February Trip

[2_Retired]

Looking for ideas for our annual February trip. Will be in our Class A with toad. We are into history and food, and enjoy wandering. LOve the back roads vs. Interstates. Starting out from home in Va, plan to visit Savannah, St Augustine, and the Pensacola areas. What I am asking for is ideas on where to go other than those places. Have done Charleston, Myrtle Beach (lived there) and not a huge fan of most of Florida. Any other places on the Gulf Coast we should make sure to see? How about Alabama or Georgia? We have about a month for the 'wander'. Just DH and I - no kids, no pets. Thanks for letting me pick your brains!

[2_Retired]

Thanks for the ideas.

[magnusfide]

Swing west from St Augustine/Savannah into South Georgia. Yoder’s restaurant was good if you’re into Amish cooking. Go by Warner Robins to check out the air museum with an SR-71 Blackhawk on display. A number of museums throughout South Georgia. Swing on into Alabama for more historic sites and excellent food. On your return to VA swing through the mountains in north Georgia and western NC. There’s too many places to discover for me to list here. I use TripAdvisor for museums and eats. For camping we prefer state parks but you can look up all available campgrounds on Allstays.

[agesilaus]

Florida has a number of history oriented State Parks along the east coast in between Jacksonville and running south of St Augustine. Includes an old sugar mill and an old fort Map fo Florida State parks
Bulow Plantation is the mill, and I guess the fort is a federal park, there are four in the Jacksonville/Augustion area. The big one is Castle San Marcos in Augustine. That map is a lotless useful than it used to be before they 'improved it'.

The walking tour of St Augustine itself is full of history in a highly commercialized fashion tho.

But FL is littered with historical sites. I'm less familiar with the Pensacola area but there is that Naval Air Museum there.

Going east down I-10 you'll pass Florida Caverns (worth a stop but pathetic compared to the Federal caves) and a number of other state parks with a history theme.

Coming down I-75 Georgia has a lot of historical sites, Andersonville for one around the interstate.

[mgirardo]

Between Savannah and St. Augustine is Jekyll Island, GA. There's not a ton of food options on Jekyll Island, but there are a few decent restaurants, The Wharf being one of our favorites. A short drive to St. Simons Island yields a lot more food options.

Jekyll Island was called the Millionaire's Playground back in the early 1900s. The country's wealthiest spent their winters on Jekyll Island. The Jekyll Island Club Hotel was their home, except for those that built their own "cottages" on the grounds. Those buildings are still used today. You can visit the museum and get a guided tour of the historic district. There is the Sea Turtle Center and there are miles of hiking trails and biking trails.

About 1 hour west of Jekyll Island is the Okefenokee Swamp. There are multiple entrances. We like to go to the National Wildlife Refuge entrance outside Folkston, GA. It is more self guided, but they do offer boat tours and you can rent Kayaks (or bring your own) for the best way to see the swamp. There are lots of hiking trails. There is also the Chesser Homestead, that offers a glimpse into the life of how folks lived in the swamp. There is a $5 entrance fee here.

The Okefenokee Swamp Park entrance in Waycross does offer boat tours, a train tour, an education center, alligator viewing areas and a short boardwalk to a viewing tower. There isn't much that you can do for free here.

If you can get a campsite reservation, Hannah Park in Jacksonville is a great County Park. The beach is a short walk or bike/car ride away. It won't be as warm as further south in FL, but definitely better than Virginia.

Between Jekyll Island and Jacksonville is Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach. There are a lot of restaurants here on the beach as well as in the "downtown" area.

-Michael