School and Group Tours

Planning Your Visit

To plan your visit to the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum, we request you call ahead or email us to make a reservation at least two weeks in advance. Reservations may be made by phone: (904) 829-0745 x. 208, 223 or 201 or by email at grouptours@staugustinelighthouse.org. The minimum size for a group is 20 and the largest group size we can accommodate is 75. Groups larger than 35 will be split for climbing the tower.

The following times are available for tours. Please call for availability.

• 9:30 AM
• 11:00 AM
• 12:30 PM
• 2:00 PM
• 3:30 PM

Lighthouse & Museum Tours

Our Lighthouse & Museum Tour features a tower climb and a guided tour of the museum; please allow 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes for the tour. Please allow 2 hours for a Specialty Tour.

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Specialty Tours

Why Do We Have Lighthouses?

Be a crewmember on a Tall Ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean and find out how the St. Augustine Lighthouse can help you get safely to port. Walk where the lighthouse keepers walked up the tower and into the woods.

Students will rotate between three stations:

Station One: Why Do We have lighthouses?
Join Chris Kastle, our Director of Education, an internationally acclaimed performer, for a highly participatory presentation of songs and stories that look into our maritime heritage and the part that] lighthouses play.

Station Two: Lighthouses and the Land
A hands-on experiential nature walk in the maritime hammock and heritage garden with our Staff Naturalist, Gail Compton, well-known newspaper columnist and lecturer.

Station Three: The Lighthouse
Learn about the history of the St. Augustine Lighthouse with one of our fine docents and then climb the 219 stairs to the observation deck. Look out to sea and see the lay of the land the way the lighthouse keepers did.

Sea, Sail and Service

St. Augustine is the country's oldest port city. Learn about what it was like to be a sailor or student and serve the United States during the American Revolution. Hear the words and the stories and the music.

Station One: Sea, Sail and Service
Learn the language of the sea. Do a word search using maritime vocabulary that will be part of the other three stations.

Station Two: Musical Commands
A demonstration of how musical instruments have been used to issue commands on board ship with Chris Clark, reenacter and fire fighter, and also Brendan Burke, musician, tall ship sailor, and archeologist in our LAMP Program.

Station Three: First Flags
Students will use appropriate colors to complete line drawings of our earliest maritime service flags, analyze the design of the flags, and make written comments about the designs.

Station Four: Children of the American Revolution
Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution will present stories, several of them maritime in nature, about their ancestors when their ancestors were children during that time.

Shipwreck Discovery

Experience the excitement of maritime history as it relates to the St. Augustine Lighthouse including aspects of underwater archeology.

Station One: Down Below the Waves
A participatory presentation of songs and stories that look into our maritime heritage especially as it relates to underwater archeology with Chris Kastle our Director of Education, an internationally acclaimed performer.

Station Two: Basics of Underwater Archeology
A member of our outstanding Lighthouse Archeological Maritime Program here at the museum, will discuss and demonstrate the use of a variety of equipment used by underwater archeologists as well as the requirements to be an underwater archeologist and will also talk about current LAMP projects.

Station Three: The Lighthouse
Students will learn about the historic challenges of navigating the St. Augustine Coast with one of our docents and be able to see the coastline as it now appears when they climb the tower.

Guided Scout Patch Program

Join a museum docent for a guided program for all levels of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Scouts can visit with their group or with parents and complete a fun and educational series of activities to earn the St. Augustine Lighthouse Patch. For groups of 20 or more.

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Educational Materials

Pre and post tour educational materials are available by e-mail upon request. Contact the Education Department at 904-829-0745 x 208, 223 or 201 or ckastle@staugustinelighthouse.org

Elderhostel Programs

Group tours are available.

Museum Rules

1. No running is allowed anywhere on the site or in any buildings.
2. No food, candy, beverages, or gum is allowed on the historic site. An exception will be made for plastic bottled water with a cap.
3. Groups - students and chaperones - must remain together while on site.
4. Children must be 44 inches tall to climb the tower.
5. Due to safety concerns, 1 chaperone for every 6 students under the age of 12 is required to climb.
6. Group size is limited to a maximum of 35 people climbing the tower at one time.
7. Please use indoor voices and respect the other visitors on the site.
8. Please do not touch objects in the museum and tower unless otherwise instructed.
9. Please do not take flash photography. Excessive light damages historical objects.
10. Buses may park along the side of the road in front of the flagpole or across the street in the parking lot. All buses in the parking lot must turn off their motors. There is no parking in the lot across the road on weekends or holidays.
11. During the tour, please use cell phones for photographic purposes only.

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