Fort Matanzas National Monument — Attraction in Palm Coast

First of all, be aware of two things:

1. the free boat trip is likely to be cancelled in the event of heavy rain or storm, and
2. once you get to the fort, it is much smaller than what you might expect (if you have been to Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine and other forts). That being said, I loved the experience, which was completely free of charge, although donations are suggested. As someone else mentioned, the lady at the counter may seem unfriendly at first, but actually she is extremely helpful and will answer any questions you have. Lots of people visit and the room, also the souvenir shop, is rather small. Next door, there is a video with some of the history of the fort. Fort Matanzas took its name from the slaughters of more than 800 French soldiers, most of which were actually killed in a shipwreck back in the 16th century, and the rest by Spanish soldiers helped by a large number of Native Americans. 7 soldiers from the Spanish army were assigned to the fort, whose primary mission was to guard the backdoor to St Augustine, a few miles north. It was built in 1740, but the park ranger told us the first outpost was in a different location in the river that dates back to the 1600's. The short boat trip that takes you across the river Matanzas to the fort is free, and ran every hour today (Sunday, see times on pictures attached), you need to get the tickets at the visitor center.

PS: here's an alternative 1-star review, for the damn sake of it: No offence at all intended, but please, don't be like that, give a chance to the people who are giving the best of themselves, devoted to quite a hard job in the national parks of America. A big shout out to those three amazing and knowledgeable park rangers, you're doing...

The area was very nice and the staff was friendly too! Parking is FREE in the connected lot and there are bathrooms, a water fountain with bottle refill station, and some vending machines right off of the parking lot. There is also a nature trail you can walk to from the parking lot along with a few beach access spots on the Matanzas river. Walking up to the National Park Building where you get tickets there are signs with info about the ferry departure schedule (which you need to take to the national monument), park hours, and more. They also have historical info about the Fort and surrounding area as well. The signage at the park clearly explains that there are ferry departures 6 times a day (every hour starting at 9:30am). However, the staff explained to me that you need to show up early to get tickets for a specific time because they “sell out” fast (tickets are FREE). He said some days they can be gone by Noon or earlier. He also said that they don’t run ferries on Monday or Tuesday. This was very disappointing to hear because unless you are staying on St. Augustine beach, this park is not a close drive from you. In addition, it makes it very challenging to plan for a trip here when you don’t know what time your ferry will be until you arrive and see what tickets are left. Personally, I think they need to go to an online system or something a bit more environmentally friendly than telling people to drive to the park to get tickets, leave (although you can technically stay and use the nature trail but that only occupies a bit of time), and then drive back to use the ferry at that ticketed time. Really seems counterproductive! Also, not sure why they stop the ferry at 3:30pm if the monument and park technically stay open until 5:30pm. It is not a large monument and really shouldn’t require more than 45-minutes maximum to tour. We toured the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument which is much larger and it only took about an hour. Overall the grounds and people were nice, but the ferry situation and monument hours were...

Tiny but awesome little Fort in Flagler County, FL.

We have visited Crescent Beach on several occasions to take the ferry to Fort Matanzas, but for one reason or another, we were always unable to. However, on May 4th 2022 our luck would change and we finally were able to secure tickets for the ferry to the Fort. It was definitely worth the wait, and the repeated trips (as Crescent Beach, Fort Matanzas National Park, and the Palm Coast Villas are all very amazing places in their own right).

We boarded the ferry after a 20 minute wait, in which we used to walk around the nature trail again, and then we arrived at Fort Matanzas within minutes! It's a very brief ferry ride. Once on the grounds of the Fort, you have an hour to explore it and spend time seeing everything. An hour is more than enough time, as the Fort is not very big at all. We've visited several forts during our travels, and Fort Matanzas is, by far, the smallest we'd ever seen. It is still a very cool place to visit though, don't let its small stature fool you.

It was a beautiful day in May and not very hot. The ferry was filled to capacity (maybe 30 guests max), and we took our time and explored the entire Fort and surrounding grounds.

All in all, we were very happy we finally got to actually make it TO the actual Fort and had a very good time. We will probably return, as we have made it a habit to always book a room at the Palm Coast Villas on every trip to Florida now, and we have fallen in love with the Villas and with the beaches and area surrounding them. So we'll be back.

I can't recommend taking the hour trip enough. If you enjoy history and/or forts, then definitely make this a stop on...