Today I must put aside my personal feelings about our annual holiday season in St Augustine and share all the fun and goodness that comes with Nights of Lights here. This beautiful Christmas lights display overtakes downtown St Augustine and the waterfront from mid November and into January and it’s pretty spectacular. Yes, it means that our quiet town turns into a holiday bonanza, alight with more than 3 million lights and hundreds of thousands of tourists, but it is great.
We’ve got the full scoop on what to expect with the Nights of Lights in St Augustine including the best ways to enjoys the lights, where to park, transportation available and our favorite Christmas cocktails. For all the moaning all of us that live in St Augustine do, we really do love and appreciate the holidays here. It’s pretty, fun and great for our town. If you have any questions about Nights of Lights in St Augustine or how best to enjoy the experience, please leave a comment or send us a note. We’re happy to share more and help you plan a great trip to our town.
What is Nights of Lights?
St Augustine’s Nights of Lights is a two month long festival where each night the historic downtown and all alon9 the waterfront gets lit up with the best Christmas light display in the all of Florida. The lights stretch from the Uptown neighborhood at the north end of downtown all the way to the Armory on the south end. The giant live oaks that line the Plaza de la Constitución and the palm trees throughout the historic quarter are wrapped in lights. Giant Christmas ornaments decorate the facades of different buildings and sometimes it even “snows.”
It really is fun. It’s delightful to walk along the water and enjoy the Nights of Lights displays, and if you head towards St George Street there are all kinds of fun Christmassy photo ops. I think the thing that really makes for the prettiest Christmas lights to enjoy are the displays on the St Augustine City Hall / Lightner Museum and then the stretch on Avenida Menendez from the Castillo de San Marcos to the Plaza de la Constitución. These are the two most popular spots for Christmas lights and even though we’ve seen them a thousand times, we still think they’re beautiful.
I have to warn you though, before you come to St Augustine for Nights of Lights, keep in mind that it’s going to be insanely busy. You’re typically not going to roll into town during the holiday season and have a quiet evening strolling through our historic downtown. There are nights where between 10 and 20 thousand ADDITIONAL people come to town and flood the streets for the Christmas lights. While it’s not the norm that it’s shoulder to shoulder, weekends during Nights of Lights are very much like this. But we have tips for avoiding this sort of stressful experience.
When is Nights of Lights?
St Augustine Nights of Lights begins on the third weekend of November until the second week of January. It starts getting set up in mid-October with some hotels putting up their base coat of Christmas lights and wrapping their trees and bushes, and then the wreaths and ornaments start to show up. By the time it’s Light Up night (first Friday of Nights of Lights) everything is ready to go and downtown St Augustine is set to be the prettiest holiday town in Florida.
While not every night includes live music and performances downtown, every evening is fully lit up all through town. It’s a collective effort that makes the Christmas light glow so grand. The lights stay on very late into the night, with most not turning off until after 2:00 am or sunrise. “Why would the lights stay on so late?” Simple: people are out downtown well after midnight all through Nights of Lights season. It’s a party on the waterfront and St George Street at least three nights each week until after New Years.
Best Days for St Augustine Nights of Lights
Everyone enjoys playing tourist and the vibes of a crowd differently, so we all have different ideas of when the best days to see St Augustine’s Nights of Lights actually are. Personally, I like Tuesday and Wednesday nights to go downtown to enjoy the Christmas lights and have dinner or drinks. The weekends really can be crazy and I don’t do great with intense crowds, so our family avoids being downtown at night Friday, Saturday and Sunday all through the holiday season. We keep to our neighborhood here in St Augustine Beach (we have our own holiday lights on Beach Blvd). Monday night sometimes feels like a leftover crowd of the weekend, and then Thursday feels like a precursor to the weekend, so Tuesday and Wednesday are perfect.
The events and music tend to be on the weekends as well, so if you want to enjoy the Nights of Lights for all of the wild holiday-ness, you’ll need to make your way to downtown St Augustine by 5:30 pm on a weekend night. A lot of activities happen between 5:30 and 7:30 in the evening.
For a low-crowd / lower-sensory visit, come downtown midweek just after sunset. This is before everyone has really ended their work days and been able to drive into town from Jacksonville or Daytona. You’ll still have lots of visitors who are staying in the downtown and uptown areas, but it’s fewer people than later in the evening when EVERYONE is out. If you’ve just moved to St Augustine, this’ll be your new favorite time to come downtown.
HOW to do Nights of Lights
So since the Nights of Lights is a big holiday light extravaganza that covers so much ground, HOW do you actually get to enjoy it all? Well, there are a few ways to have the best experience possible, but I think the most important thing to know is that THIS IS NOT A DRIVING TOUR. Traffic downtown during the holidays is already bad because people think they need to drive through the lights, but that’s not cool. A lot of us have to actually go through downtown and the waterfront for work or to pick up our kids from school functions. Add to our regular lives and extra 7K cars that don’t know how to drive with hundreds of people trying to cross the street outside of crosswalks and it’s a disaster.
The best way to enjoy St Augustine’s Nights of Lights is to park in one of the designated areas and use the free shuttle or walk into downtown. There are paid parking lots all around town, and lots of small businesses open their parking for a fee, which is worth it so you don’t look like a fool trying to park downtown.
Once you’ve gotten yourself downtown, the best way to enjoy the St Augustine Nights of Lights is just to walk around and take it all in. If you walk a loop from the Castillo de San Marcos along the waterfront, and then head through the Plaza de la Constitución past the Casa Monica Hotel to Flagler College and City Hall. For your walk back, go along St George Street, wandering to Spanish and Charlotte Streets, enjoying the holiday displays and Christmas lights on everything. Without stopping for dinner or drinks, give yourself at least an hour and a half to do the Nights of Lights walking route.
Parking and Transportation for St Augustine Nights of Lights
Make your St Augustine Nights of Lights visit easier on yourself by using the parking and shuttles from the city. There are three lots to choose from and a shuttle that runs from 1:00 pm to 11:00 pm. This shuttle is free and will save YOU and all the rest of us a lot of stress and struggle if everyone uses the shuttles provided. You can get the shuttle from these three areas:
- St. Johns County Health Department – 200 San Sebastian View
- Broudy’s Lot – 198 W. King St. (corner of U.S. 1 and W. King St.)
- San Marco Lot – 301 San Marco Ave.
One night only, THE FIRST SATURDAY OF NIGHTS OF LIGHTS, there is a shuttle from Anastasia Island to the Bridge of Lions so people can walk across to downtown. And this is a great opportunity to also enjoy seeing Nights of Lights from the bridge. This shuttle on this one night goes from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm
- Anastasia Baptist Church – 1650 A1A S.
- R.B. Hunt Elementary – 125 Magnolia Dr.
Christmas Light Tours in St Augustine
Yay! This is my favorite way to enjoy seeing our Nights of Lights and we do it every year. There are tours both on land and sea to be able to see the beautiful Christmas lights covering St Augustine. Our preferred Nights of Lights boat tour is either the Red Boat or the Scenic Cruise, which are very different from each other.
The Red Boat Tour is super low key and tons of fun. What I really like about this Nights of Lights cruise is actually that it starts outside of town over in Vilano Beach and then must approach the waterfront from a distance, allowing the Christmas lights to build up and giving you a bit longer on the water. There is Christmas music, hot chocolate, a hilarious guide and it’s just fun. This is a fully outside boat, but if you dress warmly you’ll be fine. Book the Red Boat Tour for Nights of Lights here! St Augustine Boat Tours does a very similar cruise but leaves from the Conch House Marina on Anastasia Island instead, if that’s more convenient. Book St Augustine Boat Tours Nights of Lights from Anastasia Island here!
The Scenic Cruise goes from the municipal marina right next to the Bridge of Lions on the downtown side of the water. Parking is difficult, but it’s a double decker boat with hot cocoa and Christmas music. I like the view from the top deck. Check the Scenic Cruise Nights of Lights tour here!
TIP: one of our favorite boat operators in St Augustine, St Augustine Eco Tours, is doing Nights of Lights cruises now too. You can book directly with them here if you want (they’re amazing people).
The other way to do a Nights of Lights tour is on land. The most popular tour (understandably) is doing the Old Town Trolley Tour all around town. You can book it as a ROW OF 4 PPL. It’s easy, fun and a great activity for all ages. Book the Nights of Lights Trolley Tour here!
If you want to do something more personalized and just as fun, check out the electric cart tours that happen during St Augustine Nights of Lights. You can have an open-air zip around town through the Christmas lights with your own tour guide, singing loudly if you like and just taking it all in. Book the Electric Cart tour here!
Holiday Cocktails During Nights of Lights
Each holiday season when Nights of Lights is going on we spend at least one evening wandering through town with friends trying the many different holiday cocktails. I’m not saying that we wander through town drunkenly, but there are a few places that are fun to stop into and see what they’ve cooked up for a Christmassy cocktail menu. And maybe not every cocktail is holiday themed, but that’s okay, we still have favorite places to visit.
- Forgotten Tonic – legit the best holiday theme cocktails and great apps, good all year long
- Chatsworth Pub – good standard cocktails and great location
- The Well Bar at the Collector – wonderful cocktail menu with great outdoor space, off the beaten path
- Bar at the French Pantry – very good cocktails when you sit at the bar, Cache Cache area is okay
- Prohibition Kitchen – usually very busy, but can be great midway through St George Street
- Tipsy Ducks Parlor – this is just a really fun spot with bubbling wine cocktails and rubber ducks
- Barley Republic – I like the patio for people watching
- Sangria’s Wine and Tapas – the balcony seating is awesome but it’s overpriced (in my opinion)
- SAINT Rooftop – this is one of my favorite restaurants in St Augustine and they have a great rooftop
- River & Fort – whether you go to the rooftop or sit at the bar, they do solid cocktails and pretty good food
Of course there are lots more places to grab cocktails and special holiday menu items downtown during Nights of Lights, but these are our top picks. If we have any new and wonderful discoveries we’ll add them.
Where to Stay for St Augustine Nights of Lights
When you’re planning your trip to St Augustine for Nights of Lights, you need to think about what sort of overall experience you want to have. The lights are pretty and it’s really fun to walk around and be in the center of it all, but what’s most important to you for your time here? Some people love waking up downtown and walking through the streets and enjoying the quiet of our historic quarter. Some people want to wake up at the beach and then come visit downtown. Either is good, but they’re two very different experiences.
Downtown you’ll find a few top notch places to stay. A nice hotel can make or break a trip, so if you want to be directly downtown, these are our top picks:
- Hilton St Augustine Historic Bayfront – the heart of the action on the waterfront
- The Collector Inn – adults-only, boutique inn meets historic B&B in the quiet part of downtown
- Casa Monica Resort and Spa – part of the Marriott Autograph Collection
- Renaissance Historic St Augustine – newest hotel at the edge of downtown, great decorations
- Bayfront Marin House – historic B&B on the waterfront at the south end of downtown
Take a look at the map below and see if you can find something that both fits the location you want AND fits your budget. You’ll have the best rates Monday through Thursday, so take it into consideration that you maybe could have a much less expensive Nights of Lights trip during midweek.
Alright then, I think you’re ready to come enjoy Nights of Lights in St Augustine. We really do have a great time during the holidays and the Christmas lights and activities just add to all the fun and interesting sightseeing that’s available. If you have any questions about planning your visit or Nights of Lights, please leave a comment or send us a note. We’re always happy to share more and help you have a great trip to St Augustine!
