Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - A day (or two) in St. Augustine (reviews)

Hi all!

Thanks for your help in planning my recent brief visit to St. Augustine. We had a wonderful visit, and hope to return again. However, I've decided I don't want a winter retreat there after all - just a little too cool in the winter! For any New Englanders, the town reminded us a lot of Salem, MA.

My daughter and I particularly enjoyed the tour of Flaglar College (she decided to apply there based on the Tiffany-glassed dining hall alone) and the Lightner Museum. We also enjoyed the shopping. I loved a gift shop on the corner of King and St. George, and Bootsie's in the museum plaza. She loved the little bath store near St. George and Hypolita where you mix your self-designed scent and color into various creams and lotions. Many of the store clerks were particularly informative and chatty about their stores and city.

My son's favorite tourist attraction was the Gatorland Park. The men thought that was a particularly worthwhile stop. They also enjoyed exploring the fort Castillo de San Marcos. Ripley's and the Fountain of Youth received a "take it or leave it" rating.

I also went on the 75 minute boat tour with a friend. This was very pleasant and worthwhile, although kids might get antsy. A dolphin followed along for a short while; it was a thrill to see this powerful, graceful creature in the "wild."

We visited the San Sebastien winery, but found it fairly unimpressive and small. The wines were quite light, but pleasant enough.

The beach was not particularly pleasant. Grey sand as hard as cement, with a steep drop off in the water and swirling currents. But it was uncrowded this time of year, and provided a beautiful long walk or bike path.

The St. Augustine Shrimp lived up to their reputation. We loved the atmosphere at Salt Water Cowboys, and their cheese rolls and apple salad were as wonderful as described on this forum. I also enjoyed the dozen shrimp prepared three ways, and the fried chicken got rave reviews by our party. There is an appetizer sampler of cooter, frogs legs, and fried alligator, which was very good, but we learned that cooter is out of season appx Nov-March. That's half the year! They substituted clam strips for us.

Tried my first Mojito at Habana Cafe, and it was heavenly. This is a terrific restaurant with helpful and friendly staff, and live entertainment on Fri and Sat nights. Authentic Cuban food, latin dancing, and a light, sweet, minty soda to knock your socks off... What could be better?!

Also ate at A1A Ale House and O'Steens. Both were good, but nothing new/exceptional for a New Englander. The former has an excellent location and good food; the latter has great fried seafood but absolutely no atmosphere and harried service. Of course there is a long wait there: it has less than 20 tables inside and a great reputation.

Also ate a fantastic Italian restaurant called Amici. The pizzas and the eggplant parmesan were outstanding. Ask for "Kelly" to be your waitress if she's available. She was as outstanding! Enjoyed a decent lunch at the South Beach Grill on A1A-S at Crescent Beach. Really, didn't have a bad meal in St. A - and my scale can prove it!

It was a great time with good friends, and we will definitely return for another visit. Next time I will definitely try La Parisienne. It looked charming and the menu was tempting, but couldn't get it to fit in this trip. It's a fun, low-key, town with plenty for families to enjoy.