St. Augustine, Florida — A Town Where Time Slows Down 🏝️

📍 Located on the northeast coast of Florida, St. Augustine is known as “the oldest city in the U.S.” It’s said that Spanish colonists first landed here, giving the entire town a familiar, warm Spanish vibe 🇪🇸. White walls and red roofs are its signature style 🏠. 🚗 We drove from Jacksonville — about 1 hour. From Orlando, it’s around 2 hours. Parking downtown is tricky — many lots are private. Recommend street parking in nearby residential areas (check carefully if it’s paid or free!) 🅿️⚠️ 🎈 The town is quite small — you can easily walk everywhere. If you have time, chill at a seaside restaurant or bar all afternoon ☀️🍹. If just passing through, 2-3 hours of strolling is enough. Walking along the coast, I almost felt like I was back in Shenzhen! 🌊👣 🚶‍♀️ Highly recommend visiting Flagler College — I call it the Muggle version of Gryffindor 🦁 (their logo is even a lion!). It’s a private college and one of the most beautiful campuses I’ve ever seen. Sunlight filtering through the arches onto red-brick walls… can you imagine studying here? 😍📚 🥗 The main street downtown is packed with restaurants, cafés, souvenir shops, and ice cream stores — but also crowds of tourists. We chose Sunday for brunch near the visitor center. Sadly, it was underwhelming — overly salty smoked salmon ☕, burnt-tasting coffee, and a mandatory 3.5% “kitchen appreciation fee” 💸 on top of tips. We also passed Juniper Market Café which looked cute — but don’t be fooled by a slightly higher Google rating! 👀💥 #SlowTravel #StAugustine #FloridaLife #HistoricTowns #TravelDiary #HiddenGems #Wanderlust