Spring has the best air and the least rain of the year — April averages 77.4°F and 3.03″, May 83.9°F and 2.68″ — with no humidity and no biting insects until late May. The one thing not co-operating is the ocean, at 71.2°F in April.
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.
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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.
Amelia Island's west side is a maze of tidal creeks and salt marsh feeding the Amelia River, with guided kayak and paddleboard trips running from downtown Fernandina Beach and the south end. Tide timing matters more than fitness here.
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Amelia Island is flat and cycles well: a paved multi-use path along part of A1A, a six-mile off-road trail through maritime hammock inside Fort Clinch State Park, and thirteen miles of firm beach sand rideable on fat tyres at low tide.
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Amelia Island's salt marsh, beach flats and maritime hammock make it a strong birding location: wading birds year-round on the Egans Creek Greenway, shorebirds on the inlet flats at both island tips, and raptors including bald eagles overhead.
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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.
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 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.
One of the few remaining undeveloped barrier islands in northeast Florida, about 25 minutes south of Amelia Island: five miles of Atlantic beach, maritime forest and marsh trails, a campground, and no development behind the dune.
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Off this map Little Talbot Island State Park
If you want the weather to co-operate, come in spring. April is the driest month of the year at 3.03 inches, afternoons reach 77.4°F, the humidity has not arrived and neither have the biting insects. Everything that involves being outside is better now than at any other point in the year.
Everything except swimming.
The ocean is 64.7°F in March and 71.2°F in April, reaching 77.7°F only in late May. The air reaches 77.4°F in April — a 6.2°F gap over the sea — so the day looks like summer and the water empties a swimmer out in a few minutes. The sea lags the air by about two months here. See is the water warm in April.
If your trip is built around swimming, move it to June or later, or to October. If it is not, spring wins outright.
The marsh. Kayaking the creeks behind the island is at its best: warm air, no insects yet, and the spring tides around the new and full moon running big enough to get well back into the marsh. Go an hour either side of high water — at dead low a lot of the back marsh is mud. Check the tides when you plan, not when you arrive.
The trails. Egans Creek Greenway and the six-mile off-road trail inside Fort Clinch are warm enough to walk far and cool enough not to sweat.
Birding. Spring migration through a barrier-island marsh, with the wading birds resident year-round.
Cycling. The island is flat, and fat-tyre bikes work on the firm beach sand at low tide.
The beach, for walking. Thirteen miles of hard flat sand at low water, and the sandbars exposed for wading — cold, but wadeable.
| Average high | Average low | Rain | Ocean | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March | 72.2°F | 54.1°F | 3.27″ | 64.7°F |
| April | 77.4°F | 59.8°F | 3.03″ | 71.2°F |
| May | 83.9°F | 67.7°F | 2.68″ | 77.7°F |
Evenings still want a jacket into April. Humidity arrives towards the end of May, and so do the insects.
The Shrimp Festival, early May, closes downtown streets and books out the whole island months ahead. Concours weekend in March fills the south-end resorts. Both are worth planning around in either direction — see events.
Sea turtle nesting opens 1 May. From then the beach carries rules that are enforced: fill in holes, take gear off the sand overnight, keep lights off the beach. See when do sea turtles nest.
Part of Things to do on Amelia Island.