St. Augustine, FL Trip Report
Dec 15th, 2016, 06:48 PM
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St. Augustine, FL Trip Report
St. Augustine, FL - December 6 - 12, 2016
For our End of the Year/Christmas vacation we choose St. Augustine, FL due the history and variety of things to see and do.
Days Inn Historic District- After researching areas and reading recommendations, we chose the Days Inn Historic District hotel. I am not sure why most people recommended the Historic District as it is about a 30 minute walk to the Bayfront area in which the majority of restaurants, bars and activities are located. Next time I will know to chose the Hilton or Best Western Bayfront as those hotels are more convenient to the area we were really wanting to be in.
The Days Inn Historic District was close to the Old Town Trolley Tour Stop #1 and the Fountain of Youth. The hotel is quite old and dated. Upon check in we were given room 308. This section of rooms is in the very back on the left not connected to the main hotel. It is closer to the street to walk to the Bayfront area. The room contained a king bed, sleeper sofa, desk/chair, wardrobe closet with safe, dresser with a small TV on top and a mini frig. There was a coffee maker on the sink vanity in the bath area. The room was quite dated and decent enough. The carpet should have been replaced decades ago. The tile in the bathroom looked recent. There were 4 lamps and only 2 worked. Same with the plug in's. The fittings were so old and loose the plugs wouldn't connect. There is a very small pool by the lobby and an attached Denny's restaurant. Across the main rode is an Old Town Trolley visitor center in which a shuttle will take you to stop #1 to start the trolley tour. There is also a coffee shop across the street on the same side that serves Starbucks type coffees/sweets and small plates of food.
Old Town Trolley - If you have ever been to Key West it's the same company and the same type of basic tour. There are 23 stops in which you can hop on/off. The trolley starts/stops every 15 minutes and does a continuous loop. Stop #1 contains the Old Jail, Gator Bobs souvenir store, St. Augustine's Old History Museum and the Oldest Store Museum. We bought the 3 day tickets for $23 per person and it was well worth it. 3 days is not enough time to visit all 23 stops, but we made a good dent. We did the following stops: Old Jail, St. Augustine's Old History Museum, the Oldest Store, the Pirate Museum, Potter’s Wax Museum, City Gates, St. George Street, Lightner Museum, St. Augustine Distillery, Whetstones Chocolate Factory, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and the Fountain of Youth. Some stops we didn't really need to get off the trolley and explore. Good visual and I took plenty of pictures. We would have loved to done the Beach Bus, which is included, but we just didn't have enough time. Our favorite was the Lightner Museum. If you like history and antiques this place is awesome. It used to be a hotel that was eventually converted into a museum. In the basement, where the pool used to be, there is a restaurant and 4 antique stores. I collect blue/white china and found a 1922 Copenhagen Demark tea cup and saucer. The Oldest Store was really cool also. This is a guided tour at specific hours so check the times. It's basically a warehouse of items which could have been purchased from the 1900's Sears & Roebuck Catalogue. Again, if you like history and antiques it's a great tour. We decided not to tour the Castillo San Marcos Fort/Castle. It is basically a smaller scale of the one we did tour in Puerto Rico.
St. Augustine Tasting Tours - This is a horse and carriage ride with wine and 4 restaurant stops for food/wine tastings. We went to: Corazon, Athena, The Floridian and B Street Eats. We also went to the Lightner Museum to look around the courtyard and the old pool area and take photos. We also circled around the main Town Square. We have been on many food tasting tours in several destinations. This was the best of any we have done. The food portions were not only good, but huge in comparison. Also, the tour included a bottle of wine for the carriage ride and wine pairings with each food tasting. There were 4 couples on this tour including us, so it was not crowded. I have to give special credit to the personnel. I booked this tour on-line about a week before our trip and when doing so, I accidently hit the wrong date for our booking. Even when I received e-mail confirmation I did not notice my mistake. On the day of the tour when I pulled out my confirmation, I then noticed my error and totally freaked. I called the company right away and explained that I was totally at fault and didn't realize my error until just then. They were able to work with me and we were able to make this tour. In addition, our tour guide was super sweet.
After the tour we noticed that a hoard of people had just descended into the Bayfront area like locust. Our guide explained that there were 3 festivals going on; the Night of Lights, The Running of the Bulls and the Boat Regada. We tried several places to eat dinner, but it was a hour wait at each one. We also tried calling for a taxi to take us back to our hotel. After the dispatcher stopped laughing, he told us to hole up at a bar for the next 3 hours and then we could probably get one. If we could have gotten into anywhere to actually hole up we probably would have. We ended up walking back to our hotel, which took almost an hour.
Freedom Schooner Sunset Sail - This was a very nice 2 hour sunset sail that included wine, beer, water or soft drinks. We have done many sunset sails in various destinations, but the last few years the weather had been overly cloudy, so no true sunset. This trip, we finally had great weather and a very lovely sunset. The schooner was completely full so a little crowded, but it didn't take away from the nice atmosphere. This time of year, St. Augustine offers the Nights of Lights in which they town is covered in a zillion white Christmas lights. There is a trolley tour you can take to see all the lights, which we didn't do. From the schooner we could see most of them. Very beautiful.
Ghost & Gravestones Trolley Tour - This is sponsored by the Old Town Trolley Company. It starts at 8pm at the #20 trolley stop. It was a cute tour and a little kitschy. I didn't like that it started after dark because we were not able to actually see the 2 cemeteries; the Huguenot and the Tolomato or inside the Old Jail very well. We also went to the Potter's Wax Museum for a little demonstration that they provided. We were lead into the chamber of horrors by flashlight. All the other wax figures in the building had been covered with sheets so we couldn't see them. We then went to the Old Jail for another demonstration. The next day during our hop on/off trolley tour we stopped at both cemeteries so I could take pictures plus went through the entire wax museum.
We ate at the following restaurants during our trip: Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille, Meehan's Irish Pub, Frida's, The Mardi Gra Bar, Casa Maya, OC Whites, Columbia and the Raintree. All were very good. Make sure to book a reservation at the Columbia and the Raintree. We also did the Sunday brunch at the Reef. This brunch put any that we have ever done in Las Vegas to complete shame. Not only was the price reasonable at $37.50 per person, the offerings were wonderful. Including warm snow crab legs, which I have never seen anywhere. It was always cold king crab legs. Yuck! A definite must.
We enjoyed Meehan's and Harry's the most. The crème brulee at Meehan's has to be the best we have ever had anywhere. They waiter told us they use their handmade Irish crème in the custard. Total Yum! The Mardi Gra Bar had the best black & blue sliders I have ever had. We also went to the Tini Martini Bar. I have to say I was so disappointed to down right upset. We ordered a cucumber martini off the bar menu. The most expensive, at $12.50, worst tasting martini I have ever had in my life. You cannot just pour cucumber vodka in a glass, garnish it with a cucumber slice, slap an outrageous price tag on it and call it a martini. The waitress asked how it was and I told her the truth. She was nice enough to bring a shot of Simple Syrup and we choked it down for the sheer principle of it. I also told her if they wanted to know how to make a proper cucumber martini they need to go to Harry's. They made one of the best I have ever tasted. Even if the martini had been decent to good, $12.50 is outrageous. Every other place we went to we paid around $8 - $9 for a martini. This place is so not worth the time or effort.
The Weather was good except Wednesday a little cold front came in. On Thursday it was down right cold and windy, but by Friday back to the mid 70's. Getting a taxi was a true test of patience. DH has some difficulty walking long distances without taking breaks in between, so we do like to use taxi's. Most places we called just didn't answer and the ones that did were a little surly and off putting. Some of the taxis we rode in needed to be impounded years ago. When we went to Savannah, the first taxi we took, the driver gave us his cell number and we called him whenever we needed him for the entire trip. That was so not happening in St. Augustine.
In all we had a great trip and was glad we got to experience St. Augustine. I took around 400 photos of everything we did, saw and ate and posted on my photo site at:
https://kvrlvnphotogallery.shutterfly.com/pictures/5
For our End of the Year/Christmas vacation we choose St. Augustine, FL due the history and variety of things to see and do.
Days Inn Historic District- After researching areas and reading recommendations, we chose the Days Inn Historic District hotel. I am not sure why most people recommended the Historic District as it is about a 30 minute walk to the Bayfront area in which the majority of restaurants, bars and activities are located. Next time I will know to chose the Hilton or Best Western Bayfront as those hotels are more convenient to the area we were really wanting to be in.
The Days Inn Historic District was close to the Old Town Trolley Tour Stop #1 and the Fountain of Youth. The hotel is quite old and dated. Upon check in we were given room 308. This section of rooms is in the very back on the left not connected to the main hotel. It is closer to the street to walk to the Bayfront area. The room contained a king bed, sleeper sofa, desk/chair, wardrobe closet with safe, dresser with a small TV on top and a mini frig. There was a coffee maker on the sink vanity in the bath area. The room was quite dated and decent enough. The carpet should have been replaced decades ago. The tile in the bathroom looked recent. There were 4 lamps and only 2 worked. Same with the plug in's. The fittings were so old and loose the plugs wouldn't connect. There is a very small pool by the lobby and an attached Denny's restaurant. Across the main rode is an Old Town Trolley visitor center in which a shuttle will take you to stop #1 to start the trolley tour. There is also a coffee shop across the street on the same side that serves Starbucks type coffees/sweets and small plates of food.
Old Town Trolley - If you have ever been to Key West it's the same company and the same type of basic tour. There are 23 stops in which you can hop on/off. The trolley starts/stops every 15 minutes and does a continuous loop. Stop #1 contains the Old Jail, Gator Bobs souvenir store, St. Augustine's Old History Museum and the Oldest Store Museum. We bought the 3 day tickets for $23 per person and it was well worth it. 3 days is not enough time to visit all 23 stops, but we made a good dent. We did the following stops: Old Jail, St. Augustine's Old History Museum, the Oldest Store, the Pirate Museum, Potter’s Wax Museum, City Gates, St. George Street, Lightner Museum, St. Augustine Distillery, Whetstones Chocolate Factory, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and the Fountain of Youth. Some stops we didn't really need to get off the trolley and explore. Good visual and I took plenty of pictures. We would have loved to done the Beach Bus, which is included, but we just didn't have enough time. Our favorite was the Lightner Museum. If you like history and antiques this place is awesome. It used to be a hotel that was eventually converted into a museum. In the basement, where the pool used to be, there is a restaurant and 4 antique stores. I collect blue/white china and found a 1922 Copenhagen Demark tea cup and saucer. The Oldest Store was really cool also. This is a guided tour at specific hours so check the times. It's basically a warehouse of items which could have been purchased from the 1900's Sears & Roebuck Catalogue. Again, if you like history and antiques it's a great tour. We decided not to tour the Castillo San Marcos Fort/Castle. It is basically a smaller scale of the one we did tour in Puerto Rico.
St. Augustine Tasting Tours - This is a horse and carriage ride with wine and 4 restaurant stops for food/wine tastings. We went to: Corazon, Athena, The Floridian and B Street Eats. We also went to the Lightner Museum to look around the courtyard and the old pool area and take photos. We also circled around the main Town Square. We have been on many food tasting tours in several destinations. This was the best of any we have done. The food portions were not only good, but huge in comparison. Also, the tour included a bottle of wine for the carriage ride and wine pairings with each food tasting. There were 4 couples on this tour including us, so it was not crowded. I have to give special credit to the personnel. I booked this tour on-line about a week before our trip and when doing so, I accidently hit the wrong date for our booking. Even when I received e-mail confirmation I did not notice my mistake. On the day of the tour when I pulled out my confirmation, I then noticed my error and totally freaked. I called the company right away and explained that I was totally at fault and didn't realize my error until just then. They were able to work with me and we were able to make this tour. In addition, our tour guide was super sweet.
After the tour we noticed that a hoard of people had just descended into the Bayfront area like locust. Our guide explained that there were 3 festivals going on; the Night of Lights, The Running of the Bulls and the Boat Regada. We tried several places to eat dinner, but it was a hour wait at each one. We also tried calling for a taxi to take us back to our hotel. After the dispatcher stopped laughing, he told us to hole up at a bar for the next 3 hours and then we could probably get one. If we could have gotten into anywhere to actually hole up we probably would have. We ended up walking back to our hotel, which took almost an hour.
Freedom Schooner Sunset Sail - This was a very nice 2 hour sunset sail that included wine, beer, water or soft drinks. We have done many sunset sails in various destinations, but the last few years the weather had been overly cloudy, so no true sunset. This trip, we finally had great weather and a very lovely sunset. The schooner was completely full so a little crowded, but it didn't take away from the nice atmosphere. This time of year, St. Augustine offers the Nights of Lights in which they town is covered in a zillion white Christmas lights. There is a trolley tour you can take to see all the lights, which we didn't do. From the schooner we could see most of them. Very beautiful.
Ghost & Gravestones Trolley Tour - This is sponsored by the Old Town Trolley Company. It starts at 8pm at the #20 trolley stop. It was a cute tour and a little kitschy. I didn't like that it started after dark because we were not able to actually see the 2 cemeteries; the Huguenot and the Tolomato or inside the Old Jail very well. We also went to the Potter's Wax Museum for a little demonstration that they provided. We were lead into the chamber of horrors by flashlight. All the other wax figures in the building had been covered with sheets so we couldn't see them. We then went to the Old Jail for another demonstration. The next day during our hop on/off trolley tour we stopped at both cemeteries so I could take pictures plus went through the entire wax museum.
We ate at the following restaurants during our trip: Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille, Meehan's Irish Pub, Frida's, The Mardi Gra Bar, Casa Maya, OC Whites, Columbia and the Raintree. All were very good. Make sure to book a reservation at the Columbia and the Raintree. We also did the Sunday brunch at the Reef. This brunch put any that we have ever done in Las Vegas to complete shame. Not only was the price reasonable at $37.50 per person, the offerings were wonderful. Including warm snow crab legs, which I have never seen anywhere. It was always cold king crab legs. Yuck! A definite must.
We enjoyed Meehan's and Harry's the most. The crème brulee at Meehan's has to be the best we have ever had anywhere. They waiter told us they use their handmade Irish crème in the custard. Total Yum! The Mardi Gra Bar had the best black & blue sliders I have ever had. We also went to the Tini Martini Bar. I have to say I was so disappointed to down right upset. We ordered a cucumber martini off the bar menu. The most expensive, at $12.50, worst tasting martini I have ever had in my life. You cannot just pour cucumber vodka in a glass, garnish it with a cucumber slice, slap an outrageous price tag on it and call it a martini. The waitress asked how it was and I told her the truth. She was nice enough to bring a shot of Simple Syrup and we choked it down for the sheer principle of it. I also told her if they wanted to know how to make a proper cucumber martini they need to go to Harry's. They made one of the best I have ever tasted. Even if the martini had been decent to good, $12.50 is outrageous. Every other place we went to we paid around $8 - $9 for a martini. This place is so not worth the time or effort.
The Weather was good except Wednesday a little cold front came in. On Thursday it was down right cold and windy, but by Friday back to the mid 70's. Getting a taxi was a true test of patience. DH has some difficulty walking long distances without taking breaks in between, so we do like to use taxi's. Most places we called just didn't answer and the ones that did were a little surly and off putting. Some of the taxis we rode in needed to be impounded years ago. When we went to Savannah, the first taxi we took, the driver gave us his cell number and we called him whenever we needed him for the entire trip. That was so not happening in St. Augustine.
In all we had a great trip and was glad we got to experience St. Augustine. I took around 400 photos of everything we did, saw and ate and posted on my photo site at:
https://kvrlvnphotogallery.shutterfly.com/pictures/5
Dec 16th, 2016, 02:43 AM
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Enjoyed your trip report.
Just a little confused about what constitutes the "Historic District" in St. Augustine. My impression is that it encompasses the old downtown area where the majority of the town's attractions are found, which may or may not include the "Bayfront." And it may or may not extend as far north as the Fountain of Youth and Old Jail. It's hard to tell given what I'm seeing written about this.
No question that the Day's Inn you stayed at is a bit north of the majority of the city's tourist sites. But the price looks good, at least.
Just a little confused about what constitutes the "Historic District" in St. Augustine. My impression is that it encompasses the old downtown area where the majority of the town's attractions are found, which may or may not include the "Bayfront." And it may or may not extend as far north as the Fountain of Youth and Old Jail. It's hard to tell given what I'm seeing written about this.
No question that the Day's Inn you stayed at is a bit north of the majority of the city's tourist sites. But the price looks good, at least.
Dec 16th, 2016, 05:55 AM
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Glad you enjoyed your trip to one of our favorite places. Sorry your hotel was so far away (I definitely don't consider that part of town the historic district). If you come back I highly recommend you check out one of the many beautiful old historic Inns. We have stayed at 4 different ones and really enjoyed all but one.
Dec 16th, 2016, 06:21 AM
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I agree, the Days Inn description is a little deceptive. Also, I got such conflicting information when doing research prior to booking. We booked a package on Expedia and the distinction between Historic District and Bayfront area was not properly denoted. Since my DH has walking issues, it was way too far for us. I hope my information will help someone not make the same mistake.
Dec 16th, 2016, 07:12 PM
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I especially enjoyed and thank you for your report. A couple of years ago a poster got boohooed for considering staing in St Augustine. A few posters actually said it was a waste of time and only worth an hour or two drive thru.. You certainly proved them wrong! I was concerned at the time because a family member had rented a condo for two weeks. They too loved their visit to this city.
Dec 17th, 2016, 05:55 AM
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http://www.stgeorge-inn.com/ We stay here most of the time if we are wanting to do an overnighter. I love the area and great music in some of the bars at night.
Meehan's and Harry's are great places to eat. Harry's does the best shrimp and grits/
Meehan's and Harry's are great places to eat. Harry's does the best shrimp and grits/
Dec 17th, 2016, 07:06 AM
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Agree about the value of 2-3 days in St. A. Well worth it.
One thing I think you missed. There's a nice tour of Flagler College, which was once a high-end resort for the original snowbirds: well-to-do northerners who visited FL in the winter. The history of the buildings and Flagler is interesting, as is the architecture.
One thing I think you missed. There's a nice tour of Flagler College, which was once a high-end resort for the original snowbirds: well-to-do northerners who visited FL in the winter. The history of the buildings and Flagler is interesting, as is the architecture.
Dec 17th, 2016, 10:15 AM
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KVR--St. Augustine was a real highlight of trips taken in the US in recent years; in my opinion, a beautiful town with a fun energy about it where I was glad to have spent 4 nights. Missed the post where some people said it's only worth an hour or two drive through. I think I spent longer than that at the Lightner Museum alone (hope you were there for their antique music box show, KVR, a real highlight of my visit!). I agree with emalloy and found the history I learned about on the Castillo tour really interesting & the views were pretty gorgeous of the bay from near the turrets-- the Castillo is a good excuse if you decide to return one day!
Great trip report! You saw a lot that I didn't and have given me ideas for when I next return! Best wishes--Daniel
Great trip report! You saw a lot that I didn't and have given me ideas for when I next return! Best wishes--Daniel
Dec 19th, 2016, 06:09 AM
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Thanks everyone for the feedback. St. Augustine is definitely a destination worth visiting and exploring more than once. We did 7 days/6 nights and didn't get to see and do everything we wanted. Yes, we missed Flager Collage, The Castillo San Marcos, the Beach area and few more museums, but we had to make a choice this trip of what sites were the priority to us. Just another reason to make a return trip in the future.
Yes, we did see the music box demonstration at the Lightner Museum. Unfortunately, 2 of them were not working that day, but the Curator gave some very good history.
Yes, we did see the music box demonstration at the Lightner Museum. Unfortunately, 2 of them were not working that day, but the Curator gave some very good history.
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