Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - st. Augustine, jekyll island trip report

We Just returned from our trip. We spent 3 nights in St. Augustine. Stayed at the casa del mar hotel - slightly out of the main area of town. We were very happy with the hotel. full breakfast was included. (more detail on hotel will be at tripadvisor.com.)

Our main interests are nature, birds and photography. We spent quite a bit of time at the Alligator Farm which has a large bird rookery. Birds were building nests, courting, sitting on eggs, and tending babies, depending on the species. It is also an interesting and very clean alligator zoo, with many different types of alligators and crocidiles on the premises.

We also took the one of the on-off tours of St. Augustine. the orange line. seats not very comfortable. the red line looked better. One driver was good. the other told stupid jokes some of the time, even though no one appreciated them. The information provided however was quite interesting.

We also went through the art museum in town and walked around a bit.

Ate at Fiddlers Green. next to the hotel. good restaurant. looks of variety. Nice view of the beach. Ate there all 3 nights, as was easy and convenient.

The third day we left and went to Okefenokee Swamp. Very interesting and quite beautiful. Used the East Entrance. Took a walk on the path to the obervation tower and also took a narrated boat ride.

We then proceeded to Jekyll Island, GA. where we spent 4 nights. Stayed at the Beachview Club. Very nice place. no breakfast provided. but room had refrig, microwave, toaster and some dishes.

Island is 65% undeveloped. Lovely place with lots of cypress trees with hanging moss. Took a tram tour of the historic district. Did lots of birding, and walking around. Was very windy when we were there, so didn't spend much time on the beach.

Not much in the way of stores. (also went over to st. simon island for a few hours). Ate a zachry's - reasonable and good. Also ate at Latitude - on the water. good food.

the fancy hotel on the island - has an early bird dinner from 6-6:45 that we tried. Food was good but heavy on the butter. However the hotel also has a take out restaurant that is open till 10 PM with salads, sandwiches, desserts, etc. which is very good. Most stores close around 7 PM. so this came in handy.

Overall a very pleasant trip.