Florida Keys to Virginia Road Trip Part 3: Delray Beach to St. Augustine, Florida
Follow our steps from Norfolk to NYC to Southern Florida and back home with this series of blogs from Spring Break 2024:
AMTRAK & NYC
THE FLORIDA KEYS
SOUTHERN FLORIDA: THE EVERGLADES & KEY BISCAYNE
ROAD TRIP- THE LOW COUNTRY: SAVANNAH, GA & BEAUFORT, SC (coming soon)
ROAD TRIP- CHARLESTON SC TO EMERALD ISLE NC (coming soon)
Deerfield & Delray Beach
Deerfield Beach
We were in the Deerfield Beach area for a short overnight stopover after driving north from Key Largo. Our room at Embassy Suites Delray Beach was renovated and spacious. This area of the Florida coastline was much quieter than many of the larger resort towns, with smaller beaches and a boardwalk that seemed to cater to mostly the local residents of the beachfront condos.
The large resort was located directly across from the public beach, although the beach directly south was “private” with only “walk-through” privileges for non-residents/guests.
A1A Drive
While we loved the idea of taking A1A (Beachfront AVENUE!) all the way from Deerfield Beach to St. Augustine, we quickly realized that the casual route would nearly quadruple the time it would take to use I95.
Delray Beach
On a cloudy cool morning we found plenty of paid public parking at our first stop in Delray Beach.
Palm Beach, West Palm Beach & Manatee Lagoon
We continued north along A1A through the stretch of Palm Beach that is famous for being home to the rich and famous. We left the beachfront route for the West Palm Beach area and a stop at Manatee Lagoon.
In winter and early spring, manatees frequent this small lagoon for the warm water created by the Florida Power & Light Company’s Next Generation Clean Energy Center. The education center was built by the FPL to educate visitors about manatees and provide a large outdoor viewing area.
There was no fee to visit the Manatee Lagoon center, but plenty of opportunities to support through donation or purchasing souvenirs at the gift shop. We saw one manatee in the lagoon when we arrived, and then spent nearly an hour looking at the indoor interpretation and aquariums.
Riviera Beach
We were running out of time in our itinerary for that days’ road trip, so before moving to the less scenic drive on I95 we stopped for a beach picnic.
Take-out was provided by Rafiki Tiki Bar & Grill in West Palm Beach, where we would have dined in to enjoy the tropical garden vibe if we hadn’t been looking for a beachfront view.
We easily found parking at the public Ocean Reef Park and it was just a short walk to Riviera Beach. The rocky limestone shoreline created stunning photo opportunities, as the bright blue waves crashed into the rocks.
Palm Beach to St. Augustine
We stopped at Buc-ee’s more out of curiosity than need, having seen people wearing swag and knowing that it was a popular stop for many road trippers. The mega-convenience store was full of Buc-ees gear and souvenirs, clothing, housewares and snacks. It’s something we can now say we did, but, for a vegetarian that doesn’t eat BBQ, it won’t be a must-do on our next trip. (Unless we are in need of a restroom stop because, as advertised, they were far superior to all other road highway stop options.)
We hopped off the highway to continue north, passing many local restaurant options near Flagler beach. With more time we would have stopped, but we arrived in St. Augustine just in time for our scheduled Ghost Tour.
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