Visit St Augustine, Florida

Join us as we explore America's Oldest City! In this post, we share all of the fun and interesting things we have done during our visits to St Augustine, Florida and how we save money during our stays.

We've made two visits to St Augustine so far. Our first visit was in August 2021 when we met our fellow full-time RVing friends Deb and Scott in town for a week. Our most recent trip was in May 2024 with Grammy K. This was Grammy's first trip to St Augustine.

There are a TON of fun and interesting things to do in St Augustine. Make sure you put aside plenty of time for your visit. Even in both of our visits, we still have things to do on future trips.

As we'll talk more about later in this post, we used the St Augustine TourPass on our most recent visit. It helped us to see a lot of attractions in a short amount of time.

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Things to Do in St Augustine FL

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Free Things to Do in St Augustine, Florida

Walk in history's footsteps through the City Gates that protected St Augustine when it was a presidio (or walled city).

Wander through the shops, restaurants, alleys and side streets along historic St George Street. But don't stop there! There's more to see on the Oldest Street in the USA: Aviles Street, which was also the hub of St Augustine's first Arts District in the 1930s.

Hunt for unique monuments around the city including:

• The world's last remaining unaltered Spanish Constitution Monument erected here in 1812,
• The 1928 Marker for Mile 0 of the Old Spanish Trail which runs across the country to San Diego, California,
• The Fuente de los Canos de San Francisco, a replica of a 16th century fountain gifted to San Augustine from their sister city Aviles, Spain,
• One of only 2 full-size, exact reproductions of Michelangelo's David in the world,
• One of the oldest trees in North America: the 600 year old Live Oak named "The Old Senator", which is also a rare "Love Tree" with another tree growing out of the middle of it.

Visit the iconic Bridge of Lions, a drawbridge completed in 1927 to connect Anastasia Island and St Augustine via Florida's A1A. If you're trying to get your steps in for the day, you can walk across the bridge and back via the protected sidewalks on either side.

Explore the beautiful, historic churches of St Augustine. Many of them open their doors for tours.

Step away from the hustle and bustle to enjoy a serene stroll at The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios. This is also where you'll find the landing place where General Pedro Menéndez de Aviles of Spain came ashore on September 8, 1565.

Places to Eat in St Augustine, Florida

Columbia Restaurant

Ford's Garage

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Tips for Visiting St Augustine, Florida

On our most recent trip, we used the TourPass to tour St Augustine. It made it very easy for us to find attractions and experience as many as we could in the time that we had. We were able to enjoy a lot more attractions when we used the TourPass than we did when we toured without it on our first trip to St Augustine. Yes, it can save you money if you visit a lot of attractions, but what we like most about TourPass is that it makes it very easy to explore the city without having to worry about how much everything costs. Every attraction that we visited that was included on the TourPass knew exactly what it was and got us into the exhibits quickly. We highly recommend checking out TourPass before you visit St Augustine, Florida.

Free, clean public restrooms are available in the Governor's House Cultural Center located at the Plaza de la Constitucion. You'll also find a free, small museum inside.

As we mentioned in the video, parking in St Augustine can be a real challenge. Most parking in the city is metered. There is one major parking garage at the Visitor Center. At the time of our most recent visit, parking in the garage cost $20 per day. There are no hourly fees at the parking garage. You'll find signs reporting the number of empty parking spaces within the garage on both roads that lead to it.

To get around St Augustine after you park, you can walk (just be mindful of the old bricks to avoid tripping), buy a ticket for the Hop On/Hop Off Trolley, or use the free STAR shuttle service (St Augustine Rider). The free shuttle makes 3 stops around a 1.12 mile loop beginning at the Visitor Center. Folks with tickets for the Hop On/Hop Off Trolley can park for free at Trolley Stop 1.

Old Town Trolley service also includes a beach shuttle that runs from Plaza de la Constitucion over the Bridge of Lions to Anastasia Island with stops at several hotels, the KOA and the Alligator Farm.

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More on TourPass

TourPass makes touring EASY... You pay the set fee up front based upon the city that you are visiting and how many days you want to use the pass. And that's it. There are no other fees. So, travel budgeting is super simple. You know exactly what the attractions will cost you up front. You don't have to worry about dynamic price changes of individual attractions or being nickeled and dimed by admission add-ons.

You choose your activation day and that is the day your pass will become active, no matter when you purchase it. So you can plan your adventures in advance and then just focus on having fun when you arrive.

You can put everyone in your party on one pass... no need for each person to have their own. So when we set up our 2024 St Augustine TourPass, we entered 3 people. When we arrived at a new attraction, I would show the admission attendant the TourPass on my phone and we all 3 walked in. It literally took a few seconds. So it saves time on entering attractions because admission is already paid. We're simply showing proof of payment as we enter.

TourPass includes a very easy to read listing of all of the Featured and Standard Attractions that are included in each city. Each listing includes the attraction's hours of operation, description, and location. It also tells you how far you are from each of the attractions at any given time.

When we use TourPass, we don't have to worry about finding things to do. We don't have to worry about how much we are spending on the attractions. Our biggest worry is how many can we possibly squeeze into the time that we have. LOL

Using the TourPass since 2021, we have experienced ZERO issues! Not once have we encountered an admission attendant who is unfamilar with it. It has worked perfectly everywhere we've used it.

On our most recent visit to St Augustine, TourPass was nice enough to send us a 1-day pass. But trust us, when we tell you, one day is not nearly enough to explore St Augustine! We upgraded our pass to a 2-Day TourPass right from the app on my phone. It was very quick and easy to do. All we had to do was to pay the difference in price between a 1-day and a 2-day pass. I actually made the upgrade while we were riding on the Old Town Trolley during our first day. If you have any issues, a support button is available right on the app.

The final thing we really appreciate about the TourPass experience... Multi-Day Passes do not have to be used on consecutive days (unless otherwise stated by specific attractions that you are visiting for more than one day).

We highly recommend using TourPass for your adventures in St Augustine, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. We believe in the product 100% based on our personal experience. We like it so much, we reached out to them and joined their affiliate program. If you purchase a TourPass through one of our links, it will not cost you any more money, but we will receive a commission toward supporting this website and our content. Thank you!

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How Did St Augustine Get Its Name?

Explorer Ponce de Leon is said to have sighted the East Coast of what would become Florida on Easter Sunday of 1513. He named it La Florida after the Spanish name for the Easter season and claimed it for Spain.

50 years later, in response to the French colonizing what would become Jacksonville just north of here, Spain's King Philip II sent his top admiral, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, to protect Spanish interests. Menéndez and his followers landed here on September 8, 1565 and named this new colony St Augustine after the saint whose feast was celebrated on the day that this land came into view from his ship.

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Where is St Augustine, Florida?

You'll find St Augustine on the East Coast of Florida just South of Jacksonville on Interstate 95.

Our Basecamp for This Visit

📍 Stagecoach RV Park

For More Information on Visiting St Augustine, Florida

Check out the Visit St Augustine website or the St Augustine Visitor Information Center on Florida's A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Biway. The physical address for the Visitor Center is 10 S Castillo Dr, St. Augustine, FL.

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St Augustine Florida Fun Facts

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A Few Photos from Our Visit to St Augustine