Highlights

U S Tours Flexible Pricing:

• Customizable Comps
• Net Rates
• Luxury or First Class Hotels & Meals
• Motorcoach Transportation & Professional Tour Managers are available

Whatever you want, U S Tours will be happy to structure tour prices to match your needs.  Just let us know!

Itinerary

Day 1 – St Augustine, FL Historic District Lodging – Dinner & Storyteller at the Raintree Restaurant

Arriving in St. Augustine today, check into your Historic District Lodging for a two-night stay.  Tonight, you will enjoy a dinner and a storyteller at the Raintree Restaurant, a restored St. Augustine 1879 Colonial Victorian Home.  (D)

Day 2 – Flagler Legacy Tour – Flagler’s Churches – St. Augustine Distillery – Dinner at Ice Plant Bar

This morning after breakfast, meet your local guide for a Flagler Legacy Tour.  If you stroll through the area of St. Augustine immediately west of downtown, you will experience the extraordinary influence of New Yorker Henry Morrison Flagler. He was a co-founder of Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller. Flagler stepped back from daily responsibilities of this successful venture and launched a second career in Florida.

Over the next thirty years, he built resort hotels from Jacksonville to Miami and the Florida Keys linked by his Florida East Coast Railway. Steamships took visitors to his resorts at Nassau in the Bahamas and to Havana, Cuba. His Overseas Railway through the Florida Keys was recognized as the “Eighth Wonder of the Modern World.” Ultimately, Flagler was regarded as the “Father of Modern Florida” for his investments in the sunshine state. St. Augustine exhibits some of his most lasting contributions and was his chosen location for his final resting place, the Flagler Mausoleum.

Included is a Historic Tour of Flagler College, the former Hotel Ponce de Leon.  Built by Henry Flagler at the height of the Gilded Age and was once one of the most exclusive resorts of its day.

After free time downtown for lunch on own and shopping, visit see a couple of the churches Flagler help build. Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine and the Memorial Presbyterian Church which was dedicated to his daughter and where Flagler and his family were laid to rest.

The afternoon also features a tour and tasting at the St. Augustine Distillery.  This stunning distillery is housed in a historic ice-manufacturing plant dating back to the 1920s. The St. Augustine Distillery will share its love of Florida’s distilling heritage, the building’s former life as an ice plant and its quest to produce the country’s best farm-to-bottle spirits. Watch as they craft spirits with locally farmed ingredients in copper-pot stills, and sample each spirit along the way. St. Augustine Distillery’s line of distilled spirits includes award-winning bourbon, gin, rum and vodka.

Dinner is included this evening at the Ice Plant Bar, a dining experience straight out of the Gilded Age.  The Ice Plant was Florida’s first power and ice plant since 1907 which used to make 125 toms of ice for local fishing and shrimping industries. (B,D)

Day 3 – Lightner Museum – Jekyll Island – Guided Tram Tour – Jekyll Island Club Resort – Dinner in the Grand Dining Room

Start the day with a visit to the Lightner Museum, a monument to the lavishness of the Gilded Age.  The Lightner Museum features three floors of artifacts from the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, including exquisite Victorian clothing and art, stained Tiffany glass, and painting and oddities from around the world.  Enjoy lunch on own at the Café Aclazar in the Lightner.

This afternoon travel to Jekyll Island, a private winter retreat for wealthy during the Gilded Age.  On arrival, enjoy a Guided Tram Tour of Jekyll Island.  In 1886, 53 prominent American tycoons founded the Jekyll Island Club, and members created an exclusive gilded era island retreat on Georgia’s coast for their family and friends. These empire builders shaped our nation and likewise laid the foundation for Jekyll Island’s rich future.

Step into their past and experience the legends firsthand with the history of the area. This 90-minute tram tour takes you through the 240-acre National Historic Landmark District, and includes entry into two restored cottages.

Then check into the Jekyll Island Club Resort for the night.  This historic hotel has modern amenities, features beautiful beaches and Victorian charm in the center of the Historic District.

Tonight, enjoy dinner in the Grand Dining Room.  The storied history of the Jekyll Island Club has, at its heart, the Grand Dining Room. Ranked as highly today as ever before, this award-winning, fine dining restaurant continues to be a gathering place for great occasions. (B,D)

Day 4 – Depart for Home

After breakfast, depart for home. (B)

Tour Map