Mermaid Bungalow Marvelous Mermaid Beach Bungalow, Dog-Friendly

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  Slip into the hot tub under the pergola while the last of the sun filters through the slats. It is shared with the downstairs cottage, so you may end up swapping beach stories with neighbours, which is how the best holiday friendships tend to begin.
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  Evenings gather here. The fire pit catches, the blue Adirondack chairs slowly fill up, and somebody always goes back inside for one more blanket. Gravel underfoot, palms overhead, and nobody in any hurry at all to call it a night.
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  A brick path threads between the planting to the patio, where the grill waits under the pergola. Carry out the plates, claim a chair, and let dinner stretch on until the light goes soft and gold over the top of the fence.
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  Home for the week. Your door is the red one at the top of the exterior stairs, Unit B, the upstairs half of this historic beach bungalow. Do note there are stairs to climb before you can finally drop the bags and exhale.
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  The little kitchen is set up for holiday food rather than feasts: fridge, microwave, kettle, blender and a drip coffee maker on open shelves. There is no stove or oven here, so plan on prep, reheating and easy slow mornings.
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  Sixty seconds from the door, the county beach access opens between the sea oats. Sandy feet, a towel over one shoulder, the Atlantic waiting at the end of the boardwalk. This is the little walk you will end up doing twice a day.
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  Light pours through this room from morning until evening. Ceiling fans turn overhead, the French doors stand open to the balcony, and the whole apartment feels like somewhere you can finally put your shoulders down and exhale.
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  The teal wall and wide plank floors give the living room its character. Curl up with a book, put a film on the smart TV, and listen to the fans turning while somebody else worries about what time it is getting to be.
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  The futon in the living room folds out to a full-size bed, which is how three of you fit here comfortably. Perfect for the friend who decided at the very last minute that they were coming along on this trip after all.
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  Everything opens into everything else here, sofa to rug to dining table to kitchen, so nobody is ever left cooking alone in another room. A small apartment that somehow always seems to have space for one more person.
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  Morning coffee at the bistro table, the French doors thrown open to the balcony, and birdsong doing the work an alarm clock usually does. Some of the best half hours of the whole week happen right here in this corner.
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  The bedroom keeps the same easy blue and white palette, with a king bed sitting under a slowly turning ceiling fan. Plantation shutters mean you can sleep as late as the holiday will let you get away with sleeping.
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  A king bed, crisp linens, and shutters that close the morning out completely if you want them to. The room sits at the quiet end of the apartment, which is exactly where a bedroom on a proper holiday ought to be.
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  Wall-mounted smart TV, a ceiling fan, and the en-suite bathroom just through the doorway, so no midnight expedition is ever required. Sign into your own Netflix or Hulu account and settle in for a very slow evening.
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  Wake to light coming through the shutters and the ceiling fan turning gently above the king bed. Extra pillows and blankets are in the cupboard, in case somebody in your party likes to build themselves a proper nest.
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  Coffee is the first order of business, and everything you need sits within easy reach on the open shelving. We leave you starter coffee supplies, so morning number one does not have to begin with a trip to the shops.
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  The galley kitchen is small, characterful and blue: pans hanging on the rail, wine glasses on the shelf, everything where you can see it. There is no dishwasher here, so it is hands in the sink and somebody on drying.
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  The en-suite bathroom sits just off the bedroom, with a walk-in shower behind the curtain and warm wood underfoot. Towels are provided, and that long hot shower after a day in the salt is honestly the real luxury.
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  Behind the red door at the foot of the stairs is the laundry shed, with a stacked washer and dryer inside. It is shared with the downstairs cottage, which after a week of wet beach towels you will be very glad of.
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  The covered balcony is easily the coolest spot on the property when the afternoon turns fierce. Shade, a breeze coming through the screens, and a chair with your name on it for just as long as you care to sit there.
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  Bright chairs, deep shade, and the sound of the palms doing their thing overhead. This is where the paperback actually gets finished, somewhere between the second coffee and the afternoon walk down to the water.
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  The covered walkway runs the full length of the upstairs, wrapping the apartment in shade and green. A small thing, perhaps, but it is exactly the sort of detail that makes a place feel properly lived in and loved.
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  The grill sits out under the pergola, ready for whatever came back from the fish counter that afternoon. Fire it up, pour something cold, and let the evening take as long as it likes about arriving over the fence.
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  The hot tub sits in its own pocket of the garden, screened by fence and planting on every side. It is shared with the downstairs cottage, and is best enjoyed after dark once the string lights have flickered on.
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  Bubbles, string lights, and the bungalow glowing warmly behind you in the dark. Twenty minutes in here after a long day of sun and salt does more for tired shoulders than anything else you could possibly have planned.
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  The brick path runs down the side of the house past the palms, linking the parking, the courtyard and the stairs up to your door. Everything on this little property sits a few easy steps from everything else.
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  Blue chairs, white gravel, a young tree throwing shade, and the bungalow standing behind. The courtyard is shared with the downstairs cottage: quiet most of the time, sociable on the evenings when you fancy it.
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  The bungalow has stood here a long while and wears its age beautifully, all clapboard, bright blue trim and planting that has properly settled in. Vilano Beach has always been the more characterful end of town.
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  Late afternoon in the courtyard, when the light goes amber and the fire pit begins to look like a very good idea indeed. Pull two chairs together and watch the sky do its evening thing over the tops of the palms.
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  That painted fence along Coastal Highway is a genuine local landmark, and it is how absolutely everybody finds us. Turn in where the colours are and you will know straight away that you have arrived at the right place.
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  The Mermaid Bungalow sign at 2854 Coastal Highway. Look for the hand-painted mermaid on the fence, and if you cannot see her anywhere then you have gone too far and the Publix will be over on your left-hand side.
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  The mural runs the whole length of the fence in yellows and violets, a proper piece of Vilano Beach folk art. Guests photograph it constantly, which probably tells you most of what you need to know about this street.
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  More of the painted fence, this stretch done in reds and driftwood blues. Small details like this are exactly why people keep coming back to this corner of Vilano rather than the big resorts further down the coast.
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  The Vilano Beach crossing, only minutes from the door. Turn one way for the sand, and the other for the Publix, the boat ramp and dinner out on the Intracoastal at Beaches Restaurant or the Kingfish Grill.
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  The Vilano Beach fountain marks the heart of the little town: shops, seafood, and the bridge over to Camachee Cove for boat hire and deep-sea fishing charters whenever you fancy spending a day out on the water.
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  Coastal Highway runs straight past the property, which is how you get everywhere else so quickly. Five minutes to historic St. Augustine, a couple of minutes to the grocery, and seconds to the sand itself.
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  The fenced boundary of the property, clearly marked and private. Beyond it lies the sandy path towards the beach; behind it, your courtyard, the shared hot tub and the fire pit waiting patiently for the evening.
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  The parking area sits behind the fence, screened from the road. There is one space per unit, so look for the stained glass sea turtles and jellyfish hung on the fence to know you are in exactly the right spot.
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  The bungalow seen from the lane, lavender clapboard against the palms, with the exterior stairs up to Unit B over on the right. Photographs never quite catch how green this whole street becomes in high summer.
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  The full front of the building, with your own staircase climbing to the upstairs door. Two separate homes in one historic bungalow, each with its own entrance, its own colour scheme and its own distinct character.
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  From above you can see just how close the Atlantic really is: a short walk from the door and you are standing on the sand. Vilano rooftops, palms and dunes running all the way down to the edge of the water.
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  An aerial over the neighbourhood, all quiet lanes, mature palms and low-slung beach houses. This is a residential pocket rather than a resort strip, which is very much the whole point of choosing to stay here.
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  The lie of the land: the bungalow, its fenced courtyard, and the sandy path threading off towards the dunes. Everything you actually need on holiday sits comfortably inside a five-minute walk of the front door.
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  Coastal Highway curving away north with the ocean off to the right. Ten minutes takes you down to historic downtown St. Augustine, and twenty-five gets you up to the golf, shopping and dining at Ponte Vedra.
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  The bungalow tucked into its green corner, with the beach path running along past the fence. It is exactly the sort of spot people mean when they say they want to be near the water without being right on top of it.

Light pours through this one-bedroom apartment all day long. It's Unit B, the upstairs half of a historic beach bungalow on Coastal Highway, and it sits a short walk from the Atlantic on one side and the Tolomato River — what locals call the Intracoastal — on the other.

The covered back balcony is the heart of the place: seating, a grill, and enough shade to survive a Florida afternoon. Downstairs in the courtyard there's a paver patio under a lit pergola, a fire pit ringed with Adirondack chairs, and a hot tub shared with the downstairs unit.

Inside, a king bed fills the bedroom and a futon in the living room opens to a full, so three people sleep comfortably. Both TVs are smart TVs — sign in to your own Netflix, Hulu or HBO. The wifi is fast.

A note worth reading before you book: this is a compact vintage apartment. The kitchen is set up for prep and reheating rather than cooking — there is a full-size refrigerator and freezer, a microwave, toaster, kettle, blender, coffee maker, cookware, dishes and wine glasses, but no stove, no oven and no dishwasher. You reach the front door by an exterior staircase, so you need to be able to manage stairs.

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Location

Saint Augustine, Florida

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