Travel Blog: St Augustine, FL

As Friday morning on January 3rd arrived it was time to start the roughly 3 hour drive from Tampa to St. Augustine in Florida. Since I worked a solid amount during the Christmas and New Years on work related items - I decided to go on a mini vacation alongside my girlfriend on the first Friday of 2025 to refresh.

This had to be the easiest driving travel I've done in awhile as we hit zero traffic and showed up to the destination a few minutes earlier than projected. Not only was the drive easy, but I spotted an open parking spot at the very end of the parallel parking on the street. So just like that my car was parked, parking was paid and we were ready to walk to breakfast in the heart of St. Augustine.

Our original goal was Maple Street Biscuit Company, but the line for that was out the door by a solid 20 people. So we walked one block over and spotted this bagel place named Schmagel's Bagels which only had a few folks in line. After briefly peeking the menu and realizing my exhaustion from driving for 3 hours I ordered the craziest bagel ever.

As pictured above this thing was loaded with flavor and paired with the cheddar jalapeño bagel packed a punch of spice. So with a full stomach we went off to exploring and not long after that we stumbled upon a museum that I knew I wanted to experience.

This was a medieval museum focused on the torturing aspect of the time and these exhibits felt creepily real. A few of the exhibits were labeled as real, while most were replicas so it was crazy to think I was standing next to something that was used to kill people a couple of centuries ago.

The audio that followed each exhibit told a sad tale of how someone succumb to the respective death via the torture of each exhibit. A rough timeline to exist when your death was intentionally made to be long and painful in most cases. Going bright and early to this was a good call, because later in the day it looked quite packed.

It was now lunch time and we went off to find a place to eat, which didn't take long as we passed a place called "Forgotten Tonic" which was called out to us prior to visiting as a place to eat.

The place was tiny and packed, but we slipped onto the bar seats as it was first come first serve for the bar. The decor was intensely Christmas themed with holiday drinks everywhere, but I went with a classic gin & tonic with a burger. I was surprised how it felt like 20 employees worked here for a place that probably could only seat roughly 60.

While discussing gin I noticed the bottle said St. Augustine, which reminded me of a gin I have back in Tampa. Our server called out the location was not more than a 15 minute walk away - so we finished our meals and went on a journey to find the St. Augustine Distillery.

As we walked into this historic ice plant that was built in the early 1900's it was such a unique building to have been refurbished for food, drinks and distilling.

We walked up the stairs into the "ice bar" and sat at the bar to order some brambles. Since the restaurant was still in holiday mood - they had plenty of fresh blackberries to muddle for the drinks. They took ice seriously here with so many different iterations of ice from cloudy to clear and circles to crushed. Unfortunately we had just eaten so we didn't get a chance to explore the menu, but a few brambles were enough to experience the atmosphere of this historic building.

We had chained a busy day together, but it was time to walk back to our bed n breakfast and clean up before our dinner reservation. We stayed at the St. Francis Inn, which won me over with just the immense amount of great amenities that this little home offered. Just to name a few:

• Free smores nightly on an outdoor firepit
• Free desserts, coffee and drinks at any point
• Heated to 82°F outdoor pool
• Free parking
• Free tickets to nearby establishments
• Free bicycles
• Free breakfasts that were unique daily

Now of course the price of the stay was probably high for all those amenities, but it was a great place to stay that wasn't far of a walk from the main street. As we walked towards dinner I could finally see the "lights" that everyone referred to as the reason to visit.

Every single tree and building around the heart of downtown was covered in dangling lights which illuminated every single path. It was a sight to see alongside hundreds of other people trying to make to their own respective destinations.

Hopefully this few second video of walking down St. George street helps explain how many people were also here. It was so crowded that every single place had lines, so I was very lucky we had a reservation we were walking towards.

We finally reached Raintree Restaurant, which was just a hugely modified house to seat people. It felt a bit strange walking into a home that was retrofitted for such a purpose as we were basically sitting in a living room at a table in the corner. A day of eating, drinking and activities caught with me and I wasn't too hungry as we got our menus. So I went with a mocktail and a little steak salad instead of a massive cut of steak.

As dinner came to an end I couldn't even think about anything but sleep at this point - this was the same day we had woken up early and drove 3 hours here. We just had a walk back through the masses to reach our bed n breakfast and the instant I hit the bed I passed out.

As the next day arrived it was time to visit the fort (Castillo de San Marcos National Monument) which paired with brisk 40 degree weather was a rough visit. The wind on top of fort was blistering with no real places to huddle away from the wind.

Construction was heavy in the area, so it seemed the fort was in the middle of some upgrades. The cool weather and wind took a number on us, so it was time to catch some lunch at a place we knew from back home - The Columbia. I wanted to try the famous 1905 salad at every single location possible.

It seems no matter which location I visit - these are enormous buildings with a huge amount of tables, beautiful art and consistent food.

Probably weird to visit a place I could visit back home, but with how many people were also in St. Augustine there was little chance of grabbing a meal without a large wait or reservation. We just knew Columbia had the tables and slipped in right as they opened up at 11am. Lesson learned for planning a trip to a busy city next time.

As lunch came to an end we explored for a heavy amount of shopping and ice cream stops. An informal amount of plans led us to a bit of rest and hotel amenities before looking to find a place to drink/eat. There was nothing interesting about finding an Irish bar that just attracted locals, but it delivered with some basic ciders and okay hotdogs. We probably picked this place because we saw empty tables as we wandered.

As we walked home in some chilling night weather I was once again amazed by how many people were out in about in 40 degree Florida weather. With so many people though I was slightly upset with this organized religious recruitment (?) that was going on at each intersection. It seemed every intersection there was 20 or so young kids with religious signs and loud voices entertaining anyone open to arguing or agreeing.

I don't mind anyone's religion or faith, but it just seemed so annoying in that cold night while trying to peacefully walk back to our hotel to have an army of folks trying to recruit for their religion at each corner. It felt cult-like because I just can't fathom or understand the appeal of wanting to stand in the cold and yell at random people to show your dedication to your faith.

Thankfully we made it home in time for some smores which given perfectly pre-packaged sized ingredients resulted in 1 perfect smore for each of us. Another busy day led us straight to bed after that snack to arrive at our final day.

We awoke and packed up to start a roughly hour walk to the nearby lighthouse. One of the amenities of the stay allowed us to visit this lighthouse free of charge + 10% discount on gift items. As we did step after step on the journey to the top the stairs got smaller and more narrow as we approached the top. Once there we could finally take some pictures and enjoy the brisk temperature and heavy winds at top of the lighthouse. Lucky we got there when we did, because it was getting busier every 15 minutes.

Walking for an hour just to reach the lighthouse took some energy from us and after 2 long days of walking and exploring - the adventure had taken its toll. We took a car back to downtown to stop at a little seafood place before starting the drive all the way back home.

The meal wasn't anything special and unforunately no hard liquor before 1pm on Sunday in St. Augustine, so my plan to experience another bramble drink didn't pan out.

I got a little salad with some cajun tuna and sadly the tuna didn't really hold up well, but the atmosphere was great. The rice flavor and dressing on the salad though were quite amazing, so while the tuna didn't hold up - the other items did. As we finished a little quick lunch our time in St. Augustine was over - just a walk back to the car remained.

I never expected St. Augustine to be as busy as it was, but fun times were had to fill another travel blog post.