Amelia Island’s beaches, Fort Clinch to Nassau Sound.

I’m Krista Fracke. On Amelia Island, the beach you end up using every week depends on where you buy. The north end has a state park with a fort and an inlet. Fernandina Beach has town beach parks with lifeguard stands and walkways at the end of nearly every street off Fletcher Avenue. The county’s south half has big parking lots, drive-on ramps and dune walkways, and the island ends at a state park on Nassau Sound.

Fernandina Beach Ocean Rescue covers all 13 miles of the island’s beaches, with about 60 certified ocean lifeguards from May to September. Nassau County is outside my daily corridor, so for a purchase on the island I pair you with the Christie’s colleague who works it every day. The listings on this page are live from the same MLS feed as the rest of the site.

The island starts with a 1,400-acre state park and a Civil War-era fort whose cannons point across the St. Marys River toward Georgia. Fort Clinch’s beaches run three quarters of a mile along the Atlantic and another 2.5 miles along the St. Marys Inlet and the Amelia River. South of the jetty is the swimming, surfing and surf-fishing beach, where the park lists redfish, black drum, whiting, flounder and sheepshead among the catch. Near the fort, people fish, hunt for fossil shark teeth and, with binoculars, can sometimes pick out the wild horses on Cumberland Island across the inlet.

Getting on: the park is open 8 a.m. to sunset every day, and entry is $6 per vehicle at 2601 Atlantic Avenue. Both Atlantic beach boardwalks have restrooms with outdoor showers beside them. There are no lifeguards. Leashed dogs are welcome on the trails, the park drive and the campground but not on the beach or the boardwalks, per the park’s amenities page.

Behind it: the park itself is the neighbor. The city’s first walkways south of the park sit at Ocean Avenue and the numbered East streets in Fernandina’s north end, with homes a short walk from the sand.

Fernandina Beach’s town beaches start here. North Beach Park, the city’s access 12N on North Fletcher Avenue, has parking and an accessible walkway. A little farther south, Main Beach Park at Trout Street and Fletcher Avenue is the city’s main beach park: 105 parking spaces in the state survey, another 60 at the Dolphin Street access, which the city places at Main Beach Park, plus restrooms, showers and a guarded beach.

Main Beach is set up for wheelchairs, strollers and walkers. The city’s beach access page describes a Mobi-Mat laid semi-permanently on the Main Beach boardwalk ramp, and Parks and Recreation lends beach wheelchairs free from the Atlantic Recreation Center (904-310-3350; a driver’s license is required, for up to seven days at a time). Every city access closes from midnight to 5 a.m.

South of Main Beach, Fletcher Avenue runs along the ocean, and the city’s walkways come off it at nearly every cross street: Nassau, Amelia, New York, Maryland, Jasmine and on down past the Casino streets to Pasco. The city lists 41 numbered accesses within its limits. Most have a handful of spaces or none, so these are neighborhood walkways more than parking stops.

Behind it: houses and condos on Fletcher itself and on the short streets off it. The strip below shows what is listed on Fletcher Avenue right now.

Seaside Park, at Sadler Road and South Fletcher, is the city’s other full beach park: 75 spaces in the state survey, restrooms, showers, a guarded beach and the one drive-on ramp inside the city. The city’s FAQ says anyone with a four-wheel-drive vehicle can park and drive on the beach there. The ramp closed during the 2025 renourishment and, per the city’s project log, on-beach parking reopened July 12, 2025, with beach rangers letting in only 4WD vehicles while the new sand was soft.

Past the city limits the county takes over, and the lots get bigger. Peters Point Beachfront Park, at South Fletcher Avenue and Peters Point Road, has 180 spaces in the state survey, restrooms, showers and a guarded beach. Scott Road, just off Amelia Island Parkway, has 100 spaces, restrooms and a guarded beach. Both have drive-on ramps.

Beach driving from the county ramps is for Nassau County residents and property owners only, in a 4WD or AWD vehicle, under Ordinance 2025-037. Peters Point is also where horse owners bring their horses onto the beach, with three horse-trailer spaces in a grass lot and documentation required, per the county’s beach-front parks page. Dogs are welcome on the county’s beaches on a leash.

Peters Point is also the north end of the Timucuan Trail, the paved bike path that runs south to Amelia Island State Park and over the A1A bridge to Big Talbot Island, per the state park.

American Beach was founded in 1935 by A.L. Lewis as a beach resort for Black families shut out of every other beach in the region, and it is a National Register historic district today. Its history, the NaNa dune and what buying there involves have their own page: American Beach on Amelia Island.

On the sand, the county’s Burney Park has the island’s largest beach lot, 220 spaces in the state survey, with restrooms, showers and a guarded beach. Small dune walks reach the beach from Gregg Street, and the Lewis Street ramps are drive-on for county residents and property owners.

Between Burney Park and the state park, the public ways onto the beach are a few county dune walks off First Coast Highway. Dune Walk 110, at 8014 First Coast Highway, has 19 spaces and an accessible walkway in the state survey.

Behind it: much of what the MLS reports as oceanfront on the island is condos, with oceanfront houses coming up a few at a time. The strip below is every oceanfront listing in Nassau County right now; the address on each card tells you which stretch it sits on.

The island ends at more than 200 acres of undeveloped beach, salt marsh and maritime forest. The park calls Nassau Sound one of the best fishing areas in Northeast Florida and the home of the state record flounder, and the George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier runs a mile across it, closed to cars. Shells and shark teeth wash up here, right whales are possible offshore in winter and early spring, and this is one of the few Florida beaches where you can ride your own horse (call the ranger station at 904-251-2320 first).

Getting on: the park is open 8 a.m. to sunset every day, beach driving included, with no after-hours access. Entry is $2 per person at an honor box, correct change required. Beach parking is capped at 300 people at a time and 600 a day; at 300 the park closes to new visitors and reopens after about 150 leave. There are no lifeguards, and there is an outdoor shower by the Bait and Tackle restrooms. Least terns and Wilson’s plovers nest here, and parts of the beach, especially the southern point, close seasonally from March through September. The shorebird calendar is on the beach wildlife guide.

An oceanfront or near-beach house on the island comes with a few seasonal rules. Fernandina Beach and Nassau County each have a sea turtle lighting rule for homes facing the beach; both are on the sea turtle season guide. The dune and walkover in front of an oceanfront house are covered on dunes and sea oats, and where shark teeth turn up and what you can keep is on shark teeth and shells.