The South End

Amelia Island has two personalities and the south end is the resort one. North of Sadler Road you get a nineteenth-century port town; south of it you get pine and palmetto, gated entrances, golf, and beach that empties out the further south you drive.

What the south end is

The geography is simple: A1A (here called First Coast Highway) runs the length of it, with the ocean on the east and salt marsh on the west. Development sits mostly in two large planned communities — the Omni Amelia Island Resort and the former Amelia Island Plantation — plus Summer Beach, and the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island on its own oceanfront parcel.

At the very bottom of the island, Amelia Island State Park is undeveloped: no buildings, no lifeguards, and the only place in Florida's state park system offering horseback riding on the beach.

Who should stay here

Stay south if your trip is about the beach, golf, tennis, or keeping small children within a short walk of a pool. The trade-off is that dinner downtown is a ten-to-fifteen-minute drive each way, and there is no walkable restaurant district — resort dining plus a handful of independents at the Palmetto Walk and Amelia Island Plantation shops.

Stay downtown instead if you want to walk to dinner and are happy to drive to the sand.

Beach access without a resort key

You do not need to be a resort guest to use the beach. Florida beaches are public below the mean high-water line, and the county maintains public accesses along the south end — Peters Point Beachfront Park, Scott Road, Burney Park and the state park all have parking. Resort-owned walkovers are for guests; the public accesses are the ones to aim for.

Getting around

Driving, mostly. The Amelia Island Trail provides a paved multi-use path along part of A1A, and the flat terrain makes cycling pleasant, but distances are real — it is about thirteen miles from the state park to the north end of the island.