February 20, 2018

St. Augustine Weekend

Are you looking for a quick weekend trip? 

We were doing just that recently to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. We haven’t gone anywhere for our anniversary the last two years due to renovating our house one year and then moving the next. In previous years we’ve celebrated in Chicago and Singapore.

This year we wanted to make sure to celebrate, but we didn’t want to go have to deal with airline flights and logistics. My husband mentioned just doing a quick weekend getaway. We started brainstorming where we could go. We thew around Charleston, Savannah, or St. Augustine. All are within driving distance of Central Florida. We went with St. Augustine because we didn’t want to spend a whole day driving as we were planning to do our trip from Friday to Sunday.

St. Augustine

Why is St. Augustine the perfect weekend trip from Central Florida? 

First it’s only took an hour and half to make it to our hotel. While it was a quick drive we still felt like we were far enough removed from our everyday life it felt like a real get away!

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I would have loved to stay at one of the beautiful B&B’s in the historic downtown, but they were already mostly booked up. The rooms that were left were running close to $400 a night. We didn’t want to spend close to $1000 on this weekend when you add in food and entertainment. We did stay at an amazing one a few years back when we were in St. Augustine for a wedding. If you do want to stay in an Bed and Breakfast, I recommend the Kenwood Inn.

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I read tons of reviews of the hotels close by and settled on staying at the Villa Victor Hotel. It looked nice in the picture and most importantly it had decent reviews on trip advisor and yelp. It was also an average of $130 a night. Much better the the rates for the B&B’s.

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It didn’t disappoint on arrival, were greeted by a very nice and helpful woman working the front desk. It was clean and modern inside the lobby and they even gave us free Sangria the first night. Our room was big with a King bed and couch. It was right outside the Old Town city limits so we could walk to everything. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a budget friendly alternative.

What is there to do in St. Augustine?

This wasn’t our first trip to St. Augustine- we’ve been for weddings, day trips, field trips (in elementary school), and family trips. There are lots of things for tourists to visit. The biggest and usually first stop of visitors is the Fort, Castille de San Marcos. It’s a registered National Park and it has a lot of history with in it’s walls.

It’s #1 on most list of things to do during you visit. We’ve been so many times we didn’t make a visit there on this trip, so these picture are from a previous trip.

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On our first first and well only full day in St. Augustine we decided to do something outside the city, which I’ve never done before. There’s a state park right across the Bridge of Lions from the city on Anastasia Island is Anastasia State Park. I really wanted to bring out bikes, as one of the things to do at the park is a bike trail. The problem with that plan is we don’t have a bike rack and neither of our cars are big enough to throw them inside.

The park is nice and it has 4 miles of beach included which was beautiful and would have been great if it wasn’t so cold that weekend here in Florida. We walked a little of the beach, but then found a hiking loop near the camp ground that went through the woods and was full of informative signs. It wasn’t a very long loop less then a mile all the way around and they had benches every so often for you to sit and rest, or just take in the beauty of nature.

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On the way out of the park we stopped at the Old Spanish Quarries. This is where they gathered all the limestone used to build a lot of the original city. Most notable it’s what  was used to build the fort. The Quarries about 5 miles away from downtown. Can you imagine having to carry the limestone 5 miles and then build structures.

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My husband planned for us to do one of my favorite activities! It’s almost become an tradition when we visit any city with substantial history. A ghost tour is always a fun evening activity. Make sure you read reviews as their is usually tons of companies to choose from. If you get an entertaining guide you will have a great time despite the cheesiness reputation most ghost tours have. We never pick any of the fluff ones where you ride around in a hearse or a ghost trolley. I find those a bit too cheesy. We prefer to do the walking tours.

We went with the Secrets of St. Augustine tour and our guide was great! He even gave us $5 off because we paid in cash. It was $15 a person and well worth it. He was great entertainment and while a lot of the stories were more historical then gory, as some tours tend to sway towards. I guess they feel those make the best ghosts. The tour was an hour and half and very enjoyable.

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Dining in St. Augustine

If there’s one restaurant you HAVE to visit while in St. Augustine it’s The Columbia. There a couple of them in Florida, but the one in St. Augustine is our favorite. We always make sure to fit it in for lunch at least once during our visit. The Cuban sandwiches are so good. Pair them with Sangria and the 1903 salad and it’s the perfect lunch. The sangria is delicious and that’s saying a lot, because I don’t usually like wine.

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There’ so many other things to see and do in St. Augustine from wax museums, to Ripley’s believe it or not, to the Oldest Wooden school house, you can even find the fountain of youth in the city.

Whatever activities you choose to do during your visit you will definitely have a great weekend!

Where have you been for a quick getaway?  Let me know in the comments, we’re always looking for new places to visit!

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