Three Nights of Lights

St Augustine’s Nights of Lights is a holiday festival that runs from November to January when the entire historic district is decorated in millions of white lights, meant to represent the Spanish tradition of placing a welcoming candle in the window. I love Christmas lights and have been wanting to see the Nights of Lights for years. This year we finally got to go!  We asked our friends Ronnie and Jamie to join us since we hadn’t been on a trip together in ages.

The Nights of Lights was created 32 years ago as a way to boost tourism during the slow winter months. It worked! Maybe a little too well. :-)  With more and more people coming to the festival each year, St Augustine has had to find ways to manage the crowds and traffic jams. They started a free park-and-ride shuttle service that runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. To encourage people to use the shuttle, this year they raised the fees at the historic district’s parking garage from $20 to $40 during the shuttle hours. They also created a phone app with the shuttle lot locations, an event schedule and even a map of public restrooms.

When we got to St Augustine late on Thursday afternoon, we decided to walk around town first before heading to the Vilano Beach condo since it would be our best chance to see the city before the weekend hoards arrived. We wandered down St George Street and stopped for snacks at Prohibition Kitchen while we waited for the sun to go down. At the Plaza de la Constitución, we admired the huge Christmas tree and kept an eye out for the colored bulb hidden among all the white lights in the oak trees. The story goes that one of the workmen hanging the lights hid one red bulb in the plaza for his daughter to find, and the tradition has continued.

While Ron, Ronnie and Jamie popped into the Tradewinds Lounge for drinks, I walked on along the waterfront where all the buildings were covered in lights. The Hilton had gone with a Grinch theme this year. The Tini Martini Bar looked like a Christmas explosion. Horses clopped by pulling carriages decorated with garlands. So cool! I took a bunch of pictures and then rejoined the others so we could head on to the condo.

Plaza de la Constitución

On Friday, we had reservations for the Sunset Sail on the Schooner Freedom. The tour started at 3:45 at the municipal marina near the Bridge of Lions, so we left the condo at 1 o’clock to give ourselves plenty of time to take the shuttle into town and have a late lunch before the tour. We parked at the San Marco lot, then boarded a large bus which dropped us off at the visitor center near the old city gates. Taking the shuttle was actually pretty convenient (and definitely better than paying $40 to park at the garage).

We had lunch at Casa Reina, a Mexican restaurant housed in a 120-year-old Spanish-style building on the waterfront. My paloma and chicken enchiladas were really good but Ronnie ordered the ahi tuna bowl, which looked AMAZING. I had food envy. :-)  We will definitely have to eat there again on a future trip.

It was a short walk from the restaurant to the marina where the Freedom was docked. As everyone got settled onboard, the crew (Mary, Martin and Griffin) hoisted the sails and Captain Jack guided us out of the marina and under the Bridge of Lions.

It was an absolutely beautiful evening, clear and cool with light winds. We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather for a sunset sail.  As we rode up the river to St Augustine Inlet, we could see the lighthouse on one side and the Great Cross on the other. Jamie spotted a couple of dolphins. Martin and Griffin handed out refreshments – beer, white wine or a festive mulled red wine. There was plenty of room to move around the boat, and eventually Ron made his way back to the helm where he spent the rest of the trip chatting with the captain. You could tell that Captain Jack was a true sailor and loved what he did.

On the way back to the marina, the sun went down and the crew put on Santa hats. We cruised slowly along with waterfront so that everyone had a good view of the city lit up in lights. What a fantastic tour!

By the time we got off the boat, we were all ready for food. (At least I was.) We figured we’d head back to Vilano Beach where it would be easier to find a restaurant without a long wait. But as we walked up St George Street on the way back to the visitor center, Ronnie suddenly disappeared into a bar. Seriously?? We went inside to retrieve him and discovered that the back door of the bar opened out to the Colonial Oak Music Park where a great band was performing under the big oak tree. So we ended up sitting at the bar and listening to the live music while we ate bowls of clam chowder from the fast casual seafood restaurant next door. That was just perfect. Thanks, Ronnie! :-)

Bridge of Lions

We didn’t have any plans for Saturday until our Lighthouse Illuminations tour that evening, so it was a lazy, relaxing day. We took a walk on the beach, ate lunch at Beaches next to the Vilano Beach fishing pier and napped on the condo balcony until it was time to leave for the tour.

Lighthouse Illuminations is a special holiday event when the lighthouse and grounds are open at night and the entire property is decorated with Christmas trees, garlands and lights. Ron and I had climbed the lighthouse a couple of times before, but we had never seen it at night and I was excited. Christmas trees and a lighthouse! Two of my favorite things. :-)

Our tickets were for 7 PM so we left the condo a little after 6 to account for traffic. Before the trip, I’d read horror stories about the traffic during Nights of Lights, but up until that point it really hadn’t been bad. Saturday was another story! Cars were backed up all the way from the roundabout on San Marco Avenue to the Bridge of Lions and moving at a snail’s pace. People darted across the road between the stopped cars. Gah!

Ronnie and Jamie had opted to bar-hop so we dropped them off in town near the Bridge of Lions and drove on to Anastasia Island. After the chaos in town, the lighthouse grounds were a welcome oasis. There were 25 Christmas trees set up in the lighthouse keeper’s house and other buildings, each with a different theme. One tree was decorated with nostalgic toys. Others were dedicated to shrimping, sailing, Old Florida and the Victoria era. There was even a ghost tree honoring the St Augustine Lighthouse’s haunted past. The staff had created a scavenger hunt with a list of items to find. “I have a flamboyance of flamingos tucked among my needles. What tree am I?” After we had explored all the buildings, I climbed the 219 steps to the top of the lighthouse for a beautiful view of the lights of the historic district glowing in the distance.

It was a great trip. I loved trying new restaurants and bars with our friends, seeing the lighthouse at night and especially the sunset sail. St Augustine is a fascinating and fun place to visit any time of year, but being there for the Nights of Lights was extra special – a perfect start to the Christmas season.

Travel tips: Yes, it is crowded but you can avoid the worst with some planning.

• • Go on a weekday, if you can. We arrived on Thursday and it wasn’t bad at all, but by Saturday it was a zoo.
• • Don’t waste time and clog up the roads trying to find a parking spot in town. The park-and-ride shuttles are free and convenient.
• • Download the Nights of Lights app. It tells you how many open spots there are in the parking garage and also lists the shuttle locations and schedule.
• • Taking a tour is a great way to see the lights away from the crowds. I loved the Lighthouse Illuminations tour and our sunset sail on Schooner Freedom!

The 2025-26 Nights of Lights runs until January 11.