St. Augustine-worth the time and money?

[DIS B]

We are planning on going to St. Augustine and then to WDW this summer. I've done some research and I think I have it narrowed down to two resorts/hotels. The price difference between the two is about $100 a night. The Casa Monica Hotel looks romantic and lovely. The Renaissance at Golf Village is bright and newly remodeled, but not as romantic. It is the cheaper of the two. Has anyone stayed at either hotel or have other input?

We know we want to a ghost tour, but don't know what other things are a must-see/do. I've been to the outlet mall before (but never stayed in the city).

We are only planning to spend about 2-3 nights there. Also, I am a hotel snob and will hopefully be about 6 weeks pregnant when we go.

Thanks for any input or advice you can give.

 

[cjnix29]

can't say much for hotels, haven't stayed there. But I loved St. Augustine when we went. Only spent a day there though. We did a dolphin cruise. That was great. Have fun!

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

I LOVE St. Augustine. We usually stay the night there on the way to Disney. It's full of history and there is a great fort and you can also visit the Fountain of Youth! There is a Ripleys Museum, you can take carriage rides thru town.
It's a very charming town. Across from the fort is an outdoor shopping area that we always go to, but I can't remember the name of it. I think you will love it.

 

[mantaz]

Love St. Augustine too! We enjoy the Alligator Farm, done the dolphin cruise, ghost tour is a must and I will never sleep in town! Loved eating at Santa Maria's and feeding the fish, there is also the Fort. It's been 3 yrs since we have been there but the beach was lovely too. I like a nice flat beach and little to no seaweed. Water was great too. We were there at the end of July.

 

[LargoLori]

Yes, it is so worth it. We stayed at St. George Inn which is downtown St. Augustine right on St. George street. It was fabulous!!! We were within walking distance for just about everything. We originally booked the Casa Monica and am so glad we changed our minds. Nothing like being in the heart of the city.

Lori

 

[TallyTutter]

LOVE St. Augustine! Best choice is to stay in the old city. Casa Monica is in the old city. The Renaissance at Golf Village is a good drive away from the old city. The shopping is much better in the old city, the outlets (that are about 6 miles from the Golf Village) is very pricey. The Golf Village is a Renaissance hotel next to a golf resort - nice but not a St. Augustine experience per say.

My recommendation - stay in the old city, whether it is at the Casa Monica or another smaller place like the St. George Inn. Walking in the old city after the tourist leave is wonderful!! Also, a MUST is going to Santa Maria's for dinner. Make sure you get a seat by the window so you can feed the fish - you'll never forget that experience!!

 

[LargoLori]

LOVE St. Augustine! Best choice is to stay in the old city. Casa Monica is in the old city. The Renaissance at Golf Village is a good drive away from the old city. The shopping is much better in the old city, the outlets (that are about 6 miles from the Golf Village) is very pricey. The Golf Village is a Renaissance hotel next to a golf resort - nice but not a St. Augustine experience per say.

My recommendation - stay in the old city, whether it is at the Casa Monica or another smaller place like the St. George Inn. Walking in the old city after the tourist leave is wonderful!! Also, a MUST is going to Santa Maria's for dinner. Make sure you get a seat by the window so you can feed the fish - you'll never forget that experience!!

You are right. I was confusing Casa Monica with another hotel on St. Augustine Beach.

 

[Golf4food]

The Casa Monica is the premier hotel in St. Augustine. It is on par or better than a Disney Deluxe hotel. You won't regret it.

What you would regret is eating at the Santa Maria, contrary to what other people here might be saying. Holy crap is it a rip off. The most overpriced, under-quality seafood restaurant in St. Augustine by far. It sits on stilts in the river and you can open little hatches at the side of the tables along the walls and drop food into the water and fish swarm to eat it. Other than that the food is not very good, the prices are crazy expensive for what you get, and the decor is as cheesy as the worst seafood place you can possibly imagine. There are SOOOOOOOOOOOO many better seafood places in St. Augustine. Please, for the love of God, don't short change yourself and set foot into the Santa Maria. I could name of at least a half-dozen better seafood places in the city that are classier, tastier, and not overpriced. Feed the fish on your own and leave the restaurant out of it.

PM me if you want other places to go. We live nearby and visit St. Aug frequently. It is one of my favorite places on Earth. If our jobs weren't further away we'd probably move to St. Aug proper instead of just taking day trips all the time. It is just fantastic.

I would not recommend staying at the World Golf Village - it is 20-30 minutes away from actual St. Augustine no matter what their marketing (ie professional lies) tells you. It's a great place to visit if you love golf, but not convenient to old St. Augustine at all.

The other mainstream option for downtown St. Augustine is the Hilton waterfront, which actually has a better view than the Casa Monica, but is not quite as nice.

 

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

Hi

I live here in St Augustine although I am about to move to Orlando at the end of next week.

If the hotel is important to you, I would suggest choosing the Casa Monica over the WGV Renaissance. Both hotels are lovely but in reality, Renaissance is pretty generic. It is not super close to old St Augustine either - although you can drive there in approx 15 -20 min you then have the issue of parking which can be difficult in St Augustine on some days.

Casa Monica is in the middle of the city. A great experience that you will remember !

Enjoy your visit to our area!

 

[TonyTigger]

We usually stop by St. Augustine on our yearly trip to Disneyworld. We stay at Grande Villas (bluegreen) at the World Golf Village because we have 7 people and we can get a 3 bedroom villa at a good price. Having said that, if you can afford the $100 difference I would stay in the historic district of St. Augustine. Btw...the Disney outlet at St. Augustine is a must!

 

[Planogirl]

Make sure that you visit the Spanish fort. It's amazing. The old lighthouse is cool too and quite haunted or so they say. Plus there are nice beaches and it's fun to just walk around and see the old buildings and shop a bit.

We really enjoyed St Augustine.

 

[Jennifer823]

We've stayed at the Casa Monica, it's a beautiful hotel. Supposedly haunted too! I'd stay here again. It's right in the center of town, across the street from Flagler College. You can walk to everything from here, we did. About being a hotel snob... DH works in the industry and is very critical of hotels, and he loved the Casa Monica.

Don't miss the fort! We were last in St. Augustine on Halloween - camped at Anastasia State Park (which is AWESOME if you're into camping!) and went out after dark to walk around town, took some "ghostly" pictures

There is also a working "Spanish village" right in town, don't remember the name of it.. but it's a lot like Williamsburg, VA. People dress in period clothing, explain how things were done. Great experience, especially with kids. If you have a AAA card there's a discount!

 

[bnhasak]

Most romantic and best hotel we ever stayed at was the Casa Monica. We stayed over Christmas in 2002 and still think of it as the best Christmas ever.

Gorgeous town definitely worth it.

 

[disneymom2one]

We just got back from a short visit. We stayed at a B & B right in the middle of things.

We liked:
- the fact that you could walk everywhere
- our admissions tour at Flagler College (we have a teenager)
- the Castillo de San Marcos (hope I got that right)
- the Lighthouse
- the trolley tour

We were there two days and felt like we saw everything we wanted to see.

 

[tessieg]

Another vote for Casa Monica rather than World Golf Village. WGV is just too far away and has a completely different vibe. I lived an hour from ST. AUg most of my life and have done most of the attractions. I would recommend strolling on St George Street(there is a pizza place there called Pizza Time and it is awesome pizza and then there is a great candy/ice cream shop--you'll smell the wonderful aromas!). Castillo de San Marcos is a must. I also love Mission de Nombre de Dios which is the Catholic mission started by Spanish priests..many gravesites are there. There is a beautiful little chapel and it is a peaceful pretty place to walk through and see a bit of history, as well as the intercoastal. The ghost tours are fun!
Have a great trip!

 

[Disney845]

Another vote for St. Augustine, although I can not personally comment on either hotel.

There is so much to see/do if you are the least bit interested in historical sites. As others have mentioned, the fort, the lighthouse, the hop-on-hop-off trolley tours, the old schoolhouse, George St. There are some great historic cemeteries. I personally don't enjoy the Fountain of Youth (you couldn't pay me to drink the water let alone charge me). They have a Ripley's Believe it or Not, which is cheesy good fun if you don't mind the tourist priced admission (I like the setting better than the I-Drive location but have never compared it to any others around the country). The Lightner Museum is very nice, I even attended a wedding in their courtyard area once which was lovely.

- our admissions tour at Flagler College (we have a teenager)

Flagler is beautiful. I seriously considered it when I was looking into FL colleges (I wrote a research paper on Henry Morrison Flagler and his economic contributions to the development of FL when I was younger and fell in love with the architecture during a research trip!), but ended up going elsewhere. Now one of my co-worker's daughter attends Flagler. She just completed her first year a couple weeks ago and LOVES it!!

 

[digitalsiren]

A vote for visiting St. Augustine here too! I can't make hotel recommendations as I live too close but it is absolute must see, especially at night. If you are into museums and such you may consider going to Villa Zorayda ... I put it off for two years but when I finally went I thought it was amazing! Also, visit the San Sebastian Winery. It's not a vineyard or anything, but they give a free tour with some samplings of their yummy Floridian wine (I like the Vintner's Red.)

 

[MN Vikings Fan]

We love St. Augustine and always take a day trip there when we're at DW. We haven't stayed at any of their resorts or hotels so I can't recommend a place to stay, however. We love the hop on/hop off trolley and if you get a good driver, you'll learn a lot about St. Augustine and be very well entertained too. Walking down St. George St. is a lot of fun. It's a definite from us.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We like St. Augustine. We prefer to stay right on the beach so we stayed at a La Quinta Inn I believe. We had a short walk on a boardwalk between a couple of houses and we were at the beach.

We liked the Fountain of Youth, The alligator park, the light house, the Castilla De San Marcos (fort).

We haven't done any ghost tours yet. The kids were too young when we went.