First Coast
Explorer
Florida's First Coast
219 steps. 165 feet. Active since 1874. The best view in St. Augustine, a shipwreck below your feet, and after dark, one of the most genuinely haunted buildings in the United States.
The St. Augustine Lighthouse was built between 1871 and 1874 on Anastasia Island. It is 165 feet tall, built from brick, and it is still active — still putting light into the waters off the oldest port city in the continental United States, just as it has done every night for over 150 years. The light itself uses a Fresnel lens with 370 handmade glass prisms. It was not designed to be a tourist attraction. It was designed to keep ships from dying on the shoals, and it did that, and it still does.
The 219 steps are narrow, with two-way traffic at passing points. Go slowly. The people coming down need the same space you do going up. At the top, the view earns the climb. Historic downtown St. Augustine spreads to the north. The Matanzas River moves west. The Atlantic opens to the east. The Bridge of Lions is visible below. On a clear day, you understand exactly why the Spanish put a watchtower here in the first place.
The ticket is $14.95, free parking is included, and if you use code LH15 when buying online you save 15%. For context, parking alone costs more than that in most of downtown St. Augustine.
"You come for the view. You stay because the 1782 shipwreck exhibit is better than you expected. You come back at night because the Pittee sisters aren't finished with the place."
Admission covers considerably more than the tower climb. The Keepers' House holds exhibits on Coast Guard and WWII history, the lives of lighthouse keepers and their families, and the story of Florida's first lighthouse — predecessor to the current 1874 structure. The Maritime Archaeology Center is the standout: the site sits directly above a 1782 British refugee ship that sank at the end of the American Revolution, and the artifacts recovered from it are on display. Watching divers work an active archaeological site off the coast of Florida and then seeing what they pull up puts American history in a completely different register.
Guided property tours run on the hour from 11 AM to 3 PM, free with admission. The Lighthouse Keeper's tour — an hour-long walk around the station learning what it was actually like to maintain an active lighthouse — is worth booking separately and runs on select dates. A café on site handles lunch. The gift shop is one of the better ones in the city.
The St. Augustine Lighthouse is documented as one of the most haunted locations in Florida. USA Today readers named it one of the top ten haunted destinations in the United States. The primary haunting involves the Pittee sisters — two young daughters of the lighthouse's construction superintendent who drowned on the property in the 1870s when a cart they were riding rolled into the water. Multiple keepers over the decades have reported encounters. The lighthouse has been featured on Ghost Hunters and investigated by serious paranormal researchers.
The Dark of the Moon ghost tour runs select evenings — typically Friday through Sunday. It is the only St. Augustine ghost tour that actually gets you inside the lighthouse grounds after hours, with the option to climb the tower in the dark with glow sticks. It sells out. Book it weeks in advance if this is on your list, especially on weekends. Bring bug spray — reviewers consistently mention this, and Anastasia Island at night earns that advice.
One of the most complete visitor experiences in St. Augustine. The climb is real, the view pays for it, and the maritime museum underneath is better than most visitors expect. At under $15 with free parking, it beats most of downtown on value. The ghost tour is legitimately worth experiencing — not theatrical, just a well-researched history of documented events in a building that has been accumulating them for 150 years.
Go on a weekday morning for the best light on the climb. Book the Dark of the Moon at least two weeks out if you want a Friday or Saturday slot.