Historic city · St. Augustine
St. Augustine: the oldest city in the United States
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the country.
- The activity
- A Spanish colonial town founded in 1565, with a coquina stone fortress, a compact historic quarter and Gilded Age architecture.
- Location
- Northeast Florida, about forty minutes south of Jacksonville and two hours from Orlando.
- Duration
- A full day at minimum. The town rewards an overnight stay.
- Best time to arrive
- Morning. The historic quarter is walkable before the heat, and the fort is quietest at opening.
- Admission cost
- From $40 1-day trolley pass.
- The Castillo
- Open daily 9am to 5pm, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas, with the ticket booth closing at 4.45pm. Admission is $15 for adults 16 and over, free for under-16s and national park pass holders, and the ticket is valid for seven consecutive days.
- Other key sites
- St. George Street, Flagler College, the Lightner Museum, the cathedral basilica and the lighthouse.
- Getting around
- The old town is walkable. The Old Town Trolley hop-on hop-off runs a single 80-minute loop of 22 stops covering around 100 points of interest, daily 9am to 4:30pm, with trolleys every 15 to 20 minutes and St. Augustine History Museum admission included.
What to expect
Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States, built by the Spanish from coquina, a shell limestone that absorbed cannon fire rather than shattering. The gun deck and the ranger talks are the substance of a visit.
The historic quarter centres on St George Street, a pedestrian run of colonial buildings, and the Plaza de la Constitución. The Cathedral Basilica and the Colonial Quarter sit within a few minutes' walk.
The Gilded Age buildings are the surprise: Flagler College, formerly the Ponce de León Hotel, and the Lightner Museum in the old Alcazar, both built by Henry Flagler in the 1880s and among the finest Spanish Renaissance Revival buildings in the country.
The trolley loops the whole town with commentary and hop-on access, which is the practical way to cover ground given the distances between the fort, the quarter and the lighthouse.
The honest takeaway
Very well reviewed as a change of pace from the coast, with reservations about commercialisation and summer heat.
What visitors praise
- Genuine history. Continuous occupation since 1565 gives the town a depth nowhere else in Florida can claim.
- The Castillo. Well preserved, well interpreted and dramatically sited on the bay.
- Walkable. The whole historic core can be covered on foot in a day.
- Strong food and lodging. The inns and restaurants are a step above typical Florida tourist towns.
What visitors find difficult
- St. George Street is very commercial. The main lane is dominated by souvenir shops.
- Parking is difficult. The historic downtown garage fills by mid-morning at weekends and street meters run about $1.50 an hour.
- Ghost tours saturate the evening. Quality varies widely and the streets get crowded after dark.
- Hot and humid in summer. Shade is limited around the fort and the bayfront.
Drawn from the recurring themes in public visitor reviews of the activity and the tours that reach it. We do not reproduce individual reviews or aggregate scores; for current ratings, check Viator or another booking platform directly.
Getting there
St. Augustine is directly off I-95 in northeast Florida. Use the historic downtown parking facility on West Castillo Drive and walk from there; circling for a street space rarely works.
From Orlando, allow around two hours each way, which makes an overnight stay a better proposition than a day trip.
How to make the most of the day
- 1Start at the Castillo when it opens at 9am. The ramparts are exposed and unbearable by afternoon, and the ticket stays valid for seven days if you want to return.
- 2Leave St. George Street quickly. Aviles Street and the lanes towards the bay are far more rewarding.
- 3Visit the Lightner Museum. The building alone justifies the admission.
- 4Stay the night. The old town after the day visitors leave is the reason to come.
- 5Take the trolley on arrival. One 80-minute loop orients you, and the pass then covers the outlying sites and the beach shuttle for the rest of the day.
A little more background
St. Augustine was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565, forty-two years before Jamestown. The Castillo was begun in 1672 after the pirate raid of Robert Searles destroyed the earlier wooden forts, was retired from active service in 1900, and became a national monument in 1924.
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