Recommendations for St. Augustine, FL
 

I'll be taking a trip to St. Augustine later this summer with my extended family. I would appreciate anyone's input on their favorite things to do, places to eat...

I guess no one has ever been to St. Augustine, FL?

We stopped one day in St. Augustine last year... we had the entire family and the older ones appreciated the city tour bus through "old town" and the fort areas. The younger ones loved the wide-open beach and the fact that we could drive the car up to the water line.

Hope this helps.

I can't recall the name of the brewpub overlooking the lion bridge, but do remember a lovely evening spent on the upstairs balcony. Food was nothing special, but it was a good people watching venue and the beer cold!

We walked the historical area with a volunteer from the tourism office---I'll go through the files and see if I have any of the literature. (This was a spur of the moment stop when I was driving back to dc from sarasota, so I never made any plans or plots for this one.)

I got to spend a day in St. Augustine in December and loved the town (it helps that I´m a big history buff!). The old town, I thought, was very European - narrow lanes, bits of the old city wall and gates, and wonderful colonial architecture. Speaking of narrow lanes, this is a good reason to park the car OUTSIDE of the old town area (by the visitor´s center is great, if you can find any parking in the area) and then walk around by foot. Since I like history, I particularly enjoyed the fortress, and also visiting the Hugeneut (sp) cemetary and town cathedral. The Greek Orthodox memorial is also really interesting (it tells the story of a couple hundred Greek indentured servants brought to the area during the 20-year British "interregum" between Spanish rule). I chose not to pay to go into the city historical museum but instead used my tour book (AAA) to read about the history of the different buildings lining the main street. I also avoided the "fountain of youth" at the periphery - it sounded like too much of a tourist trap. As for eating, I had a wonderful lunch at the Old Spanish Bakery (the bread is probably the best I´ve ever had in the U.S.) - unfortunately I don't remember the exact address, but old town isn`t exactly a big area! Oh, and if you want to spend the night in the Old Town for cheap, the International Haus youth hostel (not just for youths despite the name) where I stayed was great (it's an old, historic building with the associated inconveniences). They now have a web site at www.internationalhaus.com.
yonatan