St Augustine: History That Refuses to Die
St Augustine, America’s oldest city, has been ravaged by fire and pirates over the years. But the residents, neither the living nor the dead, are willing to leave!
St Augustine is not only the oldest city in Florida – it’s the oldest European settlement on the North American continent. It was founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565. He arrived on 28th August, which happens to be the feast day of Saint Augustine – hence the name!
The city has been destroyed by fire numerous times and marauding pirates have done more than their fair share of plundering and pillaging over the years. But the residents of the city, neither the live ones nor the dead ones, will accept defeat. That’s what makes St Augustine the Historical and Haunted capital of Florida.
The town itself is about 100 miles North of Orlando so it will take a while to drive there. It’s probably not the best destination for a day-trip if you’re staying in Kissimmee just because of the distance. However, what we like to do is to go to Daytona Beach for a night or two then drive slowly up the coast road (the A1A) from there. It’s obviously a lot quicker on highway 95, but then you can’t get out and explore the sandy beach every few miles if you take the quick road!
So what is the best way to see St Augustine?
We recommend an online “St Augustine Combo Package”. It includes:
- An “Old Town Trolley Tour” which is a guided tour on an open-sided trolley bus. Your ticket is valid for any three consecutive days and you can get on and off as often as you like at its 20 regular stops.
- Admission to the Old Jail
- Admission to the Florida Heritage Museum
If you buy the St Augustine combo package online you get $9.00 off the adult fare ($24.00 instead of $33.00) and $5.00 off the child’s fare ($11.00 instead of $16.00).
These things are all run and operated by living people. However, until you have taken a tour of the Haunted city sites, you have missed half the fun of the city. There are lots of tours available locally but we think the best one is the “Ghosts and Gravestones” tour. The tour is rated PG13 (just like a film) so judge for yourself whether your little treasures will like it.
Again, you can get online discounted tickets here for the Ghosts and Gravestones Tour here and they will definitely save you money compared to buying them locally.
Other things to see and do include:
- Ripley’s Believe it or Not “Odditorium”, which is just plain weird!
- St Augustine Alligator Farm, which has alligators, crocodiles, and other reptiles, spiders, monkeys and birds. Don’t miss their entertaining and informative shows especially the alligator feeding shows – WOW!
- The Lightner Museum, which is a MUST for lovers of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s glasswork – Stunning, decadent and elegant!
Eating Out in St Augustine
There are too many good places to describe them all so we have just made one recommendation based on personal experience. You should probably just go into town and walk or drive around until something takes your fancy.
Creekside Dinery (160 Nix Boatyard Road)
They describe their food as, “North Florida low country cooking in a charming creekside setting”. We describe it as, just plain and simple really good food – just how it ought to be.
Price guide: $8-$17.00 For main meals (Entrees) of fish, seafood, chicken, steaks or ribs
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I didn’t know that Florida was raided by pirates. I enjoyed your post.