Welcome to Routes 1 and A1A, the dual coastal roads alongside the Atlantic coast between Jacksonville and Key West that kind the best Florida seaside highway journey.
U.S. Route 1 runs alongside the jap coast of the US 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 Designed within the 1920’s to cowl a route much like that of the outdated Atlantic Freeway, it connects the main east coast cities in a direct means that the extra fashionable I-95, which parallels it, doesn’t.
A New York to Florida highway journey (a.okay.a. low cost seaside getaway) occupied two or three weeks every summer season in my youth. At present, time-pressed households usually discover a shorter stretch in Florida. But, that is nonetheless gradual journey at its finest.
This 12 months, give attention to the great mixture of Route 1 and Route A1A that snakes alongside the Atlantic coast of Florida. Drive yourselves or select personal transportation from Jacksonville to Key West.
The southernmost finish of the route is probably probably the most enjoyable drive of all. It was constructed because the two-lane Abroad Freeway from Miami to Key West within the mid-Nineteen Thirties and was annexed to US 1 quickly afterward.
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The Attraction of Florida’s Route A1A
From the Georgia border south, driving US1 will take your loved ones by Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Daytona Seashore, Titusville, Melbourne, Fort Pierce, West Palm Seashore, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and all the best way to Key West.
Notice the factors the place US 1 runs inland from the seaside. The Atlantic coast and US1 are separated by the scenic Intracoastal Waterway (Florida’s marine freeway). To the east you’ll discover Route A1A, additionally marked SRA1A (State Highway). This smaller coastal highway veers off into the charming little (and large) seaside cities for which Florida is legendary.
A Household Favourite Florida Seashore Highway Journey, Particularly for East Coast Households
The federally-designated A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Freeway can also be a Nationwide Scenic Byway. It adjustments names because it programs by cities and alongside slightly little bit of undeveloped shoreline.
This stretch of highway protects a few of Florida’s final remaining native habitats. Nature lovers should cease on the Guana River Administration Wildlife Space or Washington Oaks State Park. Fowl life, big oaks and coquina rock tidal swimming pools are conserved in each areas. Again on the primary highway, the view adjustments again to swaying palms, dune grass and sea grapes, gold sand seashores and glowing waves to make sure a enjoyable highway journey.
Professional Tricks to Plan Your Jacksonville to Key West Journey
1 . Be careful for highway closures, particularly in the course of the summer season hurricane season. A lot of A1A runs alongside Florida’s barrier islands, so the highway is topic to flooding or different storm injury
2. Customise the drive by selecting a couple of key household locations alongside the best way (or veer west to Orlando.) Spending as a lot or as little time as you’d like at every cease.
3. Go away rental vehicles in Key West and fly house, or else backtrack alongside the Abroad Freeway to Miami, then bounce on I-95 for the lengthy journey north.
4. Plan forward to search out very inexpensive locations the place the youngsters can let off steam at night time. An Airbnb different and good useful resource for lodging is the reserving.com app . Many family-owned properties with kitchens, swimming pools, and outside play areas (and industrial trip rental companies) use it to succeed in a broader viewers.
Our advised 8-day Florida Seashore Highway Journey itinerary follows:
Day 1: Jacksonville
Day 2: Jacksonville to St. Augustine
Day 3: St. Augustine to Daytona Seashore
Day 4: Daytona Seashore to Cocoa Seashore
Day 5: Cocoa Seashore to Palm Seashore
Day 6: Palm Seashore to Fort Lauderdale
Day 7: Fort Lauderdale to Miami Seashore
Days 8-10: Miami to Key West
Day 1: It Begins in Jacksonville
Start in Jacksonville on US 1. Households who wish 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, town of Jacksonville has two riverwalks full of eating places and retailers. Discover nice museums and a number of other galleries. Uncover loads of outside recreation house, and a energetic waterfront that may be toured by watertaxi.
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Households with youthful youngsters shouldn’t miss the Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens, the place greater than 1, 000 animals stay in pure habitats. Metropolitan Park, town’s downtown park, affords many free concert events in summer season.
Been driving for some time and want one thing extra lively? Take the household to Journey Touchdown for its amusement rides, waterpark, go-kart racing and teddy bear manufacturing unit. A free trolley circles lots of the primary points of interest. For extra details about the realm, contact the Go to Jacksonville workplace.
Day 2: Jacksonville to St. Augustine – 41 miles
From Jacksonville Seashore, drive US 1 south to St. Augustine, the oldest constantly occupied European settlement within the continental U.S. Make time to drive the 72-mile A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway. Comply with the waterfront two-lane blacktop on a highway that started greater than 500 years in the past.
Stroll round St. Augustine’s small historic district or change modes of transport. Hail a horse-drawn carriage, be a part of a sightseeing practice, ebook an Uber, or hop aboard a guided, sightseeing trolley.
By the early 1600’s, the Spanish colony of St. Augustine had a fort, church, hospital and greater than 100 homes and retailers. Tour Fort Mose Historic Park for the story of Free Black troopers and households loyal to the King of Spain. It’s simply a part of the fascinating Black historical past of St. Augustine.
Feeling worn out by the drive? Rejuvenate the household on the touristy Fountain of Youth, a pure spring stated to be found by Ponce de Leon in 1513. Search for displays in regards to the indigenous Timucua tribes, a Christian Burial Floor, and paper cups to drink from the spring.
St. Augustine Enjoyable for the Household
You’ll must spend a minimum of two nights to get to know this enjoyable city.
Take a golf cart Ghost Tour of the city’s historic district, or perhaps a haunted boat journey. Between Thanksgiving and New Years, households can benefit from the annual Evening of Lights illumination, when the historic metropolis middle glitters in white vacation decor.
For extra details about St. Augustine and the area’s historical past, go to Florida’s Historic Coast.
Day 3: St. Augustine to Daytona Seashore – 59 miles
Retaining the Matanzas River in your proper, proceed south on A1A to Marineland Dolphin Journey. Little ones can be thrilled with a dolphin interplay at ‘the world’s first oceanarium’ – a little bit of classic Americana based in 1938. Cross Flagler Seashore and inside an hour you’ll attain Daytona Seashore.
This bustling seaside city is thought for its Daytona Speedway. Overlook about navigating US 1 or A1A and proceed your highway journey driving proper on Daytona’s 17-mile stretch of seaside!
Right here’s your seaside getaway. Stroll the Daytona Seashore Boardwalk. Cease for some treats on the pier, then see if there’s stay music (all the time free) occurring on the Bandshell. Hire a chaise and umbrella or put down your seaside towels and benefit from the heat Atlantic surf. Vacationers with pets can head to the Ormond Seashore Canine Seashore.
Quirky Daytona Seashore Enjoyable
Admiring the numerous colourful dune buggies out on the sand? Should you don’t have your personal low-rider convertible Corvette, lease one, or a four-seater ATV or dune buggy, from native distributors. You’ll want to take a helmet for every rider.
The Daytona Lagoon is an leisure middle with a small water park, amusement park rides, minigolf and a zipper line.
In case you are in Daytona Seashore on a Sunday, take a look at the Drive-In Church. The First Christian Church established it in 1957 after they bought the Neptune Drive-In Theater. 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. On the finish of the service the reverend will come by to shake your fingers. Then, hop throughout the road to the seaside or carry on driving.
Then comes the well-known House Coast. The 95-mile stretch of Florida coast is house to the Kennedy House Heart and cities of Titusville, Cocoa Seashore, Melbourne, and Palm Bay.
Should you’re becoming a member of our highway journey after a theme park go to, you’ll see that Orlando is barely 35 miles to the west.
This space is a cost-effective base for a couple of days of enjoyable and sand. Relying on the time of 12 months, select between watching shuttle and rocket launches, browsing or studying the game. Between June and October, be a part of a bioluminscent kayak tour on the brackish waters of the Mosquito Lagoon, Banana River, or Indian River Lagoon. Tiny underwater creatures glow once you disturb the water floor making a Milky Means of their very own. Alternatives for conventional fowl watching, golf, contemporary and saltwater fishing — in addition to airboat rides — abound.
House Speak on The House Coast, A part of Your Florida Highway Journey
The primary attraction for wannabe astronauts is the Kennedy House Heart at Cape Canaveral. Permit a full day right here. Admission features a terrific, two-hour bus tour of the launch pads and the U.S. Astronaut Corridor of Fame. (E book forward to dine with one.) The distinctive, half-day ATX: Astronaut Coaching Expertise is designed for ages 10+ to encourage budding astronauts and rocket scientists. Households can even benefit from the House Shuttle Atlantis exhibition, which provides guests an opportunity to get nose-to-nose with the ultimate shuttle orbiter to fly a NASA mission, Atlantis.
Offbeat Cocoa Seashore Has Spacey Charms
Again on earth on the surprisingly fascinating Brevard Zoo, the youngsters can feed giraffes or kayak alongside the zoo’s river.
A star alongside A1A, Cocoa Seashore is an effective worth city to spend a couple of days of your loved ones seaside getaway. There are fascinating eating places and enjoyable sights. Go to Ron Jon’s Surf Store — the biggest on this planet — so youngsters can admire the newest surfboard types. Open 9am-11pm every day.
Watch native surfers paddle out and glide in, or fish the day away, from the Cocoa Seashore Pier. Have a meal within the Historic Cocoa Village. The preserved Victorian-era city constructed alongside the Indian River lagoon may be very industrial and an incredible picture opp alongside the scenic Intracoastal Waterway.
Nonetheless maintaining the mainland in your proper and the slim seaside strip and Atlantic in your left, head south alongside US 1 to one in all America’s finest identified resort areas, toney Palm Seashore.
Day 5: Cocoa Seashore to Palm Seashore – 138 miles
Through the 2.5-hour-long drive between Cocoa Seashore and Palm Seashore, you’ll go a couple of family-oriented landmarks. Vero Seashore is the gem of Florida’s so-called Treasure Coast. Search for the traditional Cracker homes relationship to the mid-Nineteenth century. Sometimes white, cedar-or cypress-plank, peak-roofed cottages, the properties of poor plantation farmers are actually thought of energy-efficient marvels.
Hallmarks of the Florida Crackers in Vero Seashore
- Oyster shell and lime foundations (to supply shade for chickens and canines who ate the mosquitoes)
- Broad cracks between the floorboards to flow into air
- Deep porches and sometimes a middle walkway to create shade
- A number of home windows to enhance the cross breezes.
The Indian River Citrus Museum is devoted to the Florida orange-growing enterprise. Name forward to verify their working schedule: 772/770-2263. McKee Botanical Backyard options historic sub-tropical plant specimens that improve the genuine outdated Florida really feel; closed Monday.
The Highway to Palm Seashore Paved with Gold
About 30 miles south and never a lot to have a look at, the city of Port St. Lucie is finest identified to household vacationers as the location of the previous Membership Med Sandpiper resort. Not distant in Jupiter, the non-touristy Busch Wildlife Sanctuary offers rehabilitative care to over 4,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals every year. That is the kind of hospital that children will wish to tour.
Whether or not you’re an E.F. Hutton inheritor, descendant of European royalty, or identical to to comply with Donald Trump, it’s price a cease in Palm Seashore. That’s particularly throughout “The Season” when the wealthy and well-known flee chilly climate to assemble at their yachts and mansions. Guests should make do with a room on the legendary Palm Seashore resorts, or one of many many different motels in all value ranges that cater to households.
Add West Palm Seashore’s Household Actions to your Florida Seashore Highway Journey
West Palm Seashore, inland on US 1, attracts a youthful and hipper crowd. However in summer season, this enticing Mediterranean type metropolis on Route 1 has enchantment to households. Disover loads of swimming swimming pools, an extended sand seaside, and pure points of interest that give households slightly little bit of that south Florida, tropical really feel.
Begin on the 500-acre John D. MacArthur Seashore State Park on Singer Island. Right here, a secluded seaside affords alternatives for beachcombing, swimming or watching nesting turtles between Could and August. The character middle brochure guides you to gumbo-limbo, strangler figs and three varieties of mangrove bushes, in addition to butterflies, toxic crops and big spiders.
The Cox Science Heart and Aquarium additionally affords outside nature trails in addition to a kid-oriented planetarium, aquarium, observatory and miniature golf course. Should you’re staying a couple of days within the Palm Seashores and touring with youthful youngsters, they’ll take pleasure in time on the Palm Seashore Zoo at Dreher Park. The very industrial Lion Nation Safari is a drive-through “recreation park” that’s most enjoyable in the course of the morning feeding periods.
Day 6: Palm Seashore to Fort Lauderdale – 47 miles
Heading south to Fort Lauderdale, pause for conch fritters at any of the seafood shacks alongside the Intracoastal Waterway. (Conch is farmed now so contemporary fritters are more durable to search out!)
Detour to Hollywood Seashore to stretch legs or bike alongside the 2½-mile oceanfront Hollywood Boardwalk. This space is full with outside cafes and a wide range of up to date condos and old-style motel lodging. The 3½-mile-long Pompano Seashore, with play areas and ongoing household festivities, is all the time lively too. Most households will have already got their Fort Lauderdale Resort picked out, as that is one in all Florida’s hottest household resorts and advance reservations are really helpful.
The palm-fringed, gold sand Fort Lauderdale Seashore is a very long time favourite. Discover the mangrove-lined shoreline, countless rivers, canals, lakes and ponds the place households can discover dolphins, manatees, ospreys and pelicans. It’s a perfect seaside trip vacation spot if your loved ones is taken with deep sea fishing or watersports. Amenities are plentiful and well-priced! Water ski or jet ski, parasail, be a part of a canoe or kayak tour, scuba dive or snorkel. The youngsters can study kite browsing or standup paddleboarding right here too.
Fort Lauderdale & Everglades Household Points of interest
That is additionally a spot to go to The Everglades, a various natural world ecosystem that covers 750,000 acres of southern Florida. At Everglades Vacation Park, be a 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 possibly can catch the wonderful alligator present again on the park.
Enjoyable and academic shows of wildlife might be discovered on the industrial Butterfly World and on the 60-acre Flamingo Gardens. Nature trails at Hugh Taylor Birch State Recreation Space and mountain biking paths in Fort Lauderdale’s Markham Park are much less industrial. On this massive metropolis, there are fixed leisure choices, too. Store at a myriad of malls and luxuriate in outside cultural performances. Enroll youngsters in summertime youngsters’s camps. Go to positive artwork museums, together with the Museum of Science and Discovery, a youngsters’s museum and kids’s theatre. Should you’ve obtained a Michael Phelps within the household, take a look at the Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Fame.
Day 7: Fort Lauderdale to Miami Seashore – 28 miles
The temporary US 1 drive south from Lauderdale to Miami presents colourful outdated and new Florida sights. Count on slow-moving site visitors, key lime pie retailers, Jewish delis, Cuban cafes and all the time, sun shades and bathing swimsuit retailers. The town of Miami is a nice household vacation spot as a result of its particular mix of Latin and European influences makes for an thrilling multi-cultural panorama.
For many 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 Seashore. Drive previous the pastel-colored Artwork Deco lodge towers and beach-bums in flipflops on the sidewalks of Collins Avenue (additionally A1A.) 1st Road is the south finish of the well-known South Seashore (or SoBe strip.) Flip east right here towards the seaside and drive north on Ocean Drive.
Through the winter excessive season or any weekend night, we advocate you park on Washington, one road inland, after which stroll alongside Ocean Drive. Or you possibly can park at one of many Deco motels and make this buzzy stretch your loved ones seaside getaway.
Placed on the Glam to Get Aware of SoBe’s Ocean Drive
South Seashore’s Ocean Drive could also be only a two-lane highway. Nonetheless, this a part of A1A is town’s most well-known half-mile stretch. Everybody will benefit from the people-watching, assured. It’s possible you’ll spot a mannequin being photographed on the sands of Lummus Park or a rock star out for a stroll. Watch for huge cruise ships leaving the Port of Miami. Take a look at this busy stretch of gold sand and the wild curler rink in MacArthur Park.
The must-see is the Artwork Deco District of South Seashore. A complete neighborhood is comprised of untamed and colourful Twenties and ’30s structure. Begin your strolling tour of the registered Nationwide Historic Landmark district on the Miami Design Preservation League, the place maps, guided excursions and souvenirs can be found. The FIU Wolfsonian Museum close by homes a rare design assortment, from early twentieth century to Artwork Deco and past, that older youngsters will take pleasure in seeing.
Miami Space Household Points of interest
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 Highway Mall. All ages will benefit from the sidewalk cafes, retailers, galleries, road performers and public fountains. The Venetian Pool in Coral Gables, a spectacular 820,000-gallon pool shaped from a rock quarry in 1923, is a worthwhile detour. With two waterfalls, coral caves, grottos and stone bridges, the spring-fed Venetian Pool sees greater than 30,000 guests yearly.
From a base in South Seashore 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 points of interest. Permit time to see the attractive Vizcaya Museum and Gardens on Biscayne Bay, and the Miami Seaquarium marine reveals. Work together 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. Extra info and particulars might be discovered at MiamiAndBeaches.com.
Days 8-10: Miami to Key West – 160 miles
You haven’t accomplished the US 1-A1A journey till you attain the southernmost level in the US: Key West. The Florida Keys lengthen south of Miami in a string of slim limestone and mangrove islands bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. You may rush this Nationwide Scenic Byway to Key West in about 3.5 hours or take every week and savor it slowly.
Professional Tip: Most addresses are written as MM; the “mile marker” indicators start close to Florida Metropolis at round MM 127 and descend to MM 0, web site of the Inexperienced Parrot Bar (“The first and Final Bar on US 1” their signal proclaims) in Key West. Whoever invented this technique anticipated that backseat passengers would sometime ask, “Are we there but?” and oldsters may inform them to see for themselves.
Exploring the northern Florida Keys
You don’t must drive all the best way to Key West to understand the bohemian allure of lots of the Keys communities. The primary main key you’ll attain after Key Biscayne (virtually an extension of Miami Seashore) is Key Largo. It’s house to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park a famous diving spot, the Nationwide Marine Sanctuary, Molasses Reef, and the underwater caves of French Reef. Every 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 into leaner as you attain Islamorada, the self-styled “Sport Fishing Capital of the World.” You may’t miss the enormous brown lobster exterior the Treasure Village reward store. Cease for the fountains crashing over the illuminated signal of Theater of the Sea, a marine amusement park with animal reveals and presents galore, on little Windley Key.
Driving south from the very industrial and developed Marathon Key is Grassy Key, the place you possibly can see a statue of what appears to be like like Flipper. Certainly, that is the place the unique pet dolphin movie “Flipper” was shot within the Nineteen Fifties. It’s stated the bones of the late star are buried beneath the sculpture. Virtually any turnoff alongside A1A has a narrative.
Florida Keys Resorts within the Center of Keys
Decelerate and luxuriate in a number of the glitziest points of interest within the Keys. There are notable Florida Keys resorts just like the Cheeca Lodge & Spa with ith its elegantly furnished household condos or The Moorings Village and Spa.
A bit south on Duck Key, Hawks Cay Resort is a vacation spot for a lot of Florida households. It has a picturesque 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, friends can swim with dolphins, and the household cottages are in style with bigger household teams.
The Florida Keys are full of small resorts. They owe years of prosperity to Henry Flagler. The visionary railroad magnate’s title is in all places. He determined in 1912 he would lengthen his Floridian Abroad Railroad to the tip of the nation and made historical past.
Heading south, look inland to the unique roadbed for the railroad (destroyed way back by a hurricane.) The well-known Seven Mile Bridge (truly 6.9 miles) is damaged in locations to permit taller ships to cross by. You may stroll or jog down the northern finish from Marathon to Pigeon Key. The islet to the west of the lately constructed freeway is a Florida Heritage landmark due to its authentic conch homes.
See Extra on Your Florida Seashore Highway Journey within the Decrease Keys
At about 128 miles south of Miami are the Decrease Keys. This area is finest identified for scuba diving and snorkeling spots. The MS Looe, which ran aground in 1744, is the centerpiece of the Looe Key Nationwide Marine Sanctuary and a magnet for tropical fish.
An uncommon cease is on the Nationwide Key Deer Refuge about 30 miles north on Large Pine Key. It’s the solely official North American house of the tiny Virginia white-tailed deer. Dense mangrove hugs every caye (key) in addition to the roadway. Look ahead to automobiles pulled onto the slim shoulder of the highway, the place kayakers and canoers can unload their boats. A lot of the Keys’ shoreline is damaged coral. Nonetheless, there’s slightly visited lovely sand seaside on the 500+ acre Bahia Honda State Park. That is the place to snorkel, kayak, fish, camp, hike and bike.
And, immediately, fashionable suburban malls seem and also you’re approaching the outskirts of Key West. Stil charming and eccentric, Key West is a well-preserved enclave of two-story Victorian homes and conch cottages clustered alongside Duvall Road.
Permit a minimum of one in a single day in the event you’ve pushed this far! Style an authentic key lime pie and present the youngsters the enjoyable retailers. Speak with the colourful locals, the deep sea fishers who spend their days ingesting, and employees within the pirate museums.
You’ll wish to be a 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.
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