Walking Among the Ghosts of St. Augustine

St. Augustine: A City Full of History

Walking around St. Augustine, Florida is like walking through history. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement by people of European descent in the United States. It was founded by the Spanish is 1565… before the English got to Jamestown or the Pilgrams landed at Plymouth Rock.

The city has been influenced by explorers, pirates, military forces, and railroad titans just to name a few! What better way to learn more about the history of the city… and some spooky tales too… than to take a guided walk around the city with a guide from US Ghost Adventures.

Ghost Tour with US Ghost Adventures

We booked the ”Wraiths of the Watchtower: Sinister St. Augustine Ghost Tour”, with the Bonus Extended Tour. The tour began right around sunset at the obelisk in the center of Plaza de la Constitucion. The instructions said our guide would arrive with a lantern. We had spent the day walking along St. George Street, checking out the shops, grabbing lunch at Mill Top, and dinner at Barefoot Bill’s Island Grill.

As the sun started to set, we were just a walk across the street to the Plaza de la Constitucion. A few stories about the buildings around the Plaza were told, and then we set off for our tour.

Our tour took us to several stops around the historic district, where we heard tales of families who had lived there, misfortune came their way… and perhaps some stayed around, creating signs of their presence that couldn’t be explained any other way than… it must be their ghost…

Tales of strange lights in windows, rising water that wasn’t there, love gone wrong, and figures in the fog will have you looking over your shoulder and wondering if anyone else might be around!

The outside of the Casablanca Inn on the Bay, showing a white balcony, and signs for the inn, the bar and the cafe.

One of the stories that stands out was at Casablanca Inn On The Bay. A widowed innkeeper turned to bootlegging during the prohibition. Federal agents would often stay at the inn. To warn the smugglers with her supply of the bootleg liquor who would come in to St. Augustine by ship, she would go to the widow’s walk and swing a lantern back and forth. She fell in love with one of the bootleggers, and after she gave the sign one night that it wasn’t safe, he went back to the sea… and was lost in a storm. People still report seeing that lantern swinging back and forth from the water.

Notes About The Tour

There is a fair amount of walking. Wear comfortable shoes.
Bring water. Florida gets hot, y’all!
The tour brings you to the outside of the places where stories will be told about what happened there, and who might be haunting the location. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to go inside these places and really search for those ghosts… but you’ll be outside the buildings at each stop.
If you book the extended tour, you’ll get to go to a few more locations in the historic district.