St. Augustine Beach is a small city located in St. Johns County, Florida. The city is small both in terms of population size and in terms of physical size; it boasts only about 6,000 permanent residents according to the U.S. Census Bureau and is situated on about 1.9 square miles of land. Although St. Augustine Beach's city limits do not contain any ocean, somewhat unusual for a Florida coastal city, the name of the city is quite accurate: the city fronts the Atlantic coast and features one of the loveliest beaches in the state.
The climate in St. Augustine Beach is tropical, with warm temperatures both summer and winter, but because St. Johns County is near the most northerly point in Florida, these temperatures are not as hot as they can be further south in the state. This gives visitors staying in St. Augustine Beach vacation rentals the best of both worlds: the city is warm, but not too warm, which makes it "just right, to paraphrase a famous children's story.
St. Augustine Beach made U.S. headlines in the late 1800s when something odd washed up on the shore. The giant unidentified mass of tissue became known as the "St. Augustine monster" in the press and was initially thought to be the remains of a giant octopus or squid. Modern analysis of photographs of the item has caused scientists to think that it was probably a mass of whale blubber, instead. Whales do inhabit the area off St. Augustine Beach, even to this day.