After our visit to the Players Championship at  Sawgrass last year, we decided to pay a visit  Jacksonville. We had stayed in downtown Jacksonville for 2 nights for the golf and it was a short drive from the hotel to the city centre.

It was a beautiful May day and we arrived early to find a much quieter city than we had anticipated.  It is a large city, situated on the Johns River and only about 40km from the Georgia border. On a Friday morning we expected it to be busy with people and traffic as you would find in most British cities through the week. Not so, it was pleasantly quiet with hardly anyone around.

We knew nothing about  Jacksonville before we arrived but learned  about it’s history as we strolled around. We parked quite easily near to the Jacksonville Landings. This is situated right on the river and is a place for shopping and eating and where concerts are held. It was just opening up as we arrived and I imagine it would be better to visit in the evening. The restaurants have a lovely view of the river. There are walkways alongside the river and a few people out jogging or walking. This is where we found out about the history of the town from the information displayed along the way. We stopped and watched the Main Street Bridge open, the whole of the middle section slides up to allow the river traffic through. There’s probably a much more technical term for it but it was quite impressive to watch!

We then walked further in to the city and took a monorail across the river. We then walked back across the Main Street Bridge, given my fear of bridges over water this was quite a challenge for me! We really should have found out more before we arrived and it would have been nice to stay longer but we had a long day ahead and planned to visit the Jacksonville Beaches on the Atlantic coast too.

Our aim was to head for Vero Beach and then head off up the coast to Melbourne. so we headed along Highway 60 for the coast. For those of you that like a long straight road in cruise control then you will not be disappointed.

It took us about one and half hours from Haines City before with reached the east coast and Vero Beach.

So we parked the car and headed for the beach where we stumbled across the Driftwood Resort right on the Talnatic coast.

This was a hotel made from Driftwood. so we sat there at the bar looking out at the blue whilst supping and beer and a cocktail. I would recommend eating there and making an afternoon of it.

A very clean and pleasant place to visit.