursions all over city allowing for you to hop on and off all day. You will be able to get the educate from the Ripley’s area. The Crimson Educate Excursions gives an all day hop on or off expertise as perfectly as the Crimson Train Express encounter which is a one hour guided tour that takes you to specific websites.

There is an upside and a downside to using the trollies. The upside is that you really don’t have to be concerned about driving your have auto to each and every spot and acquiring to fret about parking or having a Uber, and the drivers are pretty educated about the record of the city. The downside in my impression is, depending on how much aside the stops are you can invest a whole lot of time on the trolley obtaining to the following attraction. For case in point, I invested nearly 2 hrs on the trolley striving to get to my previous attraction mainly because of visitors and also mainly because it was the final quit, cease range 22, only to obtain out that the park was only about a 5 minute stroll from the trolley depot.

Areas To Try to eat

Along the waterfront you can uncover dining places these as Meehans’s Iris Pub and Seafood, River & Fort Restaurant and Roof Leading Lounge as nicely as Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, just to identify a couple of. Unfortunately, I did not get a prospect to dine at any of these on the waterfront, but there are a whole lot of areas all-around that you can locate to consume. Along the again streets you can uncover 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 rapid meals places to eat like Bojangles, which by the way experienced some tasty chicken 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 though it is a modest town, it holds a major background and It’s fantastic for solo vacationers and even a lot more so for families. I would undoubtedly stop by all over again and I have uncovered out that the best time to visit is through Christmas when the total metropolis is embellished with lights.