Check out this list of St Augustine Family Activities! We had so much fun exploring the attractions and beaches in St. Augustine Florida!
I was provided complimentary tickets to the attractions in St. Augustine Florida. All opinions are my own.
This year we decided to explore more of Florida and visit Saint Augustine for our family vacation. My kids are 11, 14, and 17 years old so they were very interested in doing all the fun things in St Augustine! It is the first time they have ever visited the area.
There are many things to do in this awesome town and we will need to go back! We spent 3 days in St Augustine in August – so we just did a few things per day and then got cooled off at the hotel. We had a great pool and access to an amazing beach!
The best tip I can give you is to do one of the trolley tours on your first day. It’s a great way to learn a lot about the historic sites, the location of St. Augustine attractions, food, parking, and more. Then you can make a list of the top things you want to do.
There are two options for trolley tours in the city. Both will share the rich history of the area and help you pick the best places to visit.
Ripley’s Red Train Tour & Museum
We did the Ripley’s Red Train Tour on the day we arrived. This is just a tour. You can not get on and off at the different locations. You pick up the train at Ripley’s museum. You do need reservations so click here to purchase your tickets.
Once you leave the parking lot your tour guide will take you through different areas of the city. You do not get admission to the attractions. It starts by bringing you through the fountain of youth archaeological park and it takes you through St. George Street so you can see the historic district where you can see historical sites like the old city gate. There are still some cobblestone streets!
The tour guide also told us about Henry Flagler and how he made the city of St. Augustine the place for the wealthy to vacation during the cold winter months up north.
The Ripley Train Tour is about 75 minutes and is just enough to let you know how the city is laid out and to help you pick out the best things to visit.
Ripley’s Red Train Tours is one of the oldest attractions in the state of Florida, operating continuously since 1953. They cover the entire city from the St. Augustine distillery to Ponce De Leon’s Fountain of Youth.
The other option is the Old Town Trolley Tour. This tour has a lot more to offer. This is a better option if you want to park once and take the trolley to see all the attractions all over town.
They cover the entire city. You can avoid costly parking and city driving if you take this tour. The tour is also designed so that you can hop on and off and explore on your own at any time. You can get passes to ride the Trolley for 1 or 2 days.
St Augustine Family Activities
Your Old Town Trolley Tour Includes:
- 1 or 2 consecutive days of free unlimited re-boarding
- Hop On & Off at 22 Old Town Trolley Stops
- Open air sightseeing so you can take pictures
- The tour is fully narrated.
- You visit more than 100 Points of Interest
- FREE Admission to St. Augustine History Museum
- FREE Beach Shuttle to St. Augustine Alligator Farm and St. Augustine Beach
- EXCLUSIVE stops at Old Jail, Potter’s Wax Museum & Old Drug Store
- Complimentary hotel shuttle service
You can buy tickets online or visit the booths throughout the city at The Old Jail, the Visitor Information Center, The City Gates and the Old Town Trolley Welcome Center – San Marco
The Trolley Tour is the best way to get an overview of the city and learn so much about its history!
Day 1 In St. Augustine – The Nation’s Oldest City!
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We arrived around 2pm – so we grabbed some food and headed to Ripley’s Museum for our 3pm train tour.
This has been open since1950 and it is the first permanent Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum. The museum is filled with more than 800 exciting exhibits and interactives.
Whenever we visit a city – we always have to check out Ripley’s Museums! They are so much fun and each one has many different unique items. My kids love to visit and take lots of pictures with all the attractions.
Tip – if you pay for admission to the museum or the train tour you can park in their lot for free for the day. Just make sure they give you a parking pass! It’s a great spot to park and a short walk to the fort and downtown.
Ripley’s also offers a ghost tour. You can find more information on their website to find out the ticket price.
Day 2 In St. Augustine – America’s Oldest City
Castillo de San Marcos
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This is such a cool spot to visit! Our whole family loved it! If you do the train tour – you will see it from the street. It’s huge and beautiful with the ocean in the background!
Get there early and you can park in the lot at the fort. Parking is not very expensive and it’s a close walk to several things. Once we were done at the fort, we walked across the street to visit the downtown area. There are gift shops, restaurants, and more.
The national monument, the Castillo de San Marcos, is the oldest masonry Fort in the United States and the only standing 17th-century military construction. It was built with coquina. This is a soft limestone composed of broken shells. It’s a very cool material and you can buy a brick in the gift shop to take home with you!
Coquina gave the Spanish a special advantage – instead of cracking or collapsing, coquina walls absorbed or deflected enemy projectiles allowing the Spanish to guard their possessions and keep their people safe. This unique craftsmanship has been standing since 1695!
We kept our car in this lot and walked a few blocks to the wax museum.
Visiting Potter’s wax museum In St. Augustine Florida
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Potter’s Wax Museum, the first wax museum in the U.S., is home to more than 160 different wax figures, including Potter’s original collection, each one an authentic life-sized recreation of the men and women they represent. It was filled with so much history. We learned a lot and the entire family was very impressed with how real the figures looked.
My kids got their pictures with Harry Potter, presidents, Walt Disney, and more! At the end, there was a huge section of clothing from the early Kings and Queens of England. There were also a lot of areas to read about the history of all the people in the monarchy.
The wax museum is located inside the oldest pharmacy in the United States. Potter’s Wax Museum is the oldest wax museum in the country!
After the wax museum, we walked around downtown St. Augustine and saw the oldest wooden school house, and had some ice cream.
Visit their website for special offers and events!
Day 3 in Saint Augustine
This was our last full day in St. Augustine. We knew we wanted to visit the Old Jail. It’s a fun little plaza that includes a few other attractions, a store and it’s also a Trolley Stop!
Old Jail Museum
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This looks more like a resort than a maximum-security facility! The original structure was built in 1891 by Henry Flagler. Although it has been restored throughout the years, it looks very much the way it did when it opened.
It has quite the history! When you visit you will have a guided tour from an inmate. They are great! They are funny and tell you stories about the jail, the inmates, and the Sherrif!
The jail was built in 1891. Because it was across the street from the train station, Henry Flagler didn’t want the jail to look like a jail and scare people. So the Old Jail was designed to look like a fine hotel (it has a front porch, and it’s pink!)! But inside this maximum security prison were pretty poor conditions.
You will get to see the Sheriff’s living quarters, the cells, the kitchen, and the gallows outback are a reminder of a harsher time, and help explain why the Old Jail is now listed on the National Register of Haunted Places.
It’s definitely a tour you do not want to miss! Visit their website to learn more!
St Augustine History Museum
In the same area, you can visit the History museum. If you have tickets for the Old Town Trolley Tour – you can get into this museum for free.
In this museum, you will see authentic artifacts, and unpublished photographs and learn about the evolution of St. Augustine and Florida under the Spanish and British.
This tour is pretty quick – you will only need about 30 minutes.
Oldest Store Museum
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When you enter this store you step back in time! We had a guided tour with Ruby and she was fantastic! She shared about the wages and costs of the items in the store. The kids got free candy and they were able to grind coffee and shuck corn with the newest inventions from the 1900s.
This extensive authentic collection feels like a Sears and Roebuck catalog come to life, with everything from tonics and elixirs to a goat-powered washing machine. You won’t forget this experience of an old-time General Store in 1908.
This general store was opened initially for the express purpose of supplying Henry Flagler with the goods he needed to move ahead with his many construction projects which included the famed Ponce de Leone Hotel (later to become Flagler College.)
This tour was about 30-45 minutes. You can hang around and check out all the things after the guided tour.
As you can see there is so much to do in St. Augustine! We didn’t even do half the things we wanted to do! We still need to go back and visit the st. Augustine lighthouse, maritime museum, Marineland dolphin adventure, St. Augustine Aquarium, and the whetstone chocolate factory
Where to Stay in St Augustine
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We stayed about 10 minutes north of St Augustine on Vilano Beach. It was perfect! The beach was so clean and almost empty! It was like we had our own private beach!
The Hampton Inn was the best hotel. It is basically on the beach! Plus we had free breakfast and free cookies every day! The rooms were huge and the beds were so comfortable!
Tip – Use my referral link and get the Hilton American Express Credit Card. There is no annual fee but you will get 100,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $1,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Card in the first 3 months of Card Membership.
Plus, you can earn up to $100 in Statement Credits on eligible purchases made on the Card at any of the Hilton family hotels in the first 12 months of Card Membership.
Our hotel cost $550 for 3 nights but we got a $100 statement credit. Plus we have 100,000 Hilton points to get 2-3 free nights at a Hilton Hotel!
We are planning our next family trip! St. Augustine is a great place to enjoy indoor and outdoor fun. They have beautiful beaches, nature trails, a fishing pier, and so much more! Im sure you can find some picnic tables and it’s the perfect place for a picnic lunch!
It’s perfect for young kids and older kids.
Our hotel was on Vilano Beach and it was amazing! There were hardly any people on the beach so we felt like we were on a private vacation! I also want to visit Crescent beach and Anastasia island!
Im glad it’s only about a 3 hour drive!
Are you thinking about taking an international vacation? Check out our 5-day itinerary from our trip to Paris! We actually got 5 airline tickets for free!