Florida US1 From Jacksonville To Key West

Welcome to Routes 1 and A1A, the dual coastal roads alongside the Atlantic coast between Jacksonville and Key West that lead you on the best Florida seaside street journey.

U.S. Route 1 runs alongside the japanese coast of the United States for greater than 2,000 miles between Key West, Florida and Fort Kent, Maine. Designed within the 1920’s to cowl a route much like that of the outdated Atlantic Highway, it connects the main east coast cities in a direct method that the extra fashionable I-95, which parallels it, doesn’t.

A New York to Florida summer time street journey (actually a low-cost seaside getaway) occupied two or three weeks in my youth. Today, time-pressed households usually discover a shorter stretch of US 1. Focus on the fantastic mixture of Route 1 and Route A1A that snakes alongside the Atlantic coast of Florida from Jacksonville to Key West. The southernmost finish, maybe probably the most enjoyable drive of all, was constructed because the two-lane Overseas Highway from Miami to Key West within the mid-Thirties and was annexed to US 1 quickly afterward.

Need a reduction rental automobile to your Florida household trip?

From the Georgia border south, driving US1 will take your loved ones by Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Daytona Beach, Titusville, Melbourne, Fort Pierce, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and all the way in which to Key West.

Note the factors the place US 1 separates from the seaside by the Intracoastal Waterway (Florida’s marine freeway). To the east you’ll discover Route A1A, additionally seen as SRA1A (State Road). This smaller coastal street veers off into the charming little (and massive) seaside cities for which Florida is legendary.

A Family Favorite Florida Beach Road Trip, Especially for East Coast Families

This route can be the federally-designated A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Highway in addition to a National Scenic Byway. While it modifications names because it programs by cities and alongside a little bit little bit of undeveloped shoreline, the swaying palms, dune grass and sea grapes, gold sand seashores and glowing waves make it a enjoyable street journey. However, as a result of a lot of A1A runs alongside Florida’s Barrier Islands, the street is topic to flooding or different storm harm and could also be closed in components, particularly when you’re touring through the summer time hurricane season.

You can customise the experience by selecting a couple of of the first household locations alongside the way in which (or veering west to Orlando), and spending as a lot or as little time as you’d like at every one. If you’ve rented a automobile, you may go away it at Key West and fly dwelling, or else backtrack alongside the Overseas Highway to Miami, then leap on I-95 for the lengthy journey north. An excellent useful resource for lodging alongside this route is the reserving.com app since many family-owned properties — some with kitchens, swimming pools, out of doors play areas and household facilities — use it to succeed in a broader viewers.

Our instructed 8-day Florida Beach Road Trip itinerary follows:

Day 1: Jacksonville
Day 2: Jacksonville to St. Augustine
Day 3: St. Augustine to Daytona Beach
Day 4: Daytona Beach to Cocoa Beach
Day 5: Cocoa Beach to Palm Beach
Day 6: Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale
Day 7: Fort Lauderdale to Miami Beach
Days 8-10: Miami to Key West

Day 1: Jacksonville

Beginning in Jacksonville on US 1, households who need to keep a couple of days have greater than sufficient to maintain them busy. Nestled within the northeast nook of Florida, the place the St. John’s River meets the Atlantic Ocean, the town of Jacksonville has two riverwalks full of eating places and outlets, nice museums and several other galleries, loads of out of doors recreation area, and a vigorous waterfront that may be toured by watertaxi.

Get a reduction on a family-friendly resort in Florida to your subsequent household trip.

Families with youthful kids shouldn’t miss the Jacksonville Zoological Gardens, the place greater than 1, 000 animals dwell in pure habitats. Metropolitan Park, the town’s downtown park, gives many free live shows in summer time. If you’ve been driving for awhile and want one thing much more energetic, take the household to Adventure Landing for its amusement rides, waterpark, go-kart racing and teddy bear manufacturing facility. A free trolley circles most of the foremost sights. For extra details about the realm, contact the Visit Jacksonville workplace.

Day 2: Jacksonville to St. Augustine – 41 miles

From Jacksonville Beach, you may drive US 1 south to St. Augustine, the oldest repeatedly occupied European settlement within the continental United States. Make time to drive the 72-mile A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway. Follow the two-lane blacktop surrounded by water on a journey greater than 500 years outdated.

By the early 1600’s, the village of St. Augustine had its personal fort, church, hospital and greater than 100 homes and outlets. The Fountain of Youth, a pure spring stated to be found by Ponce de Leon in 1513, is the town’s most well-known attraction. Park the automobile on the Fountain of Youth Archeological Park to see displays concerning the indigenous Timucua tribes, a Christian Burial Ground, drink from the fountain and extra. Do you are feeling eternally youthful?

Walk round St. Augustine’s small historic district to see Spanish missions. To change modes of transport, it’s also possible to hail a horse-drawn carriage, be part of a sightseeing prepare or hop aboard a guided, sightseeing trolley.

Parents might need to cease in St. Augustine’s Oldest House (the Gonzalez-Alvarez House) courting again to 1727. The youngsters will in all probability benefit from the recreation of the Sixteenth-century St. Augustine Old City, the place costumed interpreters are likely to restored properties and a rustic retailer. Between Thanksgiving and New Years, households can benefit from the annual Night of Lights illumination of the historic metropolis middle. To be part of a ghost tour of the outdated district or perhaps a haunted boat journey, you’ll must spend the evening. For extra details about St. Augustine and the area’s historical past, go to Florida’s Historic Coast.

Day 3: St. Augustine to Daytona Beach – 59 miles

Just an hour south, and proper on A1A, is Daytona Beach, a bustling seaside city recognized for its Sixties Spring Break crowds and the Daytona Speedway. Here, you may overlook about navigating US 1 or A1A and proceed your street journey proper on Daytona’s 17-mile stretch of seaside. Here’s your seaside getaway. Allow time to pause and admire the various colourful dune buggies out on the sand. If you don’t have your personal low-rider convertible Corvette, you may hire one, or a four-seater ATV or dune buggy, from one of many many native distributors; you should definitely take a helmet for every rider. Afterwards, hire a chaise and umbrella, or select a secure place to place down your seaside towels and benefit from the heat Atlantic surf.

If you might be in Daytona Beach on a Sunday, try the Drive-In Church.  Established in 1957 when the First Christian Church bought the Neptune Drive-In Theater.  They organized the primary drive-in church service, and now the Drive-In Church welcomes everybody.  You may even put on your seaside apparel to church since you get to remain within the automobile and tune in in your radio or pay attention by the audio system.  At the tip of the service the reverend will come by to shake your palms, after which you may hop throughout the road to the seaside or carry on driving.

Search Daytona Beach for vacationer data.

Day 4: The Space Coast — Extraterrestrial Florida Beach Road Trip from Daytona Beach to Cocoa Beach – 95 miles

Then comes the well-known Space Coast, a 95-mile stretch of Florida coast that’s dwelling to the Kennedy Space Center and cities of Titusville, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, and Palm Bay. If you’re becoming a member of our street journey after a theme park go to, you’ll see that Orlando is barely 35 miles to the west. This space is a cheap base for a couple of days of enjoyable and sand. Depending on the time of 12 months, select between watching shuttle and rocket launches, browsing or studying the game. Plan on chicken watching, golf, contemporary and saltwater fishing in addition to airboat rides.

The foremost attraction for school-age youngsters and fogeys who longed to be astronauts is the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Allow a full day right here to catch shuttle buses and tour the personal U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. (Book forward to dine with one. ) KSC is dwelling to the Florida department of Space Camp and coaching applications. Live the lifetime of an astronaut with the costly however distinctive half-day Family Astronaut Training Experience. It’s designed for adults and children ages 8 and older to encourage budding astronauts and rocket scientists. Families may benefit from the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibition, which supplies guests an opportunity to get nose-to-nose with the ultimate shuttle orbiter to fly a NASA mission, Atlantis. 

Space Coast Has More Than Outer Space Attractions

Back on earth on the surprisingly attention-grabbing Brevard Zoo, the children can feed giraffes or kayak alongside the zoo’s river.

A star alongside A1A, Cocoa Beach is a well-liked and good worth city to spend a couple of days on your loved ones seaside getaway. There are a variety of attention-grabbing eating places and enjoyable spots, together with the well-known Ron Jon’s Surf Shop — the most important on the planet — the place youngsters can admire the newest surfboard kinds 24/7/365. From the Cocoa Beach Pier, households can watch native surfers paddle out and glide in, or fish the day away. Have a meal within the Historic Cocoa Village, a preserved Victorian-era city constructed alongside the Indian River lagoon that’s a part of the scenic Intracoastal Waterway. Still conserving the mainland in your proper and the slender seaside strip and Atlantic in your left, head south alongside US 1 to one in every of America’s greatest recognized resort areas, toney Palm Beach.

Day 5: Cocoa Beach to Palm Beach – 138 miles

During the two.5-hour-long drive between Cocoa Beach and Palm Beach, you’ll go a couple of family-oriented landmarks. At Vero Beach, the gem of Florida’s so-called Treasure Coast, search for the traditional Cracker homes courting to the mid-Nineteenth century. Typically white, cedar-or cypress-plank, peak-roofed cottages, the properties of poor plantation farmers at the moment are thought-about energy-efficient marvels. Hallmarks of the Florida Crackers embody: oyster shell and lime foundations (to supply shade for chickens and canine who ate the mosquitoes); vast cracks between the floorboards to flow into air; deep porches and sometimes a middle walkway to create shade; and several other home windows to enhance the cross breezes. The Indian River Citrus Museum devoted to the Florida orange-growing enterprise. McKee Botanical Garden options historic sub-tropical plant specimens that improve the genuine outdated Florida really feel; each are closed Mondays.

About 30 miles south and never a lot to take a look at, the city of Port St. Lucie is greatest recognized to household vacationers as the location of the previous Club Med Sandpiper resort. Not far-off in Jupiter, the non-touristy Busch Wildlife Sanctuary offers rehabilitative care to over 4,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals every year and is the kind of hospital that youngsters will need to tour.

Whether you’re an E.F. Hutton inheritor, descendant of European royalty, or similar to to comply with Donald Trump, it’s value a cease in Palm Beach, particularly throughout “The Season” when the wealthy and well-known flee chilly climate to collect at their yachts and mansions. Visitors should make do with a room on the legendary Breakers, Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton resorts, or one of many many different accommodations in all value ranges that cater to households.

West Palm Beach’s Fun Activities to Add to your Florida Beach Road Trip

While bustling West Palm Beach, inland on US 1, attracts a youthful crowd, this engaging Mediterranean type metropolis on Route 1 has loads of swimming swimming pools, a protracted sand seaside, and pure sights that give households a little bit little bit of that south Florida, tropical really feel.

Start on the 500-acre John D. MacArthur Beach State Park on Singer Island. Here, a secluded seaside gives alternatives for beachcombing, swimming or watching nesting turtles between May and August. Ask for a brochure from the character middle so you may hunt for gumbo-limbo, strangler figs and three forms of mangrove timber, in addition to butterflies, toxic vegetation and large spiders.

The Cox Science Center and Aquarium additionally gives out of doors nature trails in addition to a planetarium, aquarium, observatory and miniature golf course. If you’re staying a couple of days and touring with youthful kids, they’ll take pleasure in time on the Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park in addition to the extra industrial Lion Country Safari, a drive-through “game park” that’s most enjoyable through the morning lion feeding periods. For extra data from the Palm Beach Tourist Office, go to their website.

Day 6: Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale – 47 miles

On the way in which south to Fort Lauderdale, pause for conch fritters at any of the seafood shacks alongside the Intracoastal Waterway or make a detour to Hollywood Beach to stretch your legs or bike alongside the 2½-mile oceanfront Boardwalk. This space is full with out of doors cafes and a wide range of up to date condos and old-style motel lodging. The 3½-mile-long Pompano Beach, with play areas and ongoing household festivities, is at all times energetic too. Most households heading into Lauderdale will have already got their resort picked out, as that is one in every of Florida’s hottest household resorts and advance reservations are really helpful.

The palm-fringed, gold sand Fort Lauderdale Beach is a very long time favourite. Explore the mangrove-lined shoreline, infinite rivers, canals, lakes and ponds the place households can discover dolphins, manatees, ospreys and pelicans. It’s an excellent seaside trip vacation spot if your loved ones is involved in deep sea fishing or watersports, as a result of services are plentiful and well-priced for individuals who need to water or jet ski, parasail, be part of a canoe or kayak tour, scuba dive or snorkel — even be taught a more recent sport resembling kite browsing or paddleboarding (stand-up paddling on longboards).

This can be a spot to go to The Everglades, a various wildlife ecosystem that covers 750,000 acres of southern Florida. From Everglades Holiday Park, your loved ones can be part of a guided airboat skimming throughout the highest of the water by the “River of Grass.” After presumably viewing alligators and child crocodiles, waterfowl and eagles of their pure habitat, you may catch the superb alligator present again on the park.

Fun and academic shows of wildlife will be discovered on the industrial Butterfly World/Tradewinds Park and at Flamingo Gardens. Or, you could desire the character trails at Hugh Taylor Birch State Recreation Area, or need to attempt mountain biking in Fort Lauderdale’s Markham Park. In this massive metropolis, there are fixed leisure choices, too, from buying at a myriad of malls, to out of doors cultural performances, summertime kids’s camps, and fantastic artwork museums, together with the Museum of Science and Discovery, a kids’s museum and kids’s theatre. If you’ve received a Michael Phelps within the household, try the International Swimming Hall of Fame.  Get extra journey details about Fort Lauderdale on the Visit Fort Lauderdale web site.

Day 7:  Fort Lauderdale to Miami Beach – 28 miles

The temporary drive south from Lauderdale to Miami alongside US 1 presents a colourful array of outdated and new Florida sights, with slow-moving site visitors, key lime pie outlets, Jewish delis, Cuban cafes and at all times, sun shades and bathing swimsuit outlets. The metropolis of Miami is a good household vacation spot as a result of its particular mix of Latin and European influences makes for an thrilling multi-cultural panorama, nice museums and eating places, and fantastic buying.

For most road-trippers, although, that is the time to open the sunroof and cruise east throughout the MacArthur Causeway, that lengthy, low bridge that connects the mainland to the well-known barrier island of Miami Beach. Driving previous the pastel-colored Art Deco resort towers and beach-bums in flipflops on the sidewalks of Collins Avenue (additionally A1A) is as shut as you will get to the seaside at this level, however at 1st Street — the south finish of the well-known South Beach (or SoBe strip) — you may flip east towards the seaside and drive north on Ocean Drive. This two-lane street is a part of A1A and is the town’s most well-known half-mile stretch, the place everybody will benefit from the people-watching. You might spot a mannequin being photographed on the sands of Lummus Park, a rock star out for a stroll, or an infinite cruise ship leaving the Port of Miami. This busy stretch of gold sand (and the wild curler rink in MacArthur Park) are fairly “the scene.” During the winter excessive season or any weekend night, we suggest that you simply park on Washington, one avenue inland, after which stroll alongside Ocean Drive. Or you may park at one of many Deco accommodations and make this your loved ones seaside getaway.

The must-see is the Art Deco District of South Beach, an entire neighborhood comprised of untamed and colourful Nineteen Twenties and ’30s structure. Start your strolling tour of the registered National Historic Landmark district on the Miami Design Preservation League (1200 Ocean Drive; 305/672-2014), the place maps, guided excursions and souvenirs can be found. These are the blocks that come alive at sundown, when the world’s lovely individuals and people who take pleasure in watching them take up their seats at each sidewalk cafe and resort bar. The FIU Wolfsonian Museum close by homes a unprecedented design assortment, from early twentieth century to Art Deco and past, that older youngsters will take pleasure in seeing.

Plan a meal or a buying spree on the Deco thoroughfare that runs perpendicular to the seaside, now the pedestrian-only, seven-block-long Lincoln Road Mall. All ages will benefit from the sidewalk cafes, outlets, galleries, avenue performers and public fountains – once more a terrific individuals watching spot to be. A worthwhile detour even for individuals who aren’t stopping in Miami is the Venetian Pool in Coral Gables, a spectacular 820,000-gallon pool fashioned from a rock quarry in 1923. With two waterfalls, coral caves, grottos and stone bridges, the spring-fed Venetian Pool sees practically 100,000 guests yearly.

From a base in South Beach or the neighboring, family-freindly neighborhoods of Miami, Coral Gables or Coconut Grove, your loved ones will take pleasure in a few of Miami’s south Florida traditional sights. Allow time to see Jungle Island, Zoo Miami, Butterfly World, the attractive Vizcaya Museum and Gardens on Biscayne Bay, and the Miami Seaquarium marine reveals. Interact with the cool displays on the new Frost Science Museum and Planetarium.

Pause for some croquettas and cafe con leche to arrange youngsters for a go to to Calle Ocho. The neighborhood is Miami’s “Little Havana” the place the delicacies and tradition of the pre-Castro Cuba nonetheless thrives. More data and particulars will be discovered at MiamiAndBeaches.com.

Days 8-10: Miami to Key West – 160 miles

No matter how a lot or how little time your loved ones spends in SoBe, you gained’t have accomplished the US 1-A1A journey till you’ve ridden it to the southernmost level within the United States: Key West. The Florida Keys lengthen south of Miami in a string of slender limestone and mangrove islands bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. You can rush down this National Scenic Byway to Key West in about 3.5 hours or take per week and savor it slowly. Note that almost all addresses are written as MM; the “mile marker” indicators start close to Florida City at round MM 127 and descend to MM 0, website of the Green Parrot Bar (“The 1st and Last Bar on US 1” their signal proclaims) in Key West. Whoever invented this technique anticipated that backseat passengers would sometime ask, “Are we there yet?” and fogeys might inform them to see for themselves.

Of course, you don’t must drive all the way in which to Key West to understand the bohemian allure of most of the Keys communities. The first main key you’ll attain after Key Biscayne (virtually an extension of Miami Beach) is Key Largo, dwelling to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park a famous diving spot, the National Marine Sanctuary, Molasses Reef, and the underwater caves of French Reef. Each space is thought for its wrecks and the luxurious coral reef formations and marine habitats which have developed among the many ship’s ruins.

The signage turns into denser and the seashores turn out to be leaner as you attain Islamorada, the self-styled “Sport Fishing Capital of the World”. You can’t miss the large brown lobster outdoors the Treasure Village present store or the fountains crashing over the illuminated signal of Theatre of the Sea, a marine amusement park with animal reveals and items galore, on little Windley Key. Slow down and revel in a few of the glitziest sights within the Keys, in addition to Cheeca Lodge & Spa with ith its elegantly furnished household condos or The Moorings Village and Spa.

A bit south on Duck Key, Hawk’s Cay Resort is a vacation spot for a lot of Florida households, who like its setting between the bay and the Atlantic, with docks and seashores on either side. This property is bisected by artifical canals, the primary swimming pool has a pirate-themed waterplay space, visitors can swim with dolphins, and the household cottages are well-liked with bigger household teams.

Driving south from the very industrial and developed Marathon Key is Grassy Key, the place you may see a statue of what appears to be like like Flipper. Indeed, that is the place the unique pet dolphin movie “Flipper” was shot within the Fifties. It is claimed the bones of the late star are buried below the sculpture. Almost any turnoff alongside A1A has a narrative.

The Florida Keys owe their years of prosperity to Henry Flagler, the visionary railroad magnate who determined in 1912 he would lengthen his Floridian Overseas Railroad to the tip of the nation. To the west you may see the unique roadbed for the railroad (destroyed way back by a hurricane) and the well-known Seven Mile Bridge (really 6.9 miles), which has been damaged in locations to permit taller ships to cross by. You can stroll or jog down the northern finish from Marathon reaching out to Pigeon Key, an islet to the west of the just lately constructed freeway that may be a Florida Heritage landmark due to its authentic conch homes.

See More on Your Florida Beach Road Trip within the Lower Keys

At about 128 miles south of Miami are the Lower Keys, the area greatest recognized for scuba diving and snorkeling spots. The MS Looe, which ran aground in 1744, is the centerpiece of the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary and a magnet for tropical fish.

An uncommon cease is on the National Key Deer Refuge about 30 miles north on Big Pine Key, the one official North American dwelling of the tiny Virginia white-tailed deer. You’ll additionally see many automobiles pulled over the shoulder of the slender street in order that kayakers and canoers can unload their boats and discover the dense mangrove hugging the roadway. Most of the Keys’ shoreline is damaged coral however there’s a lovely sand seaside on the 500+ acre Bahia Honda State Park the place you may snorkel, kayak, fish, camp, hike and bike.

And, abruptly, fashionable suburban malls seem and also you’re approaching the outskirts of Key West, itself a well-preserved enclave of two-story Victorian homes and conch cottages clustered alongside Duvall Street. Allow no less than a day when you’ve pushed this far, to style key lime pie, present the children the enjoyable outlets, colourful locals, deep sea fishers who spend their days consuming and pirate museums. You’ll need to be part of the road performers and artisans who flip the well-known sundown celebration at Mallory Pier right into a carnival, simply since you’ve come this far.