About Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach

Home to natural splendor, rich history

Located 30 miles from Jacksonville and an hour’s flight from Atlanta, Amelia Island’s natural beauty is reminiscent of the time before theme parks dominated Florida’s leisure landscape.

A barrier island that borders Georgia as the northernmost tip of Florida, Amelia Island is 13 miles long, two miles wide and connected to the rest of the state by two bridges.

Its 100-year-old, moss-covered oaks and white-sand beaches, with dunes as high as 40 feet, serve as a breathtaking backdrop for world-class golf courses, fishing, kayaking, sunset sails, horseback riding, hiking, bird-watching or just beachcombing.

As a result, Conde Nast Traveler’s 2004 Reader’s Choice Awards ranked Amelia Island No. 5 among North American islands to visit. The same rankings placed Sanibel, Fla., No. 6 and Hilton Head, S.C., No. 7.

Visitors will find a range of accommodations on Amelia Island for everything from romantic getaways to family vacations to business meetings and conferences. In addition to eight historic bed and breakfasts, like the Ash Street Inn, the island also has a variety of hotels, motels and resorts.

Amelia Island is immediately south of Cumberland Island (Ga.) National Seashore, the island nature preserve where wild horses run free and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were married in a secret ceremony in 1996.

Amelia Island was named in honor of Princess Amelia Hanover, daughter of England’s King George II. Today, it is also known as the Island of Eight Flags because it’s the only location in the United States to have been ruled under different eight flags. As a result, its landscape is steeped in history.

It is home to a Civil War-era fort that hosts regular reenactments and overlooks Cumberland Sound, one of the East’s deepest inlets. Amelia Island is also home to Florida’s first African-American resort community, American Beach. Part of Florida’s Black Heritage Trail, it was a mecca for black vacationers in its heyday in the 1930s, but today it’s a quiet residential community.

Amelia Island also has Florida’s only spoken-history museum, the Amelia Island Museum of History, which is housed in the renovated 1935 county jail and gives walking tours of Fernandina Beach, a Victorian seaport village that’s the only town located on the island.

Much of Fernandina Beach remains largely as it was in the 19th century when building there stopped after developers bypassed Amelia Island in favor of Florida’s southern frontier. Then considered Amelia Island’s misfortune, it proved a pivotal point in the island’s history, suspending it in the charm and graciousness of the Victorian era.

Known for its laid-back, small-town hospitality, Fernandina Beach is home to 450 Victorian structures built prior to 1927 in a rainbow of colors, including its eight historic B&Bs.

Its picturesque 50-block historic district is included on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors find its shady streets, lined with replica gas-lantern lights, an ideal place to stroll with more than 50 shops and 25 restaurants.

Centre Street, the heart of downtown, is lined with boutiques, galleries and cafes. The street is also home to Florida’s oldest tavern, The Palace Saloon, which was frequented by the Carnegies and Rockefellers and still serves drinks from its original 40-foot mahogany bar.

The Fernandina Beach City Marina sits a block away from the saloon. Boats from the area’s shrimping fleets are anchored there. It is also the arrival point for occasional cruise ships and the departure point for sunset sails, where visitors can cap off their stays with the dolphins, sea turtles and spectacular views of the island’s coastline.