Need Info St Augustine/Vilano Beach Area

LargoLori

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
843
I'm hoping someone is familiar with these two beaches. I have hotel reservations for the Casa Del Mar on Vilano Beach in early August. I was reading a trip report stating that Vilano Beach is under major construction. Is anyone familiar with this? Should we stay on St Augustine Beach instead? Thanks in advance for any info!!

Lori
 
We've stayed on St Augustine beach twice, once at the Holiday Inn and once at the Hampton Inn. Two years ago there was alot of reconstruction down by the pier. I'd recommend both of these hotels. Also recommend the restaurant across the street from the Hampton Inn, A1A something? Great family bar/grill type place. Also recommend Rita's ice/custard after a hot day. YUM!
 
Thank you for your info and recommendations. I am checking out both hotels. Lori
 

After storms there is always work on the beaches in the area. If you are driving the distance between Vilano and Anastasia Island (where the St.Augustine beaches are) is not very far. The motels are all clean and nice, expecially the chain motels. For restaurants see Conch House (atmosphere), A1A Ale House (excitement), Osteens (Shrimp), Raintree (great food*****) and Caps (the sunsets). All have good food, but the other features are listed. The best beach in town is Crescent at the far end of Anastasia. but they are all good in the area. Have a great time. We love tourists.
 
Hi, not really what you're looking for, but I thought I'd paste this stuff that I kept about St Augustine and Daytona just in case. We stayed with the inlaws when we were in St. Augustine so I don't know much about the hotels. We did stay in Anastasia Condos a long time ago and they were nice. Hope this helps. Have fun!

Besides the guided city tours, haunted tours and the "oldest" school, house, jail...everything tours, LOL, and the great shopping in the quaint stores along the cobble stone streets, we've done

The Alligator Farm which is fun. We liked Gator Land in Orlando a little more.
http://www.alligatorfarm.com/

We've done this chocolate factory tour. It's free and only takes about 45 minutes.
http://www.whetstonechocolates.com/

Loved this winery. They had some wonderful homemade grape juice for the kids too.
http://www.sansebastianwinery.com/

We haven't taken the lighthouse tour yet, but it looks like one of the most picturesque ones.
http://www.staugustinelighthouse.com/

Marine Land is now closed, and that's a good thing. Hopefully they will refurbish it. It has a lot of neat history, but it was not worth the money.

This cruise was a blast. We saw some dolphins and the captain let ds steer the boat for quite awhile.
http://www.scenic-cruise.com/

There are tons of neat little restaurants in town, but one of our favorites is Harry's, it's a lot like Pat O'Brian's. We like to sit in the courtyard.
http://www.hookedonharrys.com/

Creekside Dinery has great seafood and a nice outside deck with a fire pit. Owned by the same people as Salt Water Cowboys, but this place seems a little less touristy.
http://www.creeksidedinery.com/rest.html

The Oasis is a casual place, good for breakfast
http://www.worldfamousoasis.com/

The Sunset Grill is pretty good
http://www.sunsetgrillea1a.com/

My favorite is The Beachcomer, which doesn't have a website, but it's an itty bitty barefoot picnic table type of place right on the beach, and it's a fun place to get some oysters or peel and eat shrimp.



Daytona Beach

For hotels, the Hilton
http://www.daytonahilton.com/contactus.htm

and the Ocean Walk Resort, which has 2 indoor pools and the outdoor pool has a lazy river, a slide and a great kiddie pool with it's own slides and tunnels, etc.
http://www.oceanwalk.com/

which has the Ocean Walk village connected to it with restaurants and a movie theater. It's so nice to have everything within walking distance.
http://www.oceanwalkvillage.com/home.html

We've also stayed at a LaQuinta about a mile South from the boardwalk, small, clean, easy to park near your room, nice heated pool...we live in GA so we go for weekends in the winter sometimes.

The speedway is fun. It has been awhile, but we loved taking the tour where you get to go on the track and walk on the bank
http://www.daytonaintlspeedway.com/

Marine Science Center and a chocolate factory.
http://echotourism.com/msc/
http://www.angellandphelps.com/

We love the Marine Science Center, quaint, personal, great for little ones.

The lighthouse at Ponce Inlet is neat
http://www.ponceinlet.org/

and there is a nice restaurant there called Down the Hatch where you can watch sailboats and the most beautiful sun sets and another called The Inlet Harbor
http://www.inletharbor.com/

We love to just walk around the board walk, eat taffy, ride the go-carts, play in the arcades and sit on the pier at the outdoor restaurant. It has that tacky old carnival feel to it, but it's fun. There's music on the weekends at the BandShell next to the pier, but we've always missed it.
http://virtualvolusia.com/Pier1.html
http://www.bandshell.org/

There is a new water park that just opened that we haven't been to yet
http://daytonalagoon.com/

There's also a dog track there. When we go with extended family, the guys like to get together and go. It's a little seedy, LOL.
http://www.dbkennelclub.com/information.htm

Our favorite restaurant is the Ocean Deck. It has a great view of the ocean.
http://www.oceandeck.com/

The Oyster Pub is a sports bar, great for snacks, and if you're looking for somewhere to watch your "can't miss" football game. (They have a room and big screen just for Steelers fans, it's a blast!) The website is under construction
http://www.oysterpub.com/

For breakfast Steve's Famous Diner is good,

Billy's Tap Room (a little pricey but excellent0 and Aunt Catfishs is very casual, great with kids. http://www.billys-tap.com/
http://www.auntcatfish.com/


Have fun!
 
We were just in St Augustine over Easter break. I had ressies at Casa Del Mar and switched to the Hampton Inn St. Aug Beach and I'm glad I did. Casa Del Mar looks nice but there was a lot of construction (think major mess) surrounding the hotel itself. We really loved being in St. Augustine Beach. The beach was huge and beautiful. We were away from town but it was just a short drive. If you choose the Hampton, there is a great ice cream place right next door. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.
 


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