Florida’s Amelia Island Announces Tourism Developments

Amelia Island, located along Northeast Florida’s pristine coastline, is offering visitors several new activities and trip-planning tools. Among the new offerings are a nature-specific website, a mobile website, a new bed and breakfast and a skydiving experience.

The Amelia Island Convention & Visitors Bureau unveiled a new nature website, www.amelianature.com, designed to help visitors to learn more about the island’s many natural features. Find everything you need for island birding, kayaking, hiking, biking, camping, and plenty of photos, videos and other information on native wildlife, trails and flora and fauna.

The Amelia Island CVB is once again extending its popular “Pack Your Bags for Amelia Island” program, offering air travelers up to an $80 room credit for checked baggage fees on stays of three or more nights. Available through the end of December 2010, the program is valid at nine of the island’s award-winning participating hotels and inns.

Guests can text 77950 and put “ameliaisland” in the message line on their mobile phone to get a link to the new Amelia Island mobile website. They will have access to information about Amelia Island direct from their mobile devices. The mobile site offers information about accommodations, dining, shopping, events, and an assortment of offers and discounts.

Luxury hotel brand Omni Hotels & Resorts recently purchased the upscale Amelia Island Plantation, and has plans to expand the resort with approximately 125 additional guest rooms and suites, and new 16,000-square-foot ballroom to accommodate additional meetings and events.

The 1905 Hoyt House Bed and Breakfast Inn on Amelia Island has reopened with new owners, and several upgrades. The Hoyt House features fresh, French press coffee each morning, along with a three-course breakfast from a choice menu. In addition, the Hoyt House has added their private, 39-foot yacht “Nice Aft” as a unique accommodation option. Guests can stay in the floating bed and breakfast, which has two staterooms and two bathrooms. The yacht is also available for private sunset and day cruises.

Amelia Island’s newest attraction, Skydive Amelia Island, is offering visitors a new view of Amelia Island and its beaches during a one-hour tandem skydive experience. Skydive Amelia Island is located at the Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport, and uses only highly experienced United States Parachute Association (USPA) qualified instructors with thousands of tandem jumps between the team.

In September, the Amelia Island Museum of History opened a new exhibit -- Theodore Morris’ Florida’s Lost Tribes collection. The sizeable collection of paintings will be on display through Dec. 28. Among the paintings, Morris incorporates the Timucuan Indians, who inhabited Amelia Island long before the Spanish arrived.

Kayak Amelia is now offering guided Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) tours. These new two-hour excursions are the hottest on-water craze and include a short instruction followed by an excursion exploring the local salt marsh, including a stop on a sandbar for a break. Cost is $60 per person and there is a 250-pound weight limit. For more information, visit www.kayakamelia.com.

Amelia River Cruises is starting a new Discovery Tour series which features four quarterly trips to unique destinations throughout northeast Florida and southeast Georgia, with all-inclusive packages and a personally hosted/narrated sail with owner Kevin McCarthy. Future trips will include Kingsley Plantation/Ft. Caroline, St. Augustine, and more.