What should I avoid in St. Augustine?

The single biggest waste of money in St. Augustine is the hop-on-hop-off trolley. Old Town Trolley charges $35 per adult for a loop through a historic district that measures roughly 12 blocks north to south. You can walk from the Castillo de San Marcos to the Lighthouse and Maritime Museum in about 25 minutes. The narration is heavy on Flagler-era lore and light on anything you couldn't read on the free plaques bolted to every other building. To be fair, if mobility is a concern, it makes sense. For everyone else, $35 buys a better afternoon. Spend it on admission to the Castillo de San Marcos ($15) and lunch on Avilés Street, and you'll still have change. The city also runs a free downtown shuttle that the trolley companies don't mention.

St. George Street is the pedestrian spine of the old city, and most first-time visitors end up eating there because it's right in front of them. That's the problem. The restaurants with hostesses stationed outside tend to charge $18-22 for fish tacos that taste like they came off the same Sysco truck. The fudge shops pump vanilla-scented air onto the sidewalk, and the fudge is fine, but $8 for a quarter-pound is about double what you'd pay elsewhere. Walk two blocks east to Avilés Street and the food gets noticeably better. Collage on Hypolita Street does a duck confit for around $32 that's worth a detour. For breakfast, skip the St. George Street cafes and head to The Floridian on Spanish Street, where the shrimp and grits run about $16 and use local Mayport shrimp.

The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park on Magnolia Avenue charges $21 for what amounts to a 1950s-era roadside attraction with a garden, a few peacocks, and a spigot dispensing mineral water that tastes like warm eggs. The park's connection to Ponce de León is, at best, circumstantial. Ripley's Believe It or Not occupies a striking Moorish Revival building on San Marco Avenue, but it's the same chain content you'd find in Gatlinburg or Branson. Potter's Wax Museum next door has figures that look like they were sculpted in 1985. Mind you, the Alligator Farm on Anastasia Island is a different story. It has operated since 1893 and holds every living species of crocodilian. The rookery boardwalk alone, suspended over nesting wood storks and basking alligators, is worth the $30 admission.

St. Augustine currently has at least 20 ghost tour operators, and the quality gap between the best and worst is wide. Look for tours that cap groups at 12-15 people and run $20-25 per person. The worst are the $15 Groupon deals that pack 30 people onto a sidewalk while a guide reads from index cards under a phone flashlight. If you go, book the 8pm or 9pm slot. The 6pm tours happen in full daylight, which defeats the atmosphere. Parking catches visitors off guard too. The Historic Downtown Parking Facility on Cordova Street ($15 per day) fills by 10am on weekends from March through October. Street meters along Avilés and Charlotte run $1.50 per hour with a 3-hour limit. Park at the lot north of the City Gate on San Marco Avenue and walk south. It takes about 8 minutes.

June through September is hot. Not warm. Hot. Afternoon temperatures currently reach 33-35°C (91-95°F) with humidity above 80%, and thunderstorms roll in almost daily between 2pm and 5pm. The coquina walls of the Castillo radiate stored heat well into evening. No-see-ums, the tiny biting midges, swarm the bayfront at dusk from May through October. They'll find any exposed skin. Bring repellent with DEET, not the citronella stuff. Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. St. Augustine took significant flooding from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 and again from Hurricane Ian in September 2022, both of which put parts of downtown under several feet of water.