Attractions in St Augustine Florida
There are dozens of attractions in St Augustine Florida. The problem is in deciding which ones you can afford to leave out.
There are dozens of attractions in St Augustine Florida. The problem is in deciding which ones you can afford to leave out.
On our page, St Augustine, we highlighted a combo tour and a ghost tour. We stand by our recommendations on that page.
However, there is so much more to St Augustine that we have added this page to show you another way to approach your visit to this astonishing old town on your Florida holiday.
To REALLY get the best out of the many attractions in St Augustine Florida, plan to spend at least three full days there. This plan also makes a trip to St Augustine excellent value for money since the Red Train offers a ticket for $19.00 (pick up a coupon locally to get $1.00 off per person) that gives you unlimited “jump on, jump off” privileges for three consecutive days (8:30am to 5pm) and free parking at any of their designated parking spaces.
Not only that, but the price includes admission to the Old Florida Museum and, especially if you are traveling with kids, that visit alone could provide hours of fun!
They also sell combo tickets that include reduced cost admission to various attractions in St Augustine, Florida.
Which attractions in St Augustine Florida are Worth a Visit? Practically all of them! But if you rely on leaflets and advertising, you will end up VERY confused! Here’s what we did on our most recent trip.
Diary of a Visit to the Attractions in St Augustine Florida
We drove up the coastal road (A1A) from Daytona Beach and arrived late on a Saturday evening. We never book accommodation in advance so our first priority was to eat then find somewhere to stay.
We ate at Applebees but there were plenty of other places we could have chosen. Remember that many restaurants in America close at 9pm so make sure you get fed and watered early!
We went to the Sleep Inn on Anastasia Boulevard. The time was pressing on (we arrived around 9:30pm) and the receptionist quoted me $99.00 for a double room. I pulled out my American Airlines Advantage card and politely asked for a discount. The price dropped to $65.00 for the same room inclusive of a very substantial “continental” breakfast.
The rooms were very nice – spacious, clean, well decorated – all round, very nice. Also, one of my party (who shall remain nameless) left her watch and a valuable ring on the breakfast table (Grrr!). We later went back to the hotel and it had been found and handed in by staff in the restaurant – BIG BONUS POINTS FOR THE SLEEP INN!
However, for the CHEAPEST, BEST VALUE motel in St Augustine, we would have to recommend the Anastasia Inn just along the street from the Sleep Inn. Again, it was clean and comfortable (we moved there the next day) but it was almost HALF the price! Yes, it was a mere $39.95 a night for a double room.
Castillo de San Marcos (Or “The Fort”)
On Sunday morning we went on the Red Train to ‘The Fort’ and were just in time (11:30 am) to see one of their many cannons being fired by men in 17th Century Spanish Colonial Uniform from about 1740. It was a spectacle you shouldn’t miss!
This experience wins all the prizes for being the loudest of all the attractions in St Augustine Florida!
Wanna hear it for yourself? Well I think that can be arranged….try this page!
A little later in the day we found ourselves in a Florida summer storm. It lasted about 40 minutes then cleared up as quickly as it had come. BUT since the weather had been so hot, the ground turned the rain into steam almost instantly and we found ourselves enjoying (?!) a nice “walk-around-sauna”! When one of these storms hits, get yourself into air-conditioning fast!!
Other attractions we visited over the next couple of days (all of them at stops on the Red Bus Tour) were:
The Old School House
The oldest surviving wooden school house in the States is where we talked about how nice it would have been to have had kids with us so that we could have tortured them with stories about “when I was at school……”.
Tell me more about The Oldest Wooden School House – I feel like torturing the kids for a while!
The Fountain of Youth
Just after you ride the train past St Augustine’s oldest living resident, “The Senator” (a 600 year old oak tree so named because “it is old, shady and crooked”!) and have traveled down Magnolia Avenue, the most photographed street in America (a tree-canopied spectacular of Spanish Moss), you will turn into the next of the many attractions in St Augustine Florida; “The Fountain of Youth”.
Your tour guide will tell you all sorts of history about Ponce de Leon and Pedro Menendez here.
Fascinating But Useless Florida Flydrive Fact:
Ponce De Leon was a giant in his time! At 4’11″ and the tallest many on his ship. The average height of the crew was 4’8″, which means most of them were too short to ride the big rides at Disney!!
The Fountain of Youth itself is all about archaeology and peacocks (including a rare white one that we couldn’t find).
You can also pick up a little bottle of water from the Fountain of Youth (it’s a sulphur spring so don’t expect it to smell or taste nice) to take home for your mother-in-law….or someone else you love.
The Old Florida Museum
From the moment you walk into the Old Florida Museum, you know it is no ordinary, boring museum. This must be one of the best hidden treasures among the attractions in St Augustine Florida.
We had a pile of fun at The Old Florida Museum and would recommend it to anyone.
Religious Attractions in St Augustine Florida
St Augustine is the site of the first Roman Catholic mass ever held on Florida soil held when Pedro Memendez landed here.
The site is now marked by a 208ft cross and is regarded as one of the holiest Roman Catholic sites in America.
Other Christian churches have attractions in St Augustine Florida too though.
The Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church is famous for having been built in just one year although you’d never think it to look at it.
Want to read the full story of St Augustine’s religious attractions? We’ve got it all here! (coming soon)
Flagler College
What is now Flagler Business College was originally built as an opulent resort for extremely wealthy guests. You had to be on the New York Social Register just to be allowed to have a room there.
Every suite was different and each was utterly unique – and most were designed by Tiffany (the famous glass man, nothing to do with Eastenders!).
More information about Flagler College over here – including the estimated value of all that Tiffany glass. How much do you think it’s worth? I bet you guessed too low! But you’ll have to go over here to find out.
Other Attractions in St Augustine Florida
There are so many attractions in St Augustine Florida that I simply can’t describe all of them in detail here. But a few of the other highlights include:
The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
This is where Ray Charles learned to play the piano. It now has an outstanding academic record with about 80% of graduates going on to college (university).
This is the heart of St Augustine’s historical district. It is a pedestrianized area where you can shop for souvenirs (there are some really reasonably prices original paintings if you are interested), eat or just enjoy the ‘olde worlde’ atmosphere of St Augustine.
The Old Jail is really popular although we just didn’t have time on this trip – maybe next time.
Think of Olsen’s Store in Little House on the Prairie and you’re starting to get close to the feeling of this great attraction.
See how pills and potions were made, what was prescribed for what illness and how early prescriptions were filled in the 1700s.
The main ingredients seem to have been water, grain alcohol and OPIUM – they may not have cured you but they DEFINITELY felt better for a while!
That was all the sightseeing we could manage in our three day stop visiting the attractions in St Augustine Florida. It was tiring but it was fun.
A couple of final tips
1. Use plenty of sun cream – you think you won’t get burned because you are inside or under cover all the time, but when the burn time is about 10 minutes on a summer’s day, you CAN get burned. My left knee was got this trip so watch out!
2. These trains are all open-sided so you can see out and take photos. However, being exposed to the air for so long will make you dehydrate more quickly than usual, so make sure you and the kids keep on drinking water – NOT ice cream and fizzy drinks – plain water is by far the best thing to keep you healthy in the heat.
3. Enjoy as many attractions in St Augustine Florida as you can but hold something in reserve for your next trip because you WILL want to go back again!
4. Because you are on a Florida Flydrive holiday, you will almost certainly have a car with you in St Augustine. We strongly recommend that you leave it behind at your hotel as often as you can! Parking is a nightmare in the town itself. If you do want to park, do it at one of the Red Train Tour’s depots where there is free parking and you can easily hop onto the train without having to walk miles in the heat.
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