Historic Saint Augustine, Know Before You Go –

Saint Augustine is a tiny town positioned in Northeast Florida just south of Jacksonville and about 1.5 hrs. south of the Florida/Georgia Stateline. It is considered to be the oldest city in the United States. It was initial learned and claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon in 1513 who named it La Florida , but matters did not operate 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 hours to travel from South Florida to Saint Augustine by means of I-95, halting two times. When for a lavatory split and the upcoming to get gas. The lodge in which I was remaining was just off the 95, easy to obtain. I stayed at the Good Continue to be Inn, a two story hotel with an sufficient quantity of rooms and parking. It has a health club, a pool, incredibly hot tub, and laundry space, and serves up incredibly excellent breakfast selections that involves scrambled eggs, sausages, slice bread, bagel, make your have waffles, orange juice, milk, coffee, tea, fruits and cereal. Possibly not the greatest, but superior than a granola bar and a bottle of water that we were provided at a further hotel.

The lodge is near to the Saint Augustine Retailers and even though it’s not in the downtown area it was not a really prolonged drive. Even Nevertheless it was not my initial preference, I did not thoughts it at all. I was actually extra happy with the choice  when I went into town and saw that parking at these resorts seemed a little bit tight. That is certainly a little something to hold in thoughts when searching for someplace to continue to be.

There are other resorts in the spot like the Comfort Inn which is right following door, Excellent Inn, Purple Roof Inn, Holiday break Inn and a lot more. You can also locate gas stations and plenty of areas to try to eat nearby.

What to Assume

The Downtown region is exactly where most points of interest are. I came into town on a Friday afternoon, went to verify-in at the lodge and then frequented the Saint Augustine Outlets. Just after browsing the Shops I preferred to go to an attraction, but when I checked the attractions, most of them had been previously closed. By the way, most points of interest in Saint Augustine closes amongst at 5:00 and 5:30 PM. I saw a person, the Pirate and Treasure Museum, that was open up till 7:00 PM and made the decision I would go. 

Following driving into the Downtown space the Pirate and Treasure Museum was no longer on my brain. I made a decision I was heading to go to the Castillo de San Marcos countrywide Monument alternatively mainly because there was something so charming about the whole scenery, with the blue waters of the Matanzas River in the backdrop. The Pirate and Treasure Museum was practically throughout the road but that was for yet another day.

I required to try out and obtain someplace to park and I discovered that the remaining lane was starting off to back up as some men and women were being striving to get into a close by parking great deal although some others were being in a line waiting to go more than the Bridge of Lions which usually takes you to A1A. I came out of the line and went into the right lane in hopes I could locate someplace to park. I finished up on a street that took me correct into what I believed was the parking large amount of a hotel, but as I drove in I found the parking areas all marked reserved. Later I recognized I was at the back again of Flagler Faculty.

I parked for a little bit and obtained out and took a few pictures due to the fact it had a attractive architectural style and design. Right after pulling out of the college, just across the road was a $10 parking good deal. I right away pulled in and compensated the attendant, it was a excellent issue as well mainly because it was starting up to fill up. There are quite a few parking about, but you have to generate all around to come across affordable parking. The parking closest to the main avenue, Avenida Menendez, are a lot more high priced. You may possibly be in a position to get some free parking at some of the attractions with your ticket buy, like Ripley’s Think it or Not presented a 3 hrs parking move with the acquire of the entrance ticket. I was able to tour the attraction and later on leave the auto there for a little bit and came back again in time to consider off.

Immediately after parking, I walked a very little ways, not far too far by means of the back again streets and on to the primary but just before acquiring there I couldn’t assist but search all around to see what was heading on individuals again streets. I before long recognize that St. George avenue is wherever every little thing was going on. It is lined with retailers, eateries, and amusement. I was in a position to prevent at Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Product and buy a pistachio cup. Soon after leaving Tedi’s just on the facet at the corner of Cuna and St. George there was a gentleman who had snakes on show, $10 to keep or pose with a a person of them for a single individual and $15 for a team. That was not likely to be me, I am not a significant admirer of snakes, so I sort of hurried pass there and went on to my location.

When I arrived to the Castillo de San Marcos I was not able to go on the within since it was shut by that time, but I was even now ready to tour the exterior. I was ready to walk all around it and observe the cannons that had been lined off in 1 place and read through content about its record. Even however it was not open at the time, it was however a attractive area to take it easy because the sun was even now 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 pleasant and lush garden. The only factor is that the lawn is not dealing with the water so it may well not have the same impact as sitting down on the waterfront.

Items To DO

There are many matters to do in Saint Augustine, regardless of me contemplating there may perhaps not have been a good deal to do there. I will not go into a lot details about them below simply because I have an posting that record factors to do in St. Augustine, you can simply click listed here to obtain it, but I will go forward and listing some of the sites to stop by/factors 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 Old Jail
• Saint Augustine outlets for some shopping
• Do your own self strolling tour and admire the architecture of some sites like Flagler School and the churches
• Stop by The Plaza de La Constitucion park

Acquiring All over

Receiving all over town in St. Augustine isn’t difficult due to the fact most places are shut by and uncomplicated to get to with your very own car or by Uber. If you take place to get a resort in or close to downtown, it’s an straightforward stroll mainly because anything is suitable there, besides for the beach locations and alligator farm. Then there is also the trolley excursions.

There are two styles of trollies in St. Augustine, there is the Aged City Trolley Excursions and Crimson Train Tours. The Aged Town Trolley offers shuttles that picks you up from your resort and takes you to the trolley depot, from there you can get your trolley tickets (as very well as attraction tickets at a price reduction) and get on to a trolley. You can decide on to journey the trolley all day all over city or hop on and off as you would like. The Previous City Trolley tours sells one particular day as properly as two day tickets.

The Purple Train Excursions is a aspect of Ripley’s Consider it or Not and also presents guided excursions about city enabling you to hop on and off all day. You will be capable to get the coach from the Ripley’s locale. The Pink Coach Tours delivers an all day hop on or off working experience as well as the Purple Teach Express expertise which is a one hour guided tour that requires you to specified web sites.

There is an upside and a downside to getting the trollies. The upside is that you do not have to get worried about driving your individual motor vehicle to each and every site and having to worry about parking or using a Uber, and the motorists are quite knowledgeable about the background of the metropolis. The downside in my impression is, based on how considerably apart the stops are you can commit a large amount of time on the trolley obtaining to the upcoming attraction. For instance, I used virtually 2 hours on the trolley striving to get to my last attraction due to the fact of visitors and also since it was the previous end, halt amount 22, only to obtain out that the park was only about a 5 moment stroll from the trolley depot.

Spots To Try to eat

Together the waterfront you can come across dining establishments this kind of as Meehans’s Iris Pub and Seafood, River & Fort Cafe and Roof Best Lounge as very well as Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, just to title a handful of. Sad to say, I did not get a likelihood to dine at any of individuals on the waterfront, but there are a whole lot of spots all-around that you can locate to take in. Together the again streets you can locate compact 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 generally fast food dining places like Bojangles, which by the way experienced some delicious rooster wings, Zaxby’s, Burger King, and much more, if you want to get it immediately and go.

What I like the most about Saint Augustine is that even although it is a compact metropolis, it retains a major historical past and It is wonderful for solo vacationers and even much more so for households. I would definitely take a look at yet again and I have identified out that the finest time to check out is for the duration of Christmas when the complete town is decorated with lights.