Minutes from the Beach

With more than 40 miles of pristine natural beaches, St. Augustine offers an oceanfront refuge like none other. These are the same beaches that stopped Ponce de Leon in his tracks in 1513, the same beaches hotly contested by the British and the Spanish for ages, the same beaches on which the Timucuan Indians once made their home. Today, it’s the natural stop for surfers, sunbathers, anyone looking for a respite from studying and a good walk. Travel time from downtown campus to shore break? Five minutes, tops.

Flagler College students enjoy easy access to St. Augustine Beach and Crescent Beach to the south, as well as Vilano Beach and the pristine natural enclave of Guana River State Park to the north. In Guana, 40-foot sand dunes tell an ecological story of days gone by. In Anastasia State Park, just minutes from downtown, visitors enjoy camping, nature trails, beach time, water sports, and an archaeological site where coquina rock was mined to create the nearby fortress, Castillo de San Marcos. The park features a broad beach, a tidal salt marsh, and maritime and upland hammock.

The natural attractions are compelling enough, but add to them the irresistible beach lifestyle that’s sprung up around St. Augustine’s coastline, and the combination is hard to beat. Surfing, windsurfing and body boarding are par for the course along all of St. Johns County’s beaches, and in St. Augustine Beach, the sporting life is complemented with a huge array of casual eateries and hangouts, making the beach scene the place to be on warm weekend nights.