Unique Things to Do at Jacksonville's Beaches

1. Walk out on the Jacksonville Beach pier

The landmark on this shore. Hurricanes in the 2010s took a quarter of its length, it was rebuilt, and it reopened in 2022. Walking out on it puts you several hundred feet from the sand with the town behind you, anglers around you, and pelicans doing their unlikely business of falling out of the sky into the water.

There is a fee to fish and there are rules posted about what you may do out on the deck. Read them at the entrance rather than finding out at the far end. The blocks around the pier are the hardest parking on the coast, which is a good argument for arriving on a bike from the house.

2. Spend an evening at Beaches Town Center

Where Atlantic Boulevard finally runs out at the ocean, two cities meet: Neptune Beach on one side of the street, Atlantic Beach on the other. In between is a couple of blocks of restaurants, bars and shops that functions as the social center for the whole north end of the beaches.

The best thing about it is that almost nobody drives there. It is a walking and cycling district by habit rather than by design, there is a beach access at the end of it, and on a warm evening it has more of a town feeling than anywhere else on this coast.

3. Go up to Mayport and watch the shrimp boats

North of Atlantic Beach, where the St. Johns River meets the Atlantic, Mayport is a fishing village that has been working since long before anyone came here on holiday. Shrimp boats tie up along the waterfront with their nets hung out, and the naval station next door means you may well watch a grey warship come up the river past them.

It is a short drive north and an unglamorous, entirely real thirty minutes. Go in the afternoon when the boats are in.

4. Take the St. Johns River ferry, for no particular reason

State Road A1A runs up the coast and then, at the river, simply becomes a boat. The ferry carries cars, bikes and people on foot between Mayport village and Fort George Island, running roughly every half hour, with a crossing of a few minutes.

• There is a fare, lower for foot passengers and cyclists than for vehicles. The operator publishes the current rates and schedule.
• It is the most enjoyable possible way to start a trip to Little Talbot Island, Big Talbot Island or Fort Clinch.
• It is also a perfectly good twenty-minute outing on its own: cross, look at the river, and come back.
• Dolphins in the river mouth are common enough that people stop noticing them.

5. See what is on at the Adele Grage Cultural Center

On Ocean Boulevard in Atlantic Beach, in a small park, the city runs a cultural center with an art gallery that changes its exhibition monthly and a sixty-seat theater that hosts community productions, children's theater programs and concerts.

Sixty seats is the point. It is a municipal building doing exactly what a small town's municipal building should do, and it is a genuinely good rainy evening if something is on. The city posts the current schedule.

And one more: sharks' teeth at Mickler's Landing

South over the county line at Ponte Vedra Beach, Mickler's Landing is a public access with parking and restrooms and a long-standing reputation for fossil sharks' teeth. They gather in the shell beds at the waterline, and they are dark, small and triangular rather than the bright white you might be imagining. Come at low tide, come after a storm if you can, and be prepared to look at the ground for an hour. It is the best thing on this coast for a child who has decided the beach is boring. More on the beach itself in the First Coast beaches guide.

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