St Augustine FL trip report, 3/31-4/6/26

3rd annual April pilgrimage to St Aug for the Billy strings run at the amphitheater. We’ve learned quite a bit about the area and simply said this is probably our favorite place in the country to visit. It checks every one of our boxes.

flew MSY to Orlando on Tuesday, rented a car and hit the road at about about 10am. We were going to take the scenic route up the coat anyway but when I saw the sign for NASA we had to stop. I had forgotten about the rocket launch the next day, place was up for grabs but we had a great time there. Fair warning it’s $80 per person admission which I thought was excessive it apparently the visitor area is self funded. You could definitely spend all day there and obviously enthusiasm was everywhere about the launch. Glad we stopped, spent about 4 hours seeing what we could. Up the road to St Aug.

We rented an Airbnb right on the beach on Anastasia Island at the end of 10th Street, right at the beach access boardwalk. Great location and the 2nd floor apartment had an astounding view of the beach. We opened all the doors and windows and left them open. Weather was perfect every day.

Dinner at Llama 1st night, outstanding Peruvian food. Highly recommend.

Day 2 we rented bikes (delivered to crib which was nice), and spent most of the day at the beach. The beaches here are beautiful…much much wider than gulf beaches and thus no jockeying for position or any other typical beach stupidity. Walked down the beach to beachcomber for drinks and lunch, great place. Dinner at Lotus Noodle Bar which was a top 5 all time meal for us. Don’t miss out on that. Make a reservation and be on time (it’s tiny).

Day 3 we rode the bikes all over St Aug Beach, just dicking around. Lunch at A1A Burrito Works (excellent) and a round of putt putt golf, then night 1 at the amphitheater. St Aug Amp is world class and probably our favorite live music venue anywhere. If a band you like is playing there, it’s reason enough to visit. Beautiful facility

Day 4 hung out on the beach, rode bikes around, etc. night 2 at the amp.

Day 5 rode bikes up the amp where they have a huge farmers market every Saturday morning, complete with live music and food trucks. Spent most of the day there and then went back to relax. Show night 3.

Day 6 was a day drinking day, we walked down the beach to beachcomber again and bellied up. The food there is way better than it needs to be. Dinner at Cap’s on the Water in Vilano Beach, sunset views and pretty damn good food. We walked right in but I’m pretty sure the place is a madhouse usually so keep that in mind if you go.

Today we packed up, tooled around the historic downtown area a bit and then back to Orlando and the world’s worst airport to fly home.

next year we are going to drive and stay longer. We found a small house a block away on the beach that’s nicer and cheaper to rent next time.

St Augustine is awesome, you should go there instead of the gulf beaches. It’s exponentially less stressful, less crowded, less hassle and more of everything you go to the beach for.