Climbing the Lighthouse: Where to Stay for Two

If the lighthouse is the reason you're coming, start with one practical fact: you can't walk there from downtown, and no bus will take you. The tower stands on Anastasia Island, across the Bridge of Lions, about three miles southeast of the old city. It's a ten-minute drive, and parking at the museum is free. That single detail reshapes the whole booking decision, because it means a one-bedroom in the Historic District works perfectly well as a lighthouse base, so long as you've brought a car and know where you're putting it overnight.

We manage several places in St. Augustine, and five of them work well for a couple or a small group. All five sit downtown, within a few minutes' walk of each other. Here's how I'd choose between them for a trip built around 219 steps and a shipwreck gallery.

The five downtown options, and what separates them

Four are at Pomar House on Cuna Street; one is on St. George Street itself. All are apartments, all sleep two or three, all on second floors reached by stairs. The differences are small but they decide things.

• Historic St. Augustine Balcony Suite with Parking is on St. George Street, with the Oldest Wooden School House and the City Gates right there. King bed, private balcony over the street, an oversized desk facing the same view, and a parking permit for the Tolomato lot at 7 Cordova Street. Highest-rated place we have.
• Suite One at Pomar House is the two-bedroom in the building, with a spacious balcony over the historic district. The second room is set up with sofa beds, which makes it the right call for four people or for a couple who wants a proper living space and a full kitchen rather than a kitchenette. Same coffee deal at The Modern Rose downstairs.
• Cozy St. Augustine Apartment: Perfect for Couples is Suite Two at Pomar House. King bed, kitchenette with a mini fridge and microwave, washer and dryer in the unit, and a bathroom count that surprises people for a one-bedroom.
• St. Augustine Apartment: Walk to Historic Sites! is Suite Three. One bedroom, two bathrooms, sleeps three, and the same walkable position two blocks from the Plaza.
• Downtown St Augustine Suite, Walk to the Plaza is Suite Four. King bed plus a sofa bed, sleeps three, and a short walk from St. George Street and the Plaza.

All four Pomar House suites have The Modern Rose on the ground floor. Tell the staff you're staying upstairs and your coffee is free with any food order, which is a better arrangement than most hotel breakfasts and about thirty seconds from your door.

The Cuna Street suites don't have dedicated parking, so you'll use the Historic Downtown Parking Facility two blocks away at 1 Cordova Street, subject to availability. The driveway is yours for unloading bags. The St. George suite's permit is specific to that unit and that lot.

Why the parking permit matters more on this trip than on most

Because you're going to be driving back and forth across the Bridge of Lions. A couple who spends a morning climbing the tower, then an afternoon at Anastasia State Park next door, then comes back downtown for dinner, is moving a car twice a day in a city where parking downtown is genuinely tight. Visitors routinely end up walking twenty minutes from whatever space they find.

The St. George Street suite hands you a permit on arrival and tells you exactly where to use it. For a lighthouse-centred trip, I'd book that one first. The desk by the window is a bonus if one of you is working a day of the trip, but the permit is the thing you'll actually thank yourself for on day two.

A lighthouse day that's worth the drive

The tower rises 165 feet and the climb is 219 steps, no elevator. Give the site an hour and a half to two hours if you want to do it properly, which means the museum, the keeper's house, and the shipyard where the boat builders and maritime archaeologists work. Those people will talk to you if you ask, and that conversation is the part most visitors remember. Nature trails and a cafe on site. Open daily from nine, last tickets in the early evening, with the cutoff shifting between summer and winter. Check the museum's visitor page for current hours, tickets and climbing conditions before you go, because they move with the season.

Anastasia State Park is minutes away on the same island, and you can see the lighthouse from inside it. Near the entrance a short trail runs back to the coquina quarry that supplied the stone for the fort downtown. Walk that first, then go look at Castillo de San Marcos, and the whole city makes more sense: the same shell rock, pulled out of the island, stacked into a fortress.

From any of the downtown one-bedrooms, the Castillo is an easy walk. The grounds and the seawall paths open at half five in the morning, long before the fort itself, which is the best hour for anyone who likes a quiet bayfront and a camera. Allow one to three hours for the fort depending on how much of the ramparts you want. The Colonial Quarter and the Pirate & Treasure Museum are also downtown, close enough to fold into the same walking afternoon.

Picking between the four Pomar House suites

For two people, Suite Two. The king bed, the in-unit washer and dryer, and the extra bathroom make a week there comfortable in a way that's hard to explain until you've lived with one bathroom in a rental. Guests rate it accordingly.

Suite Three is another solid pick for a couple or a small group of three: two bathrooms, one bedroom, and the same two-blocks-from-the-Plaza position.

Suite Four earns its place when there are three of you, or when someone wants to be downtown through December. During Nights of Lights you park once and do the rest on foot. That's the whole trick to that season.

Suite One is the two-bedroom. If there are four of you, or if you're a couple who wants a proper kitchen and a balcony to sit on in the evenings, this is the one. The second room has sofa beds, the kitchen has an oven rather than a kitchenette, and the balcony looks out over the historic district. Same coffee deal downstairs, same stairs up.

Other places worth the drive from your downtown base

The lighthouse isn't the only reason you'll get in the car. Several of the best things to do around St. Augustine require one, and being based in the Historic District means you can leave it parked and walk to most of what you want, then drive out when you need to.

St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park is on Anastasia Island, close to the lighthouse. It's been here since 1893 and it's genuinely worth a few hours: every species of crocodilian in the world, a rookery of wading birds nesting directly above the alligator enclosures, and a zip line if you want it. Ten minutes from downtown across the Bridge of Lions.

The beaches are on Anastasia Island too. St. Augustine Beach is the closest, about fifteen minutes from the historic district. Anastasia State Park has four miles of undeveloped beach with no high-rises behind it, plus the coquina quarry trail that connects the island's geology directly to the fort walls you walked past downtown. If you go to the lighthouse in the morning, the beach is a natural second stop on the same drive.

Marineland Dolphin Adventure is about eighteen miles south on A1A, a half-hour drive down the coast. It's the oldest oceanarium in the world, opened in 1938, and the dolphin encounter programs are the draw. Worth combining with a drive down the coast if you have a free afternoon.

Fort Matanzas National Monument is fourteen miles south of the city, also on A1A. A free ferry takes you across the Matanzas Inlet to a small coquina fort built by the Spanish in 1742 to guard the southern approach to St. Augustine. The crossing takes a few minutes, the fort is compact, and the whole visit runs about an hour and a half. It's the quieter, less-visited counterpart to the Castillo, and the two together tell the full story of how the Spanish held this coast.

All four of these are car trips, none of them long. The pattern is the same as the lighthouse: drive out, spend a few hours, come back to the historic district for dinner. That's the argument for staying downtown rather than on the island. You're not choosing between the city and the coast; you're using the city as a base and driving to the coast when you want it.

Before you book

Three things to square away. Confirm your dates with us directly rather than assuming a unit is free, because the downtown one-bedrooms move fast in spring and in December. Check the lighthouse's own site for hours and climbing on the day you plan to go. And be clear with yourself about the stairs: all three downtown suites are second-floor walk-ups with no lift, which suits most people fine and rules the trip out for some.

We're locally owned and independently operated, we've been doing this here for more than twenty years, and every home is inspected between stays and cleaned to hotel standard. You book direct with us and you get local support from the first message, with someone reachable around the clock. If you're not sure which of the five fits your trip, say what you're planning and we'll tell you which one we'd put you in.