St. Augustine New Year's Eve Taxi Service

New Year's Eve is one of the busiest nights of the year for taxi companies across the country, and St. Augustine and St. Johns County are no exception.

Some taxi companies take reservations. Others don't.

My advice from behind the wheel was simple: plan ahead.

If you're celebrating at your favorite pub or restaurant, arrange your transportation early and, if possible, don't wait until every bar in town closes before deciding you need a ride home.

Back then, Abraxi Taxi normally accepted credit cards. But on exceptionally busy nights, overloaded wireless and cellular systems could make our old mobile credit-card equipment unreliable.

So for New Year's Eve we sometimes advised customers to carry cash as a backup.

Technology has improved considerably since 2013.

New Year's Eve traffic has not.

Enjoy St. Augustine and everything the Ancient City has to offer. If you're drinking, leave the driving to somebody else.

Have a plan. Be patient. Get home safely.

And remember: at 2 a.m. on New Year's Day, approximately everybody in St. Augustine has suddenly discovered that they need a taxi.

Abraxi Taxiom: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Archive note — 2026: This article has been lightly updated from the original December 2013 Abraxi Taxi post. References to credit-card connectivity and transportation procedures describe the technology and business conditions at that time.

Saint Augustine Taxi Musings

Well the weather has been cold and nasty but Preston Pohl should warm things up next week when he comes back home.
Come downtown early and enjoy the Night of Lights and a cocktail or two.
Then call Abraxi Taxi to see Preston Perform at the Standard Friday December 20th.
If no taxi service is available the Standard is just a short walk over the Bridge of Lions.
So if you find yourself in historic Saint Augustine Florida;
after it be a Holly Jolly Trolley or a spooky ghost tour come over to the island mon and get down with Preston Pohl.

Saint Augustine

https://abraxi.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/christmas-time-in-saint-augustine-florida/

We miss Preston

Check out @abraxitaxi's Tweet: https://twitter.com/abraxitaxi/status/395386832260968448

Preston Pohl in battle round tonight on The Voice | StAugustine.com Mobile

Preston Pohl in battle round tonight on The Voice | StAugustine.com Mobile

Preston kills it again.

http://abraxi-taxi.tumblr.com/post/64833936786/preston-pohl

Halloween in St. Augustine: Ghosts, Costumes and a Safe Ride Home

Halloween has always been a busy night for St. Augustine—and really, what better city is there for it?

We're the nation's oldest city. By simple cab-driver logic, we've had more time to accumulate ghosts.

St. Augustine embraces its spooky reputation with ghost tours, haunted history, costumes, pub crawls and Halloween events throughout the historic district and surrounding area.

For visitors, that's part of the fun. You can spend the evening walking centuries-old streets, hear stories about the people who once lived here, visit some supposedly haunted locations and then head downtown for food, drinks and entertainment.

For taxi drivers, Halloween brings another tradition: designated driving.

If your Halloween plans include drinking, make your transportation plans before you go out. Leave the driving to someone else and concentrate on having a good time.

Costumes are encouraged. Creativity is appreciated.

Trying to drive home after too many Halloween spirits—the liquid kind—isn't.

Abraxi Taxi has spent many Halloween nights carrying ghosts, goblins, pirates, witches and occasionally people whose costumes we never quite figured out around St. Augustine.

Have fun. Be strange. Enjoy the Ancient City after dark.

Just get home safely.

Abraxi Taxiom: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Presto Pohl and the Voice

https://abraxi.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/preston-and-the-voice/

St. Augustine Celebrates Its 450th Birthday

We survived St. Augustine's 450th birthday party—and what a party it was.

In 2015, America's Ancient City celebrated 450 years since its founding in 1565. The celebration brought residents and visitors together for several days of music, ceremonies, history and special events throughout the city.

For those of us driving taxis, major celebrations like this look a little different from behind the wheel.

More visitors mean packed hotels, crowded restaurants, busy streets and plenty of people looking for transportation. It was another reminder that St. Augustine may be an old city, but it certainly knows how to throw a party.

The 450th celebration was also part of a remarkable period for St. Augustine. Major concerts and events were bringing national attention to the city, including the Mumford & Sons Gentlemen of the Road Stopover during the broader 450th Commemoration period.

After the birthday celebration, our attention turned toward another St. Augustine tradition: Nights of Lights.

When major events come to the Ancient City, our advice remains much the same today as it was then: plan ahead. Reserve your accommodations early, make restaurant plans, expect traffic and think about transportation before everyone else has the same idea.

St. Augustine has been welcoming visitors for centuries.

Abraxi Taxi hasn't been around quite that long—but we've certainly driven through some memorable celebrations.

Abraxi Taxiom: In a 450-year-old city, even the traffic has history.

The Taxi Delivery That Hit the Jackpot

Driving a taxi isn't always about taking passengers from one place to another. Over the years, Abraxi Taxi has received some unusual requests, including customers asking us to pick up something they needed and bring it to them.

One longtime customer, Mr. Calloway, occasionally called us for deliveries.

One day his request was a little different.

He wanted a Powerball lottery ticket.

We picked it up and delivered it, just as we would any other small errand. Nothing particularly exciting about that—or so we thought.

Weeks went by.

Then Abraxi Taxi received a nice check in the mail accompanied by a very short note:

“I won.”

Apparently, Mr. Calloway's taxi-delivered lottery ticket had been a winner.

Good luck, Mr. Calloway. We were delighted for you, although there was one downside for Abraxi Taxi:

We lost a regular customer.

That's the taxi business. You spend enough years driving around St. Augustine and eventually you become a small part of people's lives—and occasionally their winning lottery story.

Abraxi Taxiom: Sometimes the best fare is the one that gets lucky.

Come Visit St. Augustine, Florida

Looking to get away? Come visit St. Augustine, Florida.

St. Augustine offers something unusual for a Florida vacation: you can combine history, beaches, restaurants, nightlife and family activities without traveling very far.

Historic downtown is a natural place to begin. The Castillo de San Marcos, old streets, museums, shops and waterfront give visitors plenty to explore on foot. Families can find attractions for children, while adults have an impressive selection of restaurants, bars and live entertainment.

And don't forget the beaches.

St. Augustine Beach, Vilano Beach and the surrounding coastline offer a completely different experience from historic downtown. A visitor can spend the morning exploring centuries of history and the afternoon with their feet in the Atlantic Ocean.

Getting around is part of the adventure. Visitors arrive by car, fly into Jacksonville, stay at beach hotels or choose accommodations in the historic district. Local taxis can also be useful when you would rather leave the car behind, especially for dinner, nightlife and busy downtown events.

One advantage of using a local taxi service is local knowledge. After years of driving these streets, you learn more than shortcuts. You learn where people eat, where they go for entertainment, which areas get congested and how St. Augustine changes from one season to the next.

Come for the history. Stay for the beaches. Eat well, explore a little, and enjoy America's Ancient City.

Planning a visit? Read our newer guide to getting around St. Augustine for more local transportation tips from a longtime St. Augustine driver.

Abraxi Taxiom: The best shortcut through St. Augustine is knowing where you're going.

Mumford & Sons Comes to St. Augustine

St. Augustine was preparing for one enormous weekend when Mumford & Sons brought the Gentlemen of the Road Stopover to the Ancient City.

Abraxi Taxi was a small local taxi company, so we began taking a limited number of reservations well before the event. We knew traffic would be heavy, parking would be scarce and thousands of visitors would be trying to move around a city whose historic streets were never designed for crowds of that size.

Abraxi Taxi's company name and telephone number were even included with transportation information associated with the event—something pretty exciting for a small local cab company.

Our advice to concertgoers was simple: plan your transportation early, expect to walk, bring rain gear just in case, carry plenty of water and be patient.

For those of us working the streets that weekend, this wasn't just another concert. It was one of those major St. Augustine events that demonstrated how quickly the entire city could become part of the show.

Years later, it remains a memorable chapter in Abraxi Taxi's history and in the story of major live music events in St. Augustine.

Abraxi Taxiom: When the whole city has a ticket, make sure you have a ride.

St. Augustine Amphitheatre Transportation

The St. Augustine Amphitheatre has brought countless concerts and special events to the Ancient City over the years.

For a local taxi driver, concert nights mean one thing: lots of people trying to get to the same place at the same time—and then everybody wanting to leave at once when the show ends.

If you're attending a concert in St. Augustine, planning your transportation ahead of time can make the evening much easier. Traffic around major events can be heavy, and pickup locations may change depending on road closures and event procedures.

Abraxi Taxi has spent years navigating St. Augustine during concerts, festivals and other busy events.

Enjoy the show, be patient with the traffic, and remember that getting there is only half the adventure. You still need a plan for getting home.

Abraxi Taxiom: Everybody remembers the opening act. Smart concertgoers remember the ride home.