Florida's Best Beaches and other Jacksonville, FL General Tips

Favorite Thing: The beaches of Jacksonville are some of the most beautiful in all of Florida. Atlantic Beach is my favorite of the residential/tourist beaches, and Big Talbot Island is my favorite "natural" beach.

Jacksonville's beaches are generally very wide, with soft, white powder sand above the high tide line and damp, packed sand below the high tide line. The damp, packed sand is great for bicycling! Calm tidal pools and small pockets of shells commonly form along the shoreline. Be sure to check out my descriptions of Jacksonville's diverse beaches in both the "Must See Activities" and "Off the Beaten Path" tips.

Jacksonville's beaches include (from north to south): Big Talbot Island, Little Talbot Island, Huguenot Park, Hanna Park, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Mickler's Landing and Guana River State Park. In addition, the sandy shores of Amelia Island, just north of Jacksonville, are also generally considered part of Jacksonville's beaches. For a map of Jacksonville's beaches, including Amelia Island, see my travelougue section.


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Favorite Thing: This acclaimed annual festival attracts some of the biggest names in jazz to Jacksonville every April. Once held in the fall at Metropolitan Park, the festival moved to the spring a couple years ago and now takes advantage of a variety of venues like the Florida Theatre and the Ritz Theatre, in addition to the main event at Metropolitan Park. While the festival celebrates music, artists of another type also compete each year to win the official Jacksonville Jazz Festival poster design contest. Prints of the winning design are not only used to promote the event but also become local collectors' items.

For information on the Jacksonville Jazz Festival call 904.630.3690.


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Favorite Thing: Florida's largest free outdoor blues festival, the George's Music Springing the Blues Festival has quickly earned a reputation for itself by showcasing top blues artists. Drawing fans from throughout the region, Springing the Blues has even been filmed for airing on public television stations around the country. The festival is held near the beginning of spring at the new oceanfront Seawalk Pavillion in Jacksonville Beach.

For more information on the George's Music Springing the Blues Festival call 904.270.2220.


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Favorite Thing: The Greater Jacksonville Metropolitan Area covers four counties in the northeastern corner of Florida. As this destination is very rich in its tourism offerings I have split my coverage of metro Jax into three separate destination pages as follows:

JACKSONVILLE
includes the communities of atlantic beach, jacksonville, jacksonville beach, neptune beach, orange park and ponte vedra beach

AMELIA ISLAND (45 minutes north of downtown)
includes the communities of amelia island and fernandina beach

SAINT AUGUSTINE (45 minutes south of downtown)
includes the communities of crescent beach, saint augustine, saint augustine beach, vilano beach and world golf village

Be sure to visit all three pages and their accompanying tips to get the full story on what to see and do when visiting the Jacksonville area.


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Favorite Thing: With the Atlantic Ocean, St. Johns River, Intracoastal Waterway, numerours tributaries, and acres of wetlands, Jacksonville is most certainly an aquatic city. As a result, the area has more than 200 bridges of all sizes. Most notably, however, are the seven iconic bridges that cross the St. Johns River and serve as symbols of our great city. In fact, the official logo for Super Bowl XXXIX, which will be held in Jacksonville in February 2005, even features a bridge. Here is a brief run down of the big seven by their most commonly called names, as well as a listing of the causeway bridges that cross the Intracoastal Waterway to link the beaches to the mainland.

ST. JOHNS RIVER (from north to south):
1. Dames Point Bridge (6 lanes)
2. Matthews Bridge (4 lanes)
3. Hart Bridge (4 lanes)
4. Main Street Bridge (4 lanes, draw bridge)
5. Acosta Bridge (6 lanes)
6. Fuller Warren Bridge (I-95, 8 lanes)
7. Buckman Bridge (I-295, 8 lanes)

INTRACOASTAL (from north to south):
1. Heckscher Drive (2 lanes, draw bridge)
2. Wonderwood Connector (4 lanes)
3. Atlantic Blvd. (6 lanes)
4. Beach Blvd. (4 lanes, draw bridge)
5. Butler Blvd. (4 lanes)
6. Palm Valley Rd. (4 lanes, just S of Jax)


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Favorite Thing: The entire Atlantic and Gulf shoreline of Florida is divided into seven "coasts," each with its own nickname that is indicative of the area. The "First Coast" is, essentially another name for Greater Jacksonville as it refers to the northeastern stretch of beaches that run from Fernandina Beach, on Amelia Island, down through Flagler Beach, located a little over an hour south of Jacksonville. This area is called the First Coast because a.) it is historically the first coast discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513, b.) it is the first coast you reach when entering Florida from the north, and c.) some people argue that it is the state's best coast. Regardless of how you interpret the name, the First Coast is certainly a great place to be!

Jacksonville, of course, is the hub, but I have also created pages for 4 other cities located in the First Coast: Amelia Island, St. Augustine, Palm Coast, and Flagler Beach. Amelia Island and St. Augustine are considered part of the Jacksonville Metropolitan Area while Palm Coast and Flagler Beach are in small but rapidly growing Flagler County to the south.


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Favorite Thing: In 2003, Jacksonville joined the select group of U.S. cities offering regularly scheduled cruises to the Caribbean on major cruiselines. Both Carnival and Celebrity offer a variety of cruise packages from Jacksonville ranging from a few days to a couple of weeks. Check their web sites to learn how you can turn your Jacksonville vacation into a Jacksonville and the Caribbean vacation!


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Favorite Thing: Numerous celebrities either live in, used to live in or are from the Jacksonville area. Here is a list of some of the notable names tied to Jacksonville:

MUSIC:
Yellowcard, Limp Bizkit, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mase, Tim McGraw, Ray Charles, The Allman Brothers Band, .38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Slim Whitman, 95 South, Puddle of Mudd

TV/MOVIES:
David Hasselhoff, Oliver Hardy, Jay Thomas, Bill Murray (regular tourist)

MODELS:
Kim Alexis, Leeanza Cornett (former Miss America), the winner of Tyra Banks' supermodel search

SPORTS:
Pat Summeral, numerous professional football, golf and tennis stars, "Bullet" Bob Hayes, Artis Gilmore

LITERATURE:
Stephen Crane, Harriett Beecher Stowe, James Weldon Johnson, John Grisham (regular tourist)

ALSO OF NOTE:
While never a resident, Elvis Presley performed his first on-stage concert at Jacksonville's Florida Theatre. He had a regular suite at the Hilton Downtown, which still exists as the "Elvis Suite"

Jacksonville's Raines High School has been a prolific supplier of NFL talent. Numerous players in the NFL today are graduates of this school.


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Favorite Thing: While I don't know of any commercial citrus farms in the area I can certainly say that orange and grapefruit trees are a common sight in the yards of Jacksonville. Many residents pick their own fruit from their own trees. I guess that's another one of the many perks to being a Florida resident.


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Favorite Thing: Hibiscus flowers, a symbol of tropical beauty, can be spotted growing in Jacksonville throughout the year.


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