The Nassau County mainland immediately west of Amelia Island, across the Shave Bridge: the island's supermarkets, chain retail, big-box stores and the I-95 interchange, plus the route to Jacksonville airport and the Cumberland Island ferry.
Yulee is not a destination and this page is not pretending otherwise. It is the practical infrastructure that makes a week on Amelia Island work.
Groceries. If you have taken a villa, a condominium or a house — which a large share of visitors do — the supermarkets are here, not on the island. The island's own food retail is limited, and a proper shop means crossing the bridge.
Chain retail and big-box stores. There is no mall on Amelia Island and very little chain anything. Pharmacies, home goods, hardware, sporting goods and the discount stores are all in Yulee.
The interchange. I-95 meets A1A here, which is how nearly everyone arrives.
Petrol. Cheaper on the mainland than on the island, reliably.
West across the Shave Bridge on A1A / 8th Street. From downtown Fernandina Beach it is about fifteen minutes to the main Yulee retail cluster; from the south end, twenty to twenty-five.
There are two ways off the island — the Shave Bridge to the west and the Nassau Sound bridge to the south — and both carry everything. That matters on festival weekends and holiday changeover days.
Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) is about 30 to 40 minutes south via I-95. This is the only sensible airport for the island.
St Marys, Georgia — the departure point for the Cumberland Island National Seashore ferry — is about 35 minutes north, up A1A and I-95 across the state line.
Jacksonville itself is under an hour, and it is the answer to a genuinely wet day: museums, the zoo, and everything an island of 13,000 people does not have.
Big and Little Talbot Island State Parks, Fort George Island and Kingsley Plantation are all on the coastal route south, roughly 20 to 40 minutes away, and make a good half-day.
Worth saying plainly: a large share of the people who staff Amelia Island's restaurants, hotels and parks live in Yulee and on the mainland, because the island is expensive. If you are wondering why the roads onto the island are busy at shift-change times, that is why.
Not much, and that is fine. There are county parks and boat ramps on the marsh side worth knowing about if you are fishing or paddling, and the drive along the marsh at either end of the day is genuinely beautiful.
We have not confirmed which specific stores operate in the Yulee retail cluster at present, so we have deliberately not listed any — retail turns over and a stale list is worse than none. Check a map before you drive over for something specific.
Off this map Yulee
A long-established waterfront restaurant built out over the docks at the Fernandina Harbor Marina, at the foot of Centre Street. Seafood and American cooking with the closest thing on the island to dining on the water rather than beside it.
Details unconfirmed
The working marina at the foot of Centre Street on the Amelia River, with the shrimp fleet, boat tours and charters, a public boardwalk and the island's best sunset view. The reason downtown Fernandina Beach faces the water it does.
A two-storey seafood bar and grill at the foot of Centre Street with a rooftop deck over the Amelia River and the shrimp docks. Downtown Fernandina Beach's most-used sunset spot, and a reliable stop for fried shrimp, grouper and a cold beer.
Part of Areas of Amelia Island — our full guide to the complete amelia island, florida visitor guide.