St. Augustine

3.22.2021 || St. Augustine | Florida

While in northeast Florida for Spring Break we found ourselves with a rainy morning and a rainout for tennis court time at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club where we were staying. We had a rental car so we headed about 45 minutes south to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US known for its Spanish architecture. We spent approximately two hours walking around in the rain so the following information is limited, but definitely worth a visit!

We started in the visitor center where we received a lengthy introduction to the city of St. Augustine and a handful of suggestions for a self-guided walking tour. Upon leaving the visitor center we headed to the fort. The Castillo de San Marcos fort on the Matanzas Bay is one of the main attractions in St. Augustine. There weren’t any tours or demonstrations during our visit but still plenty to see from the outside.

After leaving the fort we headed to the Plaza de la Constitucion. It looked like a great place to gather with friends or people watch on a sunny day.

Across the plaza, we came upon Aviles street, the oldest street in the nation and St. Augustine’s original art district. We enjoyed walking along the brick lined street admiring the Spanish colonial architecture dreaming of European travel. There were quite a few cute B&Bs, restaurants, and art galleries that I would love to visit next time around.

We had one more key landmark that we wanted to see. We headed to the González–Alvarez House, known as the oldest house and Florida’s oldest surviving Spanish colonial dwelling.

We spent around 90 minutes walking around the city and covered most of the main tourist attractions along the way. It started to rain harder and it wasn’t quite lunch time so we decided to head back to Ponte Vedra Beach. Hopefully we can return for a long weekend or carve out more time at a later date as there are a lot of options to fill up a long weekend, or a couple of hours, in St. Augustine. Check out the rest of our trip to Ponte Vedra Beach.

Question: What else should we do in St. Augustine?