Welcome to Your Key to St. Augustine Living. I am Kim Devlin and if you are new to my channel, welcome! Make sure you subscribe below so you don’t miss any of my weekly videos. Today we’re going to be discussing what I love and what I don’t love so much about living in St. Augustine, Florida, so let’s start with what I don’t like so much about living in St. Augustine, Florida. The first one is going to be an obvious and that is July, August, and September. It’s the summer months here, it’s Florida and it’s hot. If you’re spending your summer months here expect to be spending a lot of time in the air conditioning because that’s what we do during the day, it is just too hot. If you want to exercise outside, you have to get out there early in the morning or in the evening, the one positive is we do have the ocean breezes so it is much nicer up here than it would be let’s say in Orlando or even Tampa which is on the Gulf, those ocean breezes do make a difference. Second, would be the humidity. Forget about having a good hair day, just plan to put you hair up in a bun, wear a hat on your head, or hold an umbrella to shade yourself. It doesn’t matter, the good thing is St. Augustine is really laid back and no one cares. Third would be the no-seemus, those tiny little bugs that you do not see. They bite you without you knowing and all of a sudden you feel like you have the chicken pox because the bites don’t go away. They are especially bad if you are next to the mangroves or the marshes.
The last thing that I do not love so much about living in St. Augustine is that because we are the oldest city in the country founded in 1565. So there’s a lot of history here and vacationers love that. We have a lot of tourists about 10 months out of the year. We have made a lot of lists, best place to retire, best beaches, best place to vacation, so we’ve been found and tourists have come in droves, which is great for the local economy and the businesses, but it causes a lot of traffic. For the locals, that just needs to get from point A to point B, for work or to run errands, it can be difficult.
With that being said, now I am going to tell you what I do love about living in St. Augustine, Florida. and of course, it’s that we are the oldest city in the nation. I love the history, the architecture, the cobblestone streets, the little cottages and historic neighborhoods. You could spend all day just walking around and taking it in. It really is just wonderful to be surrounded by all of it. We have some great museums, shops and restaurants. It is considered the city of St. Augustine, but it’s really a feel of a larger historic town. The other thing I love about living in St. Augustine Florida is that it’s pet friendly and is one of the reasons why I moved here. I am a dog lover and I volunteer with a local animal rescue. I donate to this animal rescue with every home I sell and it’s really important to me to be able to bring my dog with me places and on adventures. The beaches are dog friendly, they just have to be leashed. They have dog parks you could bring your dog to, some restaurants that are pet friendly, and even bars that your dog are welcome at. There’s even a cat cafe where you could bring your cat apparently. So cat lovers, you could take your cat with you and go have a cup of coffee. How cool is that?! So if you are a pet person, it’s kind of cool that you could bring your little sidekick with you and have a little adventure and not have to worry about it.
One of the coolest things about St. Augustine is the live music, there are lots of venues here. One of my favorites is the amphitheater now called The Amp. It’s an outdoor venue with cover so there is some protection from the elements but it’s just a cool venue. Every seat’s a good seat, they all have food trucks, some drinks and really chill vibe. Really good bands come to that venue, which is awesome. In September, not this year because of COVID, they do sing out loud festival and it’s free all September. We have the Colonial Oak music venue down on st. George Street and most of the bars and restaurants will have live music. You’ll see live music on the street, cafes, and most of it’s free. I love having access to all of that.
If you are a foodie, St. Augustine has you covered. We definitely have an urban vibe here when it comes to eateries. We have Peruvian restaurants, a lot of Latin American, Mexican which I love. Vegetarian, Steakhouses, Seafood, and Southern comfort of course. You can’t get bored here. You could probably try a new restaurant every week if you wanted. If you do love trying different restaurants, you will not get bored in St. Augustine.
This next one is for the Northerners. You will never, ever, ever have to shovel snow in st. Augustine, Florida. There is no snow here which is great because if you’re from the North, you know what it’s like to shovel the driveway and rake off the ice dams from the roof. It’s not fun and winters are long up there bu not here, they last maybe a month and a half and the weather temperatures can be anywhere from the 30’s at night to the 70’s during the day. I could probably count on one hand how many nights we have into the thirties though. It’s kind of nice to have those different temperatures that come in so if you’re a woman and you love your fall clothes, leather boots and sweaters, you will still be able to wear them in he winter in St. Augustine, because it does get chilly so don’t throw that stuff out if you moving here.
One of the other things I really do love about st. Augustine, Florida is the cost of living. It is definitely affordable here. You can get a wonderful house between 250k and 300k in a great community, a great neighborhood, or you could be walking distance to downtown.
You could be close to the beach, in a gated community with an amenity center. There’s a good range of what you can get for that amount of money and life in St. Augustine affords you the balance between work and personal life, which I think is really important.
Now that you know what I love and what I don’t love so much about St. Augustine, Florida, feel free to message me with any questions.
I thank you for tuning in, make sure you subscribe so you see my future videos and I’ll see you on the next one.
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