Happy FriYAY everyone! I hope that everyone has had a great week here in the great state of Florida and if you don’t live in Florida, then I still hope you had a good week.
When we were on vacation with my family a couple of weeks ago, I got to check something else off my “bucket list”. I had always wanted to take one of the horse drawn carriage rides around St. Augustine at night time and when my mom and niece were here, we all got to go! Including our poodle, Leia.
The first horse and carriage we saw happened to be a gorgeous holographic purple that I wish I had got some better pictures of in the day light. My niece and I were definitely living out our Disney Princess dreams! Jesse was the name of our driver and Scout was the name of our buckskin horse and they both made sure we had a great time.
Since it has been so hot, the horses are only coming out at night but once it gets cooler you can see them out there at other times during the day as well. They are usually lined up near the Castillo de San Marco fort right off the main bridge, so they are hard to miss if you also want a tour.
The above gallery shows some of the sights on our drive, including the Castillo de San Marcos which I can’t believe I managed to get a shot of the fort without any people in it! My husband and I have taken one of the trolley tours before so we knew some of the history behind St. Augustine but Jesse was even more informative than our trolley guide was and we really learned a lot about the early days of the city.
The whole drive takes about an hour and covers most of the historic part of the city. You could tell that Jesse and Scout are definitely fan favorites around town. We had several little stops where shop and restaurant staff would come out and say hello. Jesse was also nice enough to let people take their picture with Scout, which we didn’t mind at all. I am 40 years old and I still like to get my picture taken with horses too. 😂
Normally I don’t talk about costs in my blog but I think some people might like to know up front so I am going to try and be better about mentioning costs so that people can plan accordingly. It cost $100 and we also tipped him at the end. I assume they take other forms of payment than cash, but cash was what we had and what I personally would recommend using.
If you know of any other horse drawn carriage tours in Florida email me at doti@itsmorethanbeaches.com because I would love to explore more cities this way.
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Love St. Augustine!