Photo: conboslice101 (CC BY 2.0)

Premium · Walking Tour

St AugustineThe oldest city in the United States

St Augustine was founded in 1565, forty-two years before Jamestown, and has been continuously occupied ever since. The Castillo de San Marcos is built of coquina — shell stone quarried across the bay — which absorbed cannonballs rather than shattering, and the fort was never taken by force. The town behind it kept its Spanish street plan through British and American rule, and in Lincolnville, founded by freed people after the Civil War, it holds a second history that the colonial quarter tends to obscure.

Hear a sample narration
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28 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.

Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →

28 narration points ~1h 17m The Castillo, the Colonial Quarter, St George Street and Lincolnville
Verified Sources

Where the facts come from

Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.

  1. 1

    Built from the record

    Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 95 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 11 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.

  2. 2

    Checked against the authority

    Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.

  3. 3

    Anything unsupported is cut

    Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.

  4. 4

    A person signs it off

    Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.

Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.

The Tour

Explore St Augustine

🏰
The Castillo and the defences

The coquina fort, the Cubo Line, the Santo Domingo redoubt and the town plan they protected.

6 narration points
🏛️
The colonial quarter

St George Street, the Governor's House, the oldest house and schoolhouse, the Spanish hospital and the Ximinez-Fatio house.

11 narration points
✊
Flagler's city and Lincolnville

The Lightner Museum, Ponce de León Hall, Villa Zorayda, and the civil-rights history of Lincolnville.

11 narration points
Highlights

Sites that define St Augustine

Castillo de San Marcos
1672–1695

Built of coquina, which absorbed cannon fire instead of shattering. Never taken by assault.

St George Street
16th century onward

The spine of the Spanish town plan, still following its original line.

Lincolnville
1866

Founded by freed people after the Civil War, and central to the 1964 civil-rights campaign here.

Ponce de León Hall
1888

Flagler's hotel, one of the first poured-concrete buildings in the country, now a college.

Oldest Wooden School House
18th century

Cedar and cypress, pegged rather than nailed.

Mission Nombre de Dios
1565

Where the first parish Mass in what became the United States was said.

How It Works

Walk. Listen. See what they saw.

1
Open the tour

Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 28 narration points.

2
Walk at your pace

Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.

3
Hear the stories

Each site has its own narration — what it is, who built it and why it is here. 28 narration points.

What You Get

A companion through St Augustine

📍
GPS-Triggered

Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.

🎤
Studio-Quality Voice

Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.

📚
Fact-Checked Twice

Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.

🗺
Interactive Map

See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.

🏛
28 Sites

Every significant point in St Augustine. The major sites get full narrations; the rest are covered in shorter stops.

⏱
Your Own Pace

Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.

Common Questions

How it works

What does the St Augustine audio tour cover?

28 narration points, including Castillo de San Marcos, Cubo Line, Lightner Museum, Spanish Hospital and Colonial Quarter. That is about 77 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.

Is the St Augustine tour self-guided?

Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.

It’s not just GPS — what are the ways to trigger a narration?

Three ways, all built in:

  • GPS-triggered (default): walk near a site, the narration starts automatically.
  • Tap any marker on the map: open the map view, tap any of the 28 markers to play that narration on demand — no walking required.
  • Queue controls: pause, skip, replay any narration; the queue auto-advances as you walk.

The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.

Do I need cell service or data while I’m there?

No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.

How do I make it work with no signal — and open it again later?

Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.

  1. Tap Download for offline above. It opens the guide.
  2. Put that page on your home screen — steps below.
  3. Open the guide from the new icon and download it there, on wi-fi. Keep the screen open until it finishes.

Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):

  1. Tap the three dots at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Tap Share.
  3. Scroll down the list and tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.

If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.

What if my phone’s GPS is unreliable?

Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.

How long is the tour and how much time do I need?

The audio runs ~1h 17m total, but you walk at your own pace. 28 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.

Can I share with my partner or family?

One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.

What if I never use the tour, or never make it to the site?

Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.

Walk the oldest continuously occupied city in the country
28 narration points. The Castillo, the Colonial Quarter, St George Street and Lincolnville.
Already purchased? Continue your tour → ⤓ Download for offline
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