How do I get around St. Augustine?

The historic district is flat, compact, and made of coquina shell-stone sidewalks that get slippery after afternoon rain. From the Castillo de San Marcos at the north end to the Lighthouse Museum on Anastasia Island is about 2.5 miles, and nearly every sight, restaurant, and bar worth visiting falls within that corridor along St. George Street and Avenida Menendez. You don't need wheels here. The sidewalks narrow to about 3 feet along some sections of Charlotte Street, and in summer the heat tends to sit above 37°C by noon. Carry water and duck into the Lightner Museum or the Cathedral Basilica for 10 minutes of air conditioning. St. Augustine's best details are at ankle height and above doorframes, carved into soft coquina that smells faintly of wet limestone after a storm. None of that is visible from a car window.

If you drove in, park once and stay parked. The Historic Downtown Parking Facility on Cordova Street charges about $15 per day and has roughly 1,200 spaces across 3 levels. Street meters along Avenida Menendez run $2.50 per hour with a 3-hour limit, and they're enforced. The residential streets south of King Street might look tempting, but the city tows aggressively in posted zones. On weekends from March through October, the garage fills by 10 AM. Arrive before 9 or use the visitor center lot on Castillo Drive, which is free but sits a 10-minute walk north of St. George Street.

Old Town Trolley sells a hop-on, hop-off loop for about $40 per adult with 22 stops covering the full district plus the Alligator Farm, which has operated on Anastasia Island since 1893. Worth it on day one for orientation. That said, most stops are within a 10-minute walk of each other, so the trolley's real value is the narrated history, not the transport. The competing Ripley's Red Train runs a similar loop at a similar price. Pick one. Neither is faster than walking for any single trip. Skip the horse-drawn carriages entirely. They cost $35 per person for 45 minutes, clog the narrow one-way streets along Charlotte and St. George, and the smell of horse on humid 32°C pavement is not the memory you want to take home.

Anastasia Island sits 3 miles east across the Bridge of Lions. St. Augustine Beach is another 4 miles past that. Uber and Lyft both operate here, and a ride from St. George Street to St. Augustine Beach currently runs about $12 to $18. The Sunshine Bus Company runs limited fixed routes, but headways of 60 to 90 minutes make it impractical for visitors. For Fort Matanzas National Monument, 14 miles south on A1A, you need a car. The fort itself requires a free ferry from the visitor center. That ferry runs every 30 minutes, 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Bike rentals on Anastasia Boulevard go for about $25 per day. The ride to the beach is flat and takes roughly 20 minutes. Mind you, there's no dedicated bike lane on A1A south of the bridge, and the shoulder narrows to nothing in spots. After dark, stick to Uber for anything beyond the district. The sidewalks end abruptly south of the Plaza de la Constitución, and street lighting drops off past the San Sebastian River.