Forty miles north of Daytona Beach, Hwy-1 passes through the heart of ST AUGUSTINE . Few places in Florida are as immediately engaging as this old city, with the size and even some of the looks of a small Mediterranean town. The oldest permanent settlement in the US, with much from its early days still intact along its narrow streets, it also offers two alluring lengths of beach just across the bay.

Ponce de León touched ground here in 1513, but European settlement began when Spain's Pedro Menéndez de Avilés put ashore on St Augustine's Day in 1565. Sir Francis Drake's ships razed the town in 1586, the first of many battles before Florida was eventually ceded to Britain in 1763. By then the town was a major social and administrative center, soon to be capital of east Florida. Subsequently, Tallahassee became the capital of a unified Florida, and St Augustine's fortunes waned. Expansion largely bypassed the town - a fact inadvertently facilitating the restoration program that has turned this quiet community into a fine historical showcase

St Augustine

• St Augustine
• Arrival, information and getting around
• Eating and drinking

Explore St Augustine

• Old Town
• St Augustine's beaches

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