When most people think of Florida images of art deco and scantily clad women run through their head. The truth though, is that this isn’t really representative of Florida at all. There’s a whole other part of Florida that’s still made up of pristine coastline and natural beauty. Fort George Island off the coast of Jacksonville is one of those places.
While on a recent visit to Jacksonville, we were invited to go out and explore the coastline in a pretty unusual way, on Segways. We partnered up with Kayak Amelia for some fun in the sun while taking in a piece of Old Florida history. Ft. George Island has been inhabited on and off again for the last 5000 years. The island gets it’s name from an old fort that was built to defend the coastline in the colonial days. It is also home to the Kingsley Plantation as well as the Ribault Club, which was a winter country club for the cultural elites of the mid 1920′s and are now both National Historic Sites.
Our Segway tour took us on a 2 hour exploration of this beautiful island that is home to many live oaks and is a fantastic example of a maritime forest.
Traveling along the tree and scrub lined trails gave us the opportunity to take in this fantastic landscape. Riding the Segways was a unique way to cover a lot of ground while not getting worn out in the Florida heat.
While the island’s inland was nice, the true beauty of Ft. George Island is it’s incredible coastline. Left as natural as possible, it was covered in lovely driftwood and gave us an opportunity to get of the Segways for a bit and explore on foot.
It also helped that the crew at Kayak Amelia provided us with a lovely treat in the form of a home made cookie break. :-)
The coastline was absolutely stunning. The kind of place you can just stop and stare out, appreciating each and every little detail.
Our tour lasted about 2 hours and gave us lots of background and history about this little island off of the Jacksonville, FL coast. Taking a Segway tour of Ft. George Island reminded us of why we love this state so much. If only more people experienced this part of Florida life, they’d know what a truly wonderful state it is.
