St. Augustine and Jacksonville

Northeast Florida preserves the earliest history of European colonization in the United States. Saint Augustine was founded in 1565 by the Spaniard Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and is the longest continuously inhabited European-founded city on the continental U.S. The historic center has narrow streets, stone and wood houses, churches and the Castillo de San Marcos, a 17th-century Spanish fort built from coquina, a stone made of shells.

At the end of the 19th century, entrepreneur Henry Flagler extended the railroad to the city and built luxury hotels in Spanish style; the main one, the Hotel Ponce de León, is now Flagler College. Across the bay, on Anastasia Island, are the black-and-white striped lighthouse and wide beaches, and farther south the small Fort Matanzas, reached by boat.

Jacksonville, about 65 km to the north, is Florida’s largest city by population and one of the largest in the United States by area. Cut by the St. Johns River, it has the Cummer Museum with riverside gardens, a large zoo, Atlantic beaches and, to the north, preserved areas such as Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island.

The climate is milder than in South Florida, with cool winters. Spring and fall are the most pleasant seasons for walking around Saint Augustine’s historic center.

This destination brings together 2 cities: Jacksonville, St. Augustine.