Start with the castillo de San Marcos, the fort that dominates the northern edge of the city. Tours are inexpensive and quite interesting, and a good view of town can be had from the ramparts. This fort is built of a popular local building material, coquina. Coquina are tiny clams that burrow in the sand of the area's beaches; crushed and mixed with lime and other ingredients, the shells form a sort of concrete that is capable of simply absorbing any cannonballs fired at it from ships in Matanzas Bay (although this has not been tested recently). Leaving the castillo, make your way to St. George Street, where among other things you can tour the Oldest Schoolhouse and a number of other Oldest Things. There are a number of good restaurants along St. George St.; try the Monk's Vinyard, where you might be able to sample some of the local winery's product.

You can tour the San Sebastian winery, which sits on an unassuming plot of ground near the headquarters of the Florida East Coast railroad, inland a ways from St. George St. Free tours and tastings are given more or less on the hour, or whenever there is a crowd. Experienced wine connoiseurs will no doubt be rather surprised by the sweetness of most of the wines; the local grape, called a muscadine (or musketine, for its resemblance to a musket ball), is quite sweet (but an absolute joy to eat). These light, sweet wines are popular in the rather sultry Florida climate (I like the Reserva myself). The cream sherry is quite good.

Stop in at Flagler College, housed in what was once the crown jewel of the Flagler empire, the Flager Hotel in downtown St. Augustine. This complex of red brick, Victorian buildings once sheltered the New England elite on winter vacations; now they house college classes, a somewhat more egalitarian purpose. Tours of the architecture can be arranged through the front office, but they do need some advance notice. Alternately you could just jump in with one of the prospective-student tours.

For a somewhat different tourist attraction, head out across the Bridge of Lions toward the St. Augustine Lighthouse. It's three-hundred-some-odd steps up to the top, but the view is wonderful. Admission is relatively cheap. Nearby you can visit the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. For those who've never seen an alligator up close, this rather cheesy park is quite entertaining. Most of the alligators don't seem to move much, but then, they don't move much in the wild, either. You can watch some of the friskier gators jump several feet in the air to retrieve whole chickens at feeding time, and witness the old art of alligator wrestling.

Nearby is the Florida Outdoor Amphitheatre, with outdoor plays throughout the year, including a Shakespeare perfomance during the summer. Performances of "The Cross and the Sword," the official state play, can only be seen here.