1 Day Tour (Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando: real estate, broker, new home)

[jax-wannabe-gonnabe]

If you were to organize a 1 day tour of Jacksonville designed to show outsiders what Jacksonville is all about, what would it consist of? No tourists traps, no zoos, no museums: I want to see Jax itself.

The objective is to get a feel for Jax. As much as possible in 1 day, to get an idea of what it might be like if someone was to move to Jax to live here.

I will be traveling through Jax sometime between Dec 26 and Jan 1. I want to stay the previous evening in Jax, and then set out for a full day the next day to explore Jax. Forgive me - my final destination on this trip is Disney and Orlando. ; )

I have been trolling this forum and others for months. I have read so many posts by Robyn55, fsu813, jsimms3, Flyimetro, LoveBoating and so many others, I have developed an almost creepy air of familiarity. So, I am as familiar with the location of neighborhoods of Jax (Springfield, San Marco, Julington Creek, etc. etc. etc.) as I can be without having actually visited before. Well, that`s not quite true - I have passed through Jax a few times over the years, but only recently have become focused on Jax as a potential new home for my family. Initially, Norfolk, Charleston, Miami and Jax were all on our top list, but Jax keeps edging the others out for a variety of reasons. We have school-age children, so good schools are key. Early on, I became interested in Jax because of the good reviews of St. John`s County schools, and from there, developed a keen interest in Jax overall. I fear that to go to St. John`s County means I need to compromise and buy into a cookie-cutter suburb, and I really do not want that. But I digress... ; )

So, I am begging for advice:

How would you advise me to spend 1 day in Jacksonville with my family?

[suny_12]

Because Jacksonville's so spread out it may be hard to really see everything it, but there are a few notable places to visit. Spend time in Riverside, The Landing, Sally Corporation (company downtown that makes animatronics; I went on a tour there over 10 years ago but I'm not sure if they still do those), The Main Library, Chamblins downtown (a block over from the library), and the St. Johns Town Center. The places on the above list vary in quality but it should give you a fairly good idea of what Jacksonville's about. If you're serious about moving here, be sure to drive on any of the interstates during rush hour, especially I-10 East or I-95 South before downtown between 7am and 9am and I-295 South toward Orange Park between 4pm and 6pm on a weekday. To get a good idea of Duval County schools, do a search of school grades from the last few years on the Florida Times-Union website.

[fsu813]

Well, if you want to avoid seeing Jax as a tourist, but more as a local....I guess you'd just take one, long driving tour, no?

[jax-wannabe-gonnabe]

suny_12: Thank you very much for your reply! I wasn`t aware of a Sally Corp. or Chamblins. As for rush hour, that`s not a concern for us - we`re currently in Toronto, so we`ve seen our share of rush hours. Our circumstances are such that we have the luxury of not having to sit in rush hour traffic anyway, thank goodness.

fsu813: I quite agree, I suspect a long drive will figure prominently. It would simply be a shame to spend a day checking out Jax and miss some key areas that I simply didn`t realize deserved a visit. For example, Doctor`s Lake. I`ve never heard of anyone mention it here, and it seems interesting to me in the abstract - I want to check it out. I am curious to know what other areas might be important to know about, but that are rarely mentioned...

[Robyn55]

Yes - that is part of the problem. There are areas that sound good on paper - but you can rule them out once you see them and get a feel for them - which takes more than 10 minutes.

Take Doctors Lake for example. We thought it sounded interesting too when we first moved here (15 years ago). But I ruled it out with about an hour's research and a single visit (which took maybe 4-5 hours). First - at the time - the income levels of the people who lived in the general area were lower than I was looking for. Second - it was a pretty religious Christian area with no Jewish people (at least none I could find - I'm Jewish - and didn't want to be that isolated from the Jewish community in the metro area). Third - I didn't care for the tennis/golf facilities. Fourth - it wasn't close to major medical facilities. It just wasn't for me.

It's in Clay County (I don't know anything about Clay County schools - but that would be a factor for you). The boating is apparently pretty good (again not a factor for me but perhaps for you).

Note that I've been to several parties there over the years in peoples' houses (charity type stuff) - and although the people I've met there are very nice - I never doubted for a minute that I made the right decision ruling it out - for me.

Anyway - if I had one day - I would look at the real estate web sites. Pick 2-3 areas that are of interest to you for whatever reasons that are in your price range - and arrange for real estate brokers to drive you around neighborhoods in those areas to see what's there (a real estate broker will know his/her neighborhoods and save you a lot of time wandering around). Forget about everything else (a mall is a mall - you can see what stores are there on line - etc. - etc.). Note that this one day will only be the first of many you should take IMO before narrowing things down. Robyn

P.S. You can live in a cookie cutter subdivision in St. Johns County - or a waterfront mansion - or a doublewide - or an historic house or a farm with crops/animals. You can pretty much do the same in Duval and Clay counties as well. These are all very large very diverse counties (it takes us about an hour to drive from NE St. Johns County where we live to far SW St. Johns County).

[fsu813]

sugguestions to visit for every area - buit of course these roads go for longer thna the neighborhoods, so youll want to know where the neighborhoods begin and end kind of. you can find maps of the old neighborhoods like riverside, springfield, and san marco bc they have specific boundaries but new neighborhoods just kind of blend in with one another.

downtown. Laura st and Adams Street
springfield. Silver st, Market st and Laura St
riverside/avondale. park st, riverside ave, st. johns ave and college st
ortega. ortega forest drive
orange park. kingsley ave and doctors lake drive and oak leaf
southside. southside blvd, gate parkway, university blvd, hodges blvd, baymeadows road.
beaches. 3rd street north aka A1A, atlantic blvd, beach blvd
arlington. rogero road, monument road and mill creek rd
mandarin. lorretto road, old st.augustine rd and hood road
san marco. san marco blvd and hendrick avenue

[HollyinJAX]

Here would be my suggestion for a 1-day itinerary on a Saturday:

Breakfast at Metro Diner (San Marco)
Hop over the Main Street bridge to just take a short spin through downtown just to get the feel of what's there (stop or don't).
Make your way over to the Riverside Art Market (my out of town company always love it and it's a unique and beautiful setting on the river).
Next make your way over to St. Johns Town Center - maybe a stop for lunch or a snack. (again, my out of town company always love seeing this).
Next - a trip south on A1A to the Guana Reserve South Ponte Vedra beach. (middle parking lot). Stop and walk on the beach for an hour, it's beautiful.
Keep going down A1A to Capp;s on the Water for happy hour or dinner.
That's a great day, in my opinion.

[FlyiMetro]

As a local tour?? Hmm I say make sure you get a rib sandwich from Jenkins, forget interstates ride 103rd Street from end to end, University Blvd from end to end & Moncreif Ave from end to end. That will show what Jacksonville looks like. Also 1 complete lap on the 295-9A beltway AT NIGHT is also worth the drive. Walk the Northbank riverwalk from Riverside to the Landing. Get a sandwich from Larrys Giant Subs, walk Jax Beach...all I can think of at random.