Travel With The Greens

Our Guide to St Augustine Florida

St Augustine is the oldest city in the USA and for the history buffs it was founded by the Spanish in 1565!! Now that is some history for you. St Augustine has so much to see and do. From the old fort to the wide beaches. We spent Christmas at St Augustine with the big drawcard of the night of Lights tour.

 

The Beaches

The beaches along the Florida coastline are beautiful and the St Augustine beach is no exception. There is a fabulously long pier at the beach with views for miles. We spent a wonderful Christmas morning at the beach building sandcastles and kicking the football that Santa had delivered.  We drove along this coast line for about 30mins and discovered the most beautiful coastline.

 

Accommodation

We stayed at the Travelodge Suites out from the town centre. It was a disappointing stay and we should have stayed in the town centre or over at the beach. When looking for accommodation in the centre of town make sure you find a place with parking. The parking situation in St Augustine is very expensive and hard to come by. Ideally it would be great to stay in the centre and walk everywhere if you can. There are a lot of holiday lets and small boutique places that I wish we had discovered.

The Old Town Fort

The Fort is the centre piece for the town and it is so much fun. The fort known as Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the USA and is over 315 years old. The fort is managed by the National Park Service. The children were free and we paid $10 each adult. The National Parks have their junior ranger program set up in the fort where the kids can complete a workbook and activities to then be granted the status of Junior Ranger. We arrived just in time to see the re-enactment of the cannon being fired. The soldiers explained the process and the ceremony commenced with great fanfare. We all had a lovely few hours in the fort.

The Pirate Museum

The boys and Billy visited the Pirate Museum which is in the town centre. They had a terrific time and it was affordable with adults at $12 and children $7. With treasure hunts to complete along the way the boys were engaged in the museum and fascinated with all the relics and antiques throughout.

St Augustine’s Christmas Lights

The Night of Lights is a huge drawcard for the Christmas crowds to St Augustine. We chose the Holly Jolly Holiday Trolley to see the lights. We didn’t pre-book and easily bought tickets and joined the very long but fast moving queue. The tickets include hot cider, 3D glasses for the lights and a cookie. The atmosphere was full of Christmas cheer with carols playing on the trolley with lots of singing and jolliness. The tour went through the centre of town and last about 45mins. Lots of fun and will put you in the holiday spirit.

Other Attractions that we didn’t have time to visit

• Ripley’s Believe it or Not
• The Alligator Farm where you can zipline over the alligators
• The Fountain of Youth
• The Oldest School House in the USA

 

For more of our travels in Florida head to our Universal Studio post or Miami post.

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