After visiting Jamestowne last summer, I became interested in the even earlier Spanish settlement of St. Augustine, Florida, “America’s oldest city.”
My family enjoys traveling to historical places, and I love the beach, especially the Atlantic, so I expected this would be a great spring break destination for us. The famous city also checked the fishing (my husband) and ghost tour boxes. We stayed at the perfect campground, and there was so much to do in the area we could fill up several more trips with activities. St. Augustine exceeded our expectations!
We traveled in our motorhome, and I realized I had never been in Georgia before, having always flown to Florida and therefore never had the “experience” of driving through Atlanta…I’m not sure how soon we’ll be doing that again!
But it was all worth it to discover this amazing city.
I’ll start with the most impressive thing I saw: the Castillo de San Marcos. This fort was built by the Spanish in 1672, and is now managed by the National Park Service. You can use your national park passes and 4th grade Every Kid Outdoors passes. No ticket is needed to walk around the outside of the fort, but you have to buy a ticket to get inside and walk around the top. Currently it is only open from Wednesday – Sunday.
Seeing something this old in America made an impression on me. The fort is spectacular.
Across from the Castillo and through the city gates is St. Augustine’s most famous street, St. George Street. This is a pedestrian-only walkway with lots of shops and restaurants. As my family can attest, I love shops and restaurants!!! Historical attractions are mixed in, like the oldest wooden school house in the United States. And the Colonial Quarter where you can see what life was like in the 1700s. We walked up and down this street every day.
A bit closer to our campground was the legendary Fountain of Youth and the Old Jail, both attractions we enjoyed.
We also spent a morning fishing with First City Charters. This was for my husband, and I offered to send him alone but he wanted us to try. But, the kids and I got sick on the open sea so Zach was thoughtful enough to take us inshore, where my husband caught Sheepshead which I was skeptical about. But it ended up being the best fish I’ve ever had!! (The kids and I read and took photos during the “fishing trip” because we had a great view of the Lighthouse and the Fort from the water.)
Even though I’m a skeptic I do enjoy ghost tours because they are usually filled with history and include a nice tour of the area, usually by foot. Our tour by A Ghosty Encounter was a great introduction to the city.
Like in New Orleans, my husband claims he caught a ghost in his photo. I think this is a woman who was walking below, but he claims “there was no one down there.” He also thinks he heard a ghost at Alcatraz. :/
My favorite campground thus far
We are relatively new to RVing; we bought our motorhome last February just before the pandemic. One of our best decisions with the best timing ever. In St. Augustine we stayed at North Beach Campground. Sometime we tow a vehicle, but this time we rented a car to get around.
This campground has the feel of a state park with sites that have privacy and vegetation. It is across the street from the beach and has two restaurants within walking distance. It has a nice pool (also a preference for my family.) We loved it there!!!
The water was cold in March but my kids still enjoyed swimming. Because we were so close to the beach and with the help of a time change x2 (location plus daylight savings; so confusing!) I was able to make it up for my first Atlantic sunrise, and learned the biggest shells are found first thing in the morning.
Travel = reading, and this is a book blog…Pre-trip, I had looked to see if there was any historical fiction set in St. Augustine but all that kept coming up in my searches was one of my favorite books ever, so I re-read that. I’ll cover that in my next post!!