In and around St. Augustine
We decided to explore St. Augustine using the Old Town Trolley Tours, and it turned out to be a great way to get our bearings. If you’ve never used a hop-on, hop-off trolley tour in a city you don’t know well, I highly recommend giving it a try. You can get off at any stop that catches your interest, explore at your own pace, and then hop back on the next trolley that comes along. The tour also includes live narration, and our trolley operators did a fantastic job sharing the history of the area and pointing out sights along the way. The St. Augustine route has 22 stops, and the full loop takes about an hour and forty minutes if you ride it straight through.
No trip to St. Augustine would be complete without a visit to the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. We enjoyed wandering through the displays around the fountain, and of course, we had to try the water. Honestly, it didn’t taste as bad as I expected. Not exactly delicious, but I liked it better than Dasani… so there’s that.
We also spent some time exploring the Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. Before this fort was built, several wooden forts stood here, but they burned down, leading to the construction of the current structure made from coquina, a shell-based limestone. The fort itself is incredibly impressive, and the views of St. Augustine and the surrounding water are well worth the visit.
Another highlight was the Villa Zorayda Museum, a beautiful Moorish Revival–style building filled with antiques and fine art. The self-guided audio tour does a wonderful job explaining the history of the people who lived and worked there, along with the stories behind many of the objects on display. We saw so many unique pieces and were really glad we made time to visit.
We also checked out several other historic sites, including the Old Jail Museum and the Colonial Quarter. The Old Jail was built by the same company that would later construct Alcatraz, and the tour offered a sobering look at the harsh conditions inmates once endured. The Colonial Quarter was a great way to see how the city evolved over time, covering four different eras of St. Augustine’s history.
We also ventured outside the city to explore some of the surrounding natural areas. One day we hiked at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, a “living laboratory” dedicated to protecting wetlands, dunes, and mangroves. Along the trail, we spotted wild turkeys and even a few armadillos. On another day, we visited Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, where we wandered through the formal gardens, took a short hike, and finished with a visit to the beach. The massive boulder formations along the shoreline were the highlight and unlike anything we’d seen before.
St. Augustine ended up being the perfect mix of history, nature, and just plain fun exploring. Every day brought something new, and we left feeling like we’d experienced a lot—while still knowing there’s plenty more to see next time. It’s definitely a place we’d happily return to.
