Amelia Island sits just off I-95 at the Florida–Georgia line in Nassau County. Jacksonville International Airport is a 30-to-40-minute drive and the only sensible arrival point; two bridges carry all traffic onto the island, and both matter on festival weekends.
A 1,400-acre state park on Amelia Island's northern tip holding a well-preserved masonry fort begun in 1847, two beaches, a fishing pier, a mile-long oak-canopy entrance drive, campgrounds and trails. The island's single best half-day out.
Fernandina Beach's busiest and most amenity-heavy oceanfront park, at the east end of Atlantic Avenue. Large free parking lot, restrooms, playground, volleyball, and food and mini-golf across the street — the default choice for a family beach day on Amelia Island.
The 50-block downtown historic district on Amelia Island's river side, centred on Centre Street between 8th Street and the Fernandina Harbor Marina. Victorian storefronts, the island's densest concentration of restaurants and bars, and the Amelia Island Museum of History.
Details unconfirmed
About 300 acres of salt marsh, tidal creek and maritime hammock threaded with flat crushed-shell trails between Atlantic Avenue and Jasmine Street in Fernandina Beach. The island's best free wildlife walk, and reliably good for alligators and wading birds.
Details unconfirmed
Nassau County's largest south-end beach park, off Fletcher Avenue near Sadler Road's southern reach. Big free lot, restrooms, outdoor showers, picnic pavilions and a long boardwalk over the dunes — the south end's answer to Main Beach, usually with more room.
Details unconfirmed
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.
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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.
The resort half of Amelia Island: gated communities, golf, the Omni and Ritz-Carlton properties, and the quietest stretches of beach. Roughly everything south of Sadler Road down to Amelia Island State Park and the Nassau Sound bridge.
Details unconfirmed
The Atlantic side of the city of Fernandina Beach: Fletcher Avenue, Main Beach Park, Seaside Park, the numbered beach accesses, and the mid-size hotels and rentals behind the dune. Five minutes from downtown and directly on the sand.
Details unconfirmed
Off this map Yulee and the Mainland
Amelia Island is easier to reach than its remoteness suggests, because I-95 runs within a few miles of it.
Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) is the answer, at about a 30-to-40-minute drive south of the island via I-95 and A1A. It is a full-service airport with the usual domestic network and rental car desks on site.
Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport, on the island itself, handles general aviation only — no scheduled commercial service. If you are flying privately, that is your field; otherwise it is not relevant.
Other options exist and are worse: Jacksonville is the only airport within a comfortable drive. Savannah is roughly two hours, Orlando about three.
Rent a car at the airport. You will need one — see getting around, below.
The island sits just off I-95 at the Florida–Georgia line. Take the A1A exit and head east.
Approximate driving times in normal traffic, unconfirmed against a routing service:
| From | Approx. drive |
|---|---|
| Jacksonville airport (JAX) | 30–40 min |
| Downtown Jacksonville | ~1 hour |
| St Marys, Georgia (Cumberland ferry) | ~35 min |
| Savannah, Georgia | ~2 hours |
| St Augustine | ~1.5 hours |
| Orlando | ~3 hours |
| Atlanta | ~5.5 hours |
| Charleston, South Carolina | ~3.5 hours |
Check a live routing service before you travel — we have not verified these against one.
There are exactly two ways onto Amelia Island:
The Shave Bridge on A1A from Yulee, on the west side. This is how nearly everyone arrives, and it is the route from I-95 and the airport.
The Nassau Sound bridge from the south, on A1A, coming up the coast past the Talbot Islands from Jacksonville.
Both carry everything. On festival weekends — the Shrimp Festival in early May, the Concours in March — and on holiday changeover days, that is a real constraint. Add time, and if you are arriving on a Saturday in season, arrive earlier than feels necessary.
The southern route via the Talbot Islands is slower but considerably prettier, and it passes Big Talbot Island, Little Talbot Island and Kingsley Plantation — worth taking deliberately on the way in or out if you have the time.
There is no passenger rail to Amelia Island, which is faintly ironic given that the island exists commercially because of the Florida Railroad. Amtrak serves Jacksonville; you would then need a car.
Intercity bus service reaches Jacksonville rather than the island.
The Fernandina Harbor Marina in downtown Fernandina Beach takes transient dockage, and the island sits on the Intracoastal Waterway — a genuine option for anyone cruising the eastern seaboard. The marina has been rebuilt and repaired following storm damage in recent years and the state of individual docks changes; contact the marina before arriving by water.
You need a car. The island is thirteen miles long, there is no meaningful public transport, and the two districts you will use most — downtown and the beach — are two miles apart on opposite sides of the island.
See our getting around page for the detail, and our where to stay guide for why that geography decides where you should book.
Part of Plan your Amelia Island trip.