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Amelia Island is one of those all natural, all friendly and all-comfortable resort areas of north Florida that are often overlooked by the beach traveler.

Let us be honest, most of us totally ignore north Florida on our way southward to its lavish and sometimes overwhelmed tropical beaches. We are doing ourselves a great disservice if the goal is a low-maintenance family getaway in a natural but pampered setting. Just past the Georgia State line and easily accessible via Jacksonville's user-friendly airport, the environmentally serene and amenity-rich resort of Amelia Island Plantation lies modestly in wait for the creative, nature-appreciating traveler.

The 1,350-acre, self-contained subtropical Shangri-La is not immediately visible to the casual observer. Roadways and buildings are meticulously and surgically inserted between, and designed around, a completely intact forest canopy strewn with Spanish Moss, sensitive tree stands, fragile dunes and rare wetlands.

Activities & Amenities

Families will enjoy world-class golfing, nature programs and trails, 3.5 miles of Atlantic beach, 23 swimming pools, 23 tennis courts (the Plantation's Racquet Park has hosted some of the most famous tennis championship players), a full service spa (do not leave without a massage), health and fitness center, fine dining, business/conference center, shopping, fishing, sailing, kayaking, horseback riding, and award-winning youth programs. Complimentary shuttles run throughout the resort and Island Hoppers (commuter golf carts) are available for self-guided transportation.

To enjoy the myriad activities and choice of housing, take advantage of the competitively priced spa or golf packages; depending on the season, these can be excellent values. Families can combine adult activities with the resort's Kids Camp Amelia youth program (for ages 3 to 10-years, daily all year and some evenings) and find they need not plan at all. The supervised programs keep toddlers to teens active with scheduled nature tours, tennis/golf clinics, story time, scavenger hunts, babysitting, crabbing, sports instruction, volleyball, jet ski excursions and DJ-hosted teen socials. Finish a day with the Just for Kids evening dinner activities or send them to the Games Room.

Appreciating the Eco-System

The result of this sustainable vision for the resort is a premium oceanside development that is absolutely compatible with environmental stewardship and natural resource conservation goals. Make no mistake - living at one with nature does not mean you have to rough it or go without the family-friendly and premium relaxation experience many search for in a vacation. Here, nature is to be enjoyed - not avoided.

To truly revel in the Plantation's pampering, enjoy the juxtaposition of extensive amenities against a backdrop of unique natural resources. It encompasses some of the east coast's Atlantic barrier island ecosystem and the Florida subtropical zone. This blend of habitats provides a very rare and unique ecosystem of its own with plant and animal communities rarely seen elsewhere - 50-foot live oak forests stand with pine, magnolia and palmettos, terns, sandpipers, storks and even the occasional bald eagle.

You can take a guided or self-guided nature tour at Drummond Point Park or Walker's Landing. At the nature center, sign up any budding marine biologists for one of the center's many creature appreciation activities. The same rare co-mingling of temperate forest and southern coastal fauna is also evident in wildflowers, reptiles, fish and mammals so don't forget your "Peterson" or "Audubon" nature guides for this trip.

Even 72 championship holes of golf courses are uniquely designed and landscaped around natural areas of forests, dunes and lagoons providing some of the most impressive scenery and harmonious design a golfer might ever witness. Ocean Links provides ocean-side undulating and open greens mixed with dunes and salty breezes. The Oak Marsh course emphasizes accuracy and precision with numerous water hazards and bunkers. Long Point is exemplary of meticulous emplacement of fairways and greens throughout forest wilderness and marshes.