Is St. Augustine Alligator Farm Worth It?

Yes — the St. Augustine Alligator Farm became the first zoo in the world to display every living species of crocodilian at once, in 1993, and its grounds have carried U.S. Historic District status since 1992. It's still adding to the collection — a new Geoffroy's marmoset habitat opened in July 2026 next to Maximo, its 15.5-foot saltwater crocodile — so there's more here than a roadside photo-op. One thing we can't tell you: its own site was unreachable when we checked, so confirm the current ticket price on alligatorfarm.com before you go.

What not to miss

The Alligator Farm began in 1893 as a beachside sideshow meant to draw people toward a neighboring museum's souvenir stand; the alligators became the real draw, and the park moved to its current site in the early 1920s before rebuilding after a fire in the 1930s. What's there now is a serious collection: 24 species of crocodilians, all of which the park displayed together for the first time anywhere in the world at its 1993 centennial. The farm has since bred 18 different crocodilian species in captivity, including the world's smallest, the African dwarf crocodile — rarely more than 6 feet long — with the first captive hatching of that species anywhere in the western hemisphere happening here.

Featured location St. Augustine Alligator Farm St. Augustine, United States AZA It opened on 20 May 1893 and counts among the state's longest continuously operating attractions.

The rarest animals live in the Land of Crocodiles exhibit, which opened in 1993. Elsewhere, a Komodo dragon facility that opened in 2008 also holds other lizards and snakes native to Southeast Asia, and a natural bird rookery at the back of the grounds hosts wild, free-roaming egrets, herons, wood storks and roseate spoonbills raising their young — animals that showed up on their own rather than being kept there. The newest addition is a habitat for two Geoffroy's marmosets, Hermione (17) and Lochte, which opened on July 2, 2026 right next to the Komodo dragons and Maximo, the farm's 15.5-foot, 1,250-pound Australian saltwater crocodile, who shares his enclosure with a 9-foot mate named Sydney.

Should you visit the aquarium too?

If you have time for a second stop, the St. Augustine Aquarium is a different kind of animal encounter rather than a smaller version of the same one. It opened far more recently, on December 19, 2016, founded by Shawn and Kathy Hiester after an earlier version of the project was voted down by the city commission in 2014 over traffic concerns. Its centerpiece is an 80,000-gallon open-air Snorkel Adventure tank holding more than 100 species of fish native to Florida and the Caribbean, including queen angelfish and cownose rays, and the aquarium as a whole houses over 250 animals. Guided tours build in feed-and-touch encounters with starfish, horseshoe crabs, sharks and stingrays, and the aquarium says it is adding a new stingray habitat.

Pick the Alligator Farm if you want depth in one animal family and a sense of history; pick the aquarium if you'd rather get in the water yourself or keep young kids engaged with hands-on touch tanks.

Tickets and saving money

As of September 2026, St. Augustine Aquarium admission is $14.99 for adults and $9.99 for children, with children 2 and under free. Its Snorkel Adventure, which includes general admission, costs $49.99 per person for adults and children alike, runs by appointment at 11:30am and 1pm daily, and requires anyone aged 4 to 12 to snorkel with an adult. We could not confirm the Alligator Farm's current ticket prices, or any combined ticket covering both venues, because the farm's own site did not load for us — check alligatorfarm.com directly before you travel.

Getting there

The Alligator Farm sits on Anastasia Island, on the ocean side of St. Augustine. The aquarium is on the opposite side of town, just off Exit 318 of I-95, about 0.7 miles east of the interstate. They aren't a quick hop between each other, so treat them as two separate stops rather than one loop.

Best time to visit

Hurricane season on Florida's Atlantic coast runs officially from June 1 to November 30, with most activity in August, September and October, so a fall trip means watching the forecast. The aquarium itself runs longer hours in summer — open all seven days from 9am to 4pm between Memorial Day and Labor Day — and shorter hours the rest of the year, Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm, which is worth building a schedule around if you're combining it with the farm on the same trip.