American Beach was founded in 1935 by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company so that Black Floridians could reach the ocean under segregation. It is a living neighbourhood, not a monument, and it anchors a route that also takes in the A.L. Lewis Museum, Kingsley Plantation across the Talbot islands, and the island's oldest burial ground.
A small oceanfront community on Amelia Island's south end, founded in 1935 by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company as a beach where Black Floridians could swim during segregation. Home to NaNa, the tallest dune in Florida, and the A.L. Lewis Museum.
Details unconfirmed
The museum interpreting American Beach, the oceanfront community founded in 1935 by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company so that Black Floridians could reach a beach under segregation. Includes the story of Evans' Rendezvous and the protected NaNa dune.
Details unconfirmed
A Nassau County beach park at American Beach on the island's south end, with a free lot, restrooms, picnic pavilions and a dune walkover. The practical parking and facilities for anyone visiting American Beach and the NaNa dune.
A National Park Service site in the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, about 40 minutes south of Amelia Island, holding the oldest surviving plantation house in Florida and a semicircle of tabby cabins built and lived in by enslaved people.
Details unconfirmed
Amelia Island's old burial ground north of downtown, established in the Spanish colonial period and still in use. Live oaks, Spanish moss and graves spanning the island's several nationalities — one of the quietest places on the island.
Details unconfirmed
The island's history museum, housed in the former Nassau County jail on South 3rd Street in downtown Fernandina Beach. Interprets the Isle of Eight Flags story, the Timucua, the railroad and shrimping eras, and runs guided walking tours of the historic district.
Fort George Island Cultural State Park is a state park at 11241 Fort George Road. We have confirmed its address, phone number and website directly (2026-09-10); opening hours and prices are not confirmed, so we do not publish them here.
Two hundred undeveloped acres at the island's southern tip on Nassau Sound: beach, dune, marsh and maritime forest, with no buildings and no lifeguards. The only Florida state park offering guided horseback riding on the beach.
Off this map Kingsley Plantation and Fort George Island
This is a route rather than a schedule, and it needs two days if you include Kingsley Plantation.
Amelia Island's beaches were segregated. In 1935 the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, a Black-owned insurer based in Jacksonville, bought oceanfront land on the island's south end and founded American Beach so that Black Floridians could reach the ocean at all. It became a resort in its own right — a place people travelled to.
That is the fact the rest of this route hangs on, and it is also the reason the neighbourhood is not a museum exhibit: people live there now.
The A.L. Lewis Museum at American Beach interprets the community, the story of Evans' Rendezvous — the oceanfront club that was the centre of its social life — and NaNa, the protected dune within the neighbourhood that is the tallest in Florida.
Go here first if you can. The neighbourhood reads completely differently afterwards, in the same way the downtown storefronts do after the history museum.
We hold no confirmed opening hours or admission for the museum. Ring before you drive down.
This matters enough to say plainly. American Beach is a residential neighbourhood, not a heritage site with a car park and a gift shop.
About forty minutes south, on Fort George Island inside the Timucuan preserve, Kingsley Plantation holds the oldest surviving plantation house in Florida and — the reason to go — a semicircle of tabby cabins built and lived in by enslaved people. Tabby is a local material: lime, sand and oyster shell. The cabins are the most direct physical evidence of slavery you can stand in front of within reach of this island.
It is a National Park Service site. The NPS sets hours and any fees, and we do not republish figures we have not confirmed.
Combine it with Fort George Island and the Talbot islands on the drive down — see Big Talbot for the boneyard beach.
Bosque Bello Cemetery north of downtown was established in the Spanish colonial period and is still in use. Graves span the island's several nationalities and its several eras, and it is one of the quietest places on Amelia Island.
The Amelia Island Museum of History downtown covers the wider chronology — eight flags, the port, the railroad and the shrimping industry — and is the right frame for all of the above.
Day 1 — the A.L. Lewis Museum, American Beach and Burney Park, then south to Amelia Island State Park at the tip. Evening downtown. Day 2 — Kingsley Plantation and Fort George Island, back up through the Talbot islands. Bosque Bello and the history museum if there is light left.
Opening hours and admission for the museum and for Kingsley Plantation; the precise height and protected status of NaNa; and the detailed history of Evans' Rendezvous beyond what the museum itself presents. Those need the A.L. Lewis Museum and the National Park Service as sources, and until we have them this page stays short on numbers and long on directions. See our editorial policy for what we do and do not stand behind.
Part of Amelia Island itineraries.