What are the best day trips from St. Augustine?

Cumberland Island is 145 km north and requires a ferry from St. Marys, Georgia (round trip currently $15 per adult, reservations through the National Park Service). The ferry leaves at 9am and returns at 4:15pm, which gives you about 5 hours on the island. That sounds tight. It isn't. The Dungeness ruins sit a 15-minute walk from the dock, and the beach beyond them stretches empty for miles. You'll smell salt grass and hear nothing but wind through the live oaks draped in Spanish moss. The wild horses tend to appear near the south end, unbothered, grazing among broken tabby walls. Mind you, there's no food service on the island. Pack sandwiches from Juniper Market on San Marco Avenue before you leave St. Augustine. The drive to St. Marys takes about 90 minutes on I-95 North.

Fort Matanzas National Monument sits 23 km south on A1A, and the whole visit takes perhaps 3 hours including the free ferry ride across the Matanzas River. The fort dates to 1742, built by the Spanish to guard the southern water approach to St. Augustine. It's small. Two rooms and a gun deck. But standing on that deck with your partner, watching pelicans dive into the inlet below, the salt breeze coming off the Atlantic. That's the moment. The surrounding boardwalk trails wind through coastal scrub with the warm smell of sun on palmetto fronds. Arrive before 10am on weekends to avoid the school groups that fill the 30-person ferry. The park closes at 5pm and charges nothing for entry or the boat.

Amelia Island works better when one of you wants to wander shops and the other wants to sit with a book on the beach. Fernandina Beach's Centre Street has 8 blocks of independent stores and restaurants in Victorian-era buildings. For dinner together, the Salty Pelican on the waterfront does blackened shrimp tacos at $16 that taste like someone actually seasoned them. The drive north on A1A takes about 75 minutes from downtown St. Augustine, or 60 minutes on I-95 if you skip the scenic route. That said, A1A passes through Fort George Island on the way and the Kingsley Plantation (free, NPS-managed, founded 1814) makes a worthwhile 45-minute stop. You'll walk through the remains of 23 slave cabins arranged in a semicircle under live oaks. Sobering and important.

Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, 40 km south on A1A, is the one for the morning when you both want to move slowly. The coquina rock formations on the beach look like a lunar landscape eroded into tide pools. The formal gardens on the inland side smell of jasmine in June. Entry is $5 per vehicle. You'll spend maybe 2 hours total, which leaves the afternoon open for Marineland next door (dolphin encounters at $200 per couple, worth it if neither of you has done one before, overpriced if you have). The whole southern A1A corridor from St. Augustine to Flagler Beach runs along a quiet two-lane road with the ocean on your left and the Intracoastal on your right. No traffic lights for 20 km stretches.