A nightly rate is not the price of the stay, and a scouting trip has questions a vacation does not.
Choose a county to compare distinct hotels, locations and trip styles.
The poolside rooms at the Hotel Palms, a motor court hotel at 28 Sherry Drive in Atlantic Beach, three blocks back from the ocean. Rooms come as junior queen, queen, double queen, king and suite. The buildings are put together with reclaimed wood, concrete floors and palms in the courtyard.
A motor court hotel at 28 Sherry Drive in Atlantic Beach, three blocks back from the ocean. Rooms come as junior queen, queen, double queen, king and suite. The buildings are put together with reclaimed wood, concrete floors and palms in the courtyard, in the shape of an old motel court rather than a tower.
A city park campground on the ocean at Jacksonville with 300 sites in the woods on paved roads, taking RVs and tents, plus plain cabins. Sites have electricity and water; there is a dump station, restrooms with showers, a camp store, coin laundry, overnight security and kayaks and mountain bicycles to rent. RVs may stay thirty nights in forty-five; tents fourteen.
A bed and breakfast in a mansion built in 1901 for the turpentine merchant William Kelly, at 1521 Riverside Avenue in the Five Points part of Jacksonville. Riverside Avenue was once lined with more than fifty such houses and was known as The Row. Breakfast is served, and there is a tea room in the house.
A state park campground of 20 sites on an undeveloped barrier island north of Jacksonville, each site with twenty or thirty amp power, water, a fire ring and a picnic table, and two bathhouses with hot showers. The park has more than five miles of beach, a 2.5-mile paved trail, a four-mile dune ridge loop and a canoe launch onto Myrtle Creek.
A 99-room Holiday Inn Express on five floors near the St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville. Hot breakfast, wireless internet and parking are included, and there are two charging points for electric cars. There is an outdoor pool, a fitness room open all hours, a business center, a guest laundry and three meeting rooms. Children eat free. Service animals only.
A 96-room hotel on five floors in Tapestry Park, Deerwood Park, Jacksonville. Wireless internet and parking are included. There is a heated outdoor pool with a hot tub, a fitness room open all hours, the 98 Forty East bar and bistro serving breakfast and dinner, a small market and four meeting rooms. A boardwalk runs by the lake. Two dogs up to eighty pounds are taken for a fee.
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Choose the shortest format that still lets you test ordinary life without racing from one end of Florida to another.
Choose one county and two communities. Use day one for essential routes, day two for neighborhoods and housing, and day three for repeat drives and unresolved questions.
Split the stay between two county areas. Give each finalist two ordinary days, then reserve the final day to revisit the strongest community.
Use two lodging bases rather than crossing the region every day. Compare no more than three counties and protect time for unplanned discoveries.
Leave at the time you would normally travel and use the likely work route.
Drive to the hospital, primary-care area or specialist you expect to use.
Test groceries, pharmacy, fuel and ordinary services—not only dining and attractions.
Measure the full route, parking and realistic departure-time burden.
Check beach, event or tourism traffic when that pattern affects the community.
See lighting, noise, access and neighborhood conditions after dark.
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