There are certain things that just make sense in St. Augustine: walking St. George Street, stopping along the bayfront, taking far too many pictures of the Castillo—and eventually deciding that it is entirely too hot to continue without ice cream.
Fortunately, downtown St. Augustine is exceptionally good at solving that problem.
Within a relatively small section of the Historic District, you’ll find handcrafted ice cream, Italian-style gelato, gourmet ice pops, enormous waffle cones, chocolates, and one particularly clever dessert that sandwiches ice cream between cookies and a layer of pie filling.
The harder question isn’t where can you find ice cream downtown?
It’s which place should you choose?
If you only have room for one dessert, these are some of the best places to start.
Mayday Ice Cream — Best Overall
Mayday Handcrafted Ice Cream & Cookies
100 St. George Street
If someone visiting St. Augustine asked us for one downtown ice cream recommendation, Mayday would be difficult to beat.
Located at 100 St. George Street, with its entrance around the corner near Hypolita Street, Mayday specializes in small-batch handcrafted ice cream. Even the waffle cones and sprinkles are made in-house. The downtown shop typically carries a combination of year-round favorites and rotating seasonal flavors, so there is usually something beyond the standard chocolate-or-vanilla decision.
Look for flavors such as Coffee + Donuts, Ice Box Lemon, Blueberry Toast Crunch and The Aviator, a chocolate-hazelnut creation with Biscoff cookies and hazelnuts. Dairy-free selections are available as well.
Part of what makes Mayday such an easy recommendation is the location. Grab a cone and you’re immediately back in the middle of the Historic District rather than committing another chunk of your afternoon to a separate dessert excursion.
Venturewell Pick: If you’re trying only one traditional ice cream shop downtown, start here.
Craft Ice Cream
Mayday Handcrafted Ice Cream & Cookies
A beachside favorite serving handcrafted small-batch ice cream, fresh-baked cookies, homemade waffle cones, and creative seasonal flavors just minutes from the sand.
- Counter Service
- Takeout
Peace Pie — Best Ice Cream Sandwich
Peace Pie
8 Aviles Street
Calling Peace Pie an ice cream sandwich shop doesn’t quite explain what you’re getting.
The signature dessert combines ice cream with pie filling and shortbread-style cookies, creating something halfway between an ice cream sandwich and a slice of pie that has somehow figured out how to become portable.
You’ll find the St. Augustine location on Aviles Street, one of the prettiest little streets in the Historic District. That makes Peace Pie particularly convenient if you’re exploring the southern end of downtown around the Plaza de la Constitución, Lightner Museum and Flagler College.
This is also our choice when someone in the group says, “I don’t really want a regular scoop of ice cream.”
Fine.
Get them a pie disguised as an ice cream sandwich.
Pie Meets Ice Cream
Courtesy of Google
Peace Pie
A playful downtown dessert shop famous for decadent ice cream sandwiches layered with premium ice cream, pie-inspired fillings, and buttery shortbread cookies.
- Counter Service
- Takeout
Café del Hidalgo — Best for Gelato
Café Del Hidalgo- Ice Cream, Food, And Drink
35 Hypolita Street
For gelato rather than traditional American-style ice cream, Café del Hidalgo is one of downtown’s longtime options.
Tucked just off St. George Street on Hypolita Street, the café serves gelato and sorbet alongside coffee, espresso drinks, crepes, cannoli and other café fare.
The location is particularly useful when your group can’t agree on what constitutes an appropriate afternoon break. One person can order gelato, another can get coffee, and someone else can decide that a crepe is somehow more responsible than either.
It isn’t.
But everyone leaves happy.
Best for: Couples, coffee-and-dessert stops and anyone specifically looking for gelato.
Italian Café & Gelato
Café Del Hidalgo
Café Del Hidalgo is a charming Italian café on the edge of St. George Street serving handcrafted paninis, fresh salads, specialty espresso drinks, homemade crepes, and authentic Italian gelato made from family recipes. It's an excellent stop for lunch, dessert, or an afternoon coffee while exploring Historic Downtown.
- Counter Service
- Family Friendly
- Takeout
The Hyppo — Best St. Augustine Original
The Hyppo Gourmet Ice Pops
48 Charlotte Street
Technically, we’re cheating.
The Hyppo doesn’t specialize in traditional scooped ice cream. It makes gourmet ice pops.
But leaving it off a guide to downtown St. Augustine’s best frozen treats would be ridiculous.
The Hyppo has become one of the city’s signature dessert stops, creating handcrafted pops with combinations of fruit, herbs and spices rather than treating the popsicle as something that should remain permanently trapped in elementary school cafeterias. Southern Living has even singled it out as a St. Augustine stop for an after-dinner treat.
You’ll find the original downtown shop on Charlotte Street, just a short walk from St. George Street and the bayfront.
On a genuinely hot Florida afternoon, this may actually be our favorite choice on the entire list. A fruit-forward ice pop can feel considerably more refreshing than a heavy sundae when you’ve spent the previous three hours walking around downtown in August.
Best for: Hot afternoons, families and visitors looking for something distinctly St. Augustine.
Kilwins — Best for Ice Cream + Chocolate
Kilwins Ice Cream – Chocolate – Fudge
140 St. George Street
You may smell Kilwins before you decide to go inside.
That’s part of the problem.
And by problem, we mean the likelihood that you entered downtown intending to buy absolutely nothing and are now standing on St. George Street holding ice cream, fudge and a caramel apple.
Kilwins combines super-premium ice cream with its better-known chocolate-shop experience, including fudge, chocolates, caramel apples and other sweets. That makes it particularly useful for families where everyone wants something different—or anyone who wants a dessert now and another one mysteriously tucked into a bag “for later.”
There are Kilwins locations along St. George Street, making it an easy addition to a downtown walk.
Best for: Families, chocolate lovers and anyone who believes an ice cream stop should involve considerably more than ice cream.
Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Cream — Best Classic St. George Street Stop
Tedi’s Ice Cream
65 St. George Street
Sometimes you don’t need an elaborate dessert concept. You want to walk into an old-fashioned ice cream shop, stare at a case full of flavors and leave with an irresponsibly large scoop in a waffle cone.
That’s where Tedi’s fits nicely.
Located directly on St. George Street, Tedi’s Olde Tyme Ice Cream is one of the easiest stops to work into a Historic District afternoon. It’s known for generous scoops, plenty of flavor choices and classic waffle-cone ice cream-shop appeal.
There isn’t much itinerary planning required here. If you’re walking St. George Street and someone announces that they want ice cream immediately, you’re already in the right place.
Best for: Families, traditional ice cream lovers and spontaneous St. George Street dessert stops.
The Sweet Spot — For the Full Vacation-Treat Experience
Right in the middle of St. George Street, The Sweet Spot is an easy stop when the afternoon heat starts winning and something cold sounds particularly good. This isn’t the place we’d choose specifically for small-batch or experimental ice cream; its appeal is the classic vacation-dessert experience — colorful, fun, casual and conveniently located in the heart of the Historic District.
Ice cream is part of the draw, but the oversized milkshakes and playful dessert-shop atmosphere give The Sweet Spot its personality. It’s particularly easy to work into a day of sightseeing because you don’t have to leave the main St. George Street corridor to find it.
Best for: Families, milkshake lovers and anyone wanting a fun treat while walking St. George Street.
Local Tip: Don’t make a special drive downtown just for this stop. The Sweet Spot makes the most sense as an impulse dessert break while you’re already exploring St. George Street — which is exactly why it works so well on this walking list.
Castillo Ice Cream — Best Stop Near the Fort
Castillo Ice Cream
20 S. Castillo Drive
If your afternoon revolves around the Castillo de San Marcos and the northern end of the Historic District, Castillo Ice Cream earns a place on the list largely because it combines a strong selection with an exceptionally convenient location.
The small family-run shop sits directly across from the Castillo area and near the Colonial Quarter, making it an easy reward after exploring the fort—particularly if you’re traveling with kids.
It offers a surprisingly large selection of flavors along with coffee and espresso drinks, which is helpful if half the family wants ice cream and the other half is desperately searching for caffeine.
Best for: Families visiting the Castillo, coffee lovers and anyone starting their downtown exploration from the north end.
One More Worth Knowing: Cookie Crush by Mayday
Cookie Crush by Mayday
15 Hypolita Street
If Mayday sounds good but a regular cone doesn’t seem sufficiently excessive, walk over to Cookie Crush.
This Mayday dessert concept pairs its ice cream with freshly baked cookies for ice cream sandwiches, cookie sundaes and specialty shakes. In other words, this is less of an “ice cream break” and more of a commitment.
It’s particularly fun after dinner when you’re already wandering downtown and have abandoned any pretense that dessert needs to be reasonable.
So, Where Should You Go?
If you want our best overall pick, go to Mayday.
For gelato, try Café del Hidalgo. For something uniquely associated with St. Augustine, grab a gourmet pop from The Hyppo. If you’re near the Castillo, Castillo Ice Cream is an easy stop. And if a scoop simply isn’t enough dessert for you, Peace Pie or Cookie Crush should solve that problem rather efficiently.
The good news is that downtown St. Augustine is compact enough that choosing incorrectly isn’t much of a tragedy.
You can always walk another few blocks and try again.
We consider that research.
A Local Tip: Don’t Eat It Inside
Unless it’s brutally hot outside, take your ice cream with you.
One of the pleasures of getting dessert downtown is wandering the Historic District after dinner. Walk St. George Street, cut through the Plaza de la Constitución, or head toward the bayfront and Bridge of Lions as the temperature starts dropping.
And if you’re visiting during Nights of Lights, an evening ice cream stop followed by a walk through the illuminated Historic District is one of those wonderfully simple St. Augustine experiences that doesn’t require a reservation, ticket or itinerary.
Just don’t underestimate Florida’s ability to melt a waffle cone faster than you can eat it.
Keep Exploring Downtown St. Augustine
Ice cream can easily become part of a larger afternoon or evening downtown. Explore our guides to the best restaurants in Historic Downtown, things to do on St. George Street, where to park in downtown St. Augustine, and the best things to do in St. Augustine at night to keep planning your visit.
