Active Pursuits in Amelia Island

Biking on Amelia Island

Riptide Amelia Island, 5 N. Fletcher Ave., Fernandina Beach (tel. 904/891-5687), offers two-hour bike tours of Amelia Island on which you’ll pedal a beach cruiser under Victorian-home-lined canopy oak paths, through the historic downtown, and elsewhere. Cost is $60 for adults, $50 for children, including bike rental. The Amelia Island Culinary Academy’s Food & Bike Tour (tel. 904/557-4035) is a three-hour jaunt that includes stops at some of the island’s best restaurants and fruit stands. Tours include four tastings and bike rental and are $150 per person.

Boating, Fishing, Sailing and Kayaking on Amelia Island

Amelia Angler Outfitters (tel. 904/261-2870), at Tiger Point Marina on 14th Street, north of the historic district (though the boats dock at Centre St.), can help arrange deep-sea fishing charters, party-boat excursions, and dolphin-watching and sightseeing cruises. Other charter boats also dock at Fernandina Harbor Marina, downtown at the foot of Centre Street.

Windward Sailing School, based at Fernandina Harbor Marina, 3977 First Ave. (tel. 904/261-9125), will teach you to skipper your boat; it also has charters and boat rentals.

You have to be careful in the currents, but the backwaters here are great for kayaking, whether you’re a beginner or a pro. However, you’ll have to travel just off the island to do it. Ray and Jody Hetchka’s Kayak Amelia (tel. 904/251-0016) is based near Talbot Island State Park (technically in Jacksonville) and offers beginner and advanced-level trips on back bays, creeks, and marshes. Three-hour trips go for about $70 for adults, $60 kids under 12. Kayak, paddleboard, and canoe rentals go from $45 to $60.

Amelia River Cruises (tel. 904/261-9972) offers all sorts of tours (including a shrimping eco tour—see below) to the area’s salt marshes and wilderness beaches, and the historic riverbanks of Amelia, Fernandina Beach, and Cumberland Island, Georgia, where wild horses roam the beaches. Prices range from $27 to $35 for adults, $25 to $33 for seniors, and $21 to $29 for children 12 and under.

Eco-Tours on Amelia Island

Fernandina Beach is known as the “Birthplace of the Modern Shrimping Industry,” and Amelia River Cruises (see above) offers a shrimping eco tour June through September on which you’ll deploy an otter trawl net, retrieve it, and learn all about what you caught from an onboard marine biologist. Cost is $30 for adults and $20 for kids 12 and under. Amelia Adventures, 432 S. 8th St., Fernandina Beach, (tel. 904/500-TOUR) offers many guided eco tours, of all sorts, including camps and retreats for those looking to really commune with nature. The company is owned by Thomas Oliver, a TV producer and photographer whose work has appeared on Deadliest Catch and Coastguard Alaska and his wife Catherine, a former Outward Bound instructor.

Golf on Amelia Island

The Omni Amelia Island (tel. 904/261-6161), has a number of excellent options, including the Pete Dye-designed championship Oak Marsh golf course, and a Beau Welling-designed Little Sandy short course ($50 to play), where greens fees range from $89 to $155 per person depending on the time and season. If you are a hotel guest, the private Tom Fazio-designed Long Point course is open to you, a mind-blowingly beautiful course with two par-3s in a row bordering the ocean. Fees are high, from $175 to well over $400 depending on the time and season. Or play the older and less expensive 27-hole Fernandina Beach Golf Club (tel. 904/277-7370), where prices are $23 to $70.

Horseback Riding on Amelia Island

You can go riding on the beach with Amelia Horseback Riding, 4600 Peters Point Rd., Fernandina Beach (tel. 904/753-1701). They offer day rides, sunrise rides, sunset rides, and even wedding proposal rides. Rates range from $125 to $175.

Tennis and Pickleball on Amelia Island

Ranked among the nation’s top 50 by Tennis magazine, the Omni Amelia Island’s tennis program created by Cliff Drysdale (tel. 904/261-6161), features 23 Har-Tru tennis courts (naturally shaded by a canopy of gorgeous trees), 7 pickleball courts, and hosts many professional tournaments, and has seen the likes of Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Martina Hingis, Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters play on its courts. Lessons and clinics range from $25 to $145 per person. Amelia Island’s Central Park, located at the intersection of South 13th St. and Atlantic Avenue, has six illuminated pickleball courts open to the public daily from 6am until 10pm. It’s free, but it’s first come, first serve. Heh.