St. Augustine in One Day
We recently visited St. Augustine but only had one day. Here are 3 spots we visited and recommend if you only have one day!
St. Augustine is a small town, but there’s lots to see and do. We only had one day for this one day visit. If we were staying overnight, we would add on a ghost tour which is lots of fun! Otherwise, we were able to cram in these things in one day:
- Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archeological Park
- Oldest Wooden School House
- Historic St. Augustine shopping and eating
- and we had to see the Old Senator Oak Tree dating back to 1513!
Fountain of Youth Archeological Park
With only one day in St. Augustine for this visit, we had to plan strategically. We chose to start with the Fountain of Youth attraction because we had never been there.
We thought it was great. Lots of history and archeology on these grounds plus exhibits to see including:
- Fountain of Youth exhibit (don’t miss this!)
- Canon firing demonstration
- Planetarium and show (so interesting!)
- Discover Globe show (great!)
- Timucuan Indian burial exhibit
- Peacock feeding
- Lookout, boardwalk
- Gift shop
We spent several hours in this park visiting each of the exhibits and shows. We also admit to spending way too much time feeding the peacocks because, well, they were fun to watch!
And we spent a lot of time (and some money, of course) buying souvenirs in the gift shop. BTW the gift shop is open to the public without entrance to the park.
Shopping and Food at Historic St. George Street (and ate at Barley's Republic)
After visiting the Fountain of Youth, we wandered over to the Historic District and St. George Street. This is a fantastically fun, walkable area of town filled with tons of shops and eateries. We shopped a little and got hungry. We got a great tip from a shop owner to check out Barley’s Republic.
Service was excellent and fast. Atmosphere was great. We ate the Skillet Bacon Brussel Sprouts, the Tenders, mashed potatoes with gravy (the gravy was FANTASTIC) and the Fried Oreos for dessert. EXCELLENT FOOD! The Fried Oreos were exceptional: warm and fried with powdered sugar and a wonderful mixed berry sauce. SO MUCH FOOD, we took a to-go box.
Oldest Wooden School House
We’ve walked past this Oldest Wooden School House a bunch of times in past trips. We shopped and ate all along the cobblestone streets where this attraction sits. But we decided for our one-day visit we had to go in! And we were glad we did.
Great history inside this little attraction, we learned a lot. We highly recommend visiting this site. Here’s more on the Oldest Wooden School House.
Old Senator Tree from 1513!
On our way out of St. Augustine we had to stop at Villa 1565, which is a newly renovated boutique hotel. Here you can find the Old Senator Tree, the central focal point in the middle of the grounds.
The trolley runs through this hotel making it a convenient stay for visitors. We’ve stayed here and the rooms are lovely! This tree is 600 years old dating back to 1513. There’s a courtyard and historical plaque outlining the history of this very important and historic tree.
What if we had more time? We would have visited Castillo de San Marcos fort and done a walking Ghost Tour. So we’ll add these to our list of things-to-do for our next visit to St. Augustine!
