United States · Florida · Jacksonville
Jacksonville Beaches, Jacksonville — Area Guide & Where to Stay
The Jacksonville Beaches are towns and communities on the north half of San Pablo Island, cut off from Jacksonville by the Intracoastal Waterway.
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Where to stay in Jacksonville Beaches
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
Three of these towns are incorporated. Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach each keep their own municipal government, while taking county services from Jacksonville and voting for its mayor and council. Mayport sits furthest north. It has been inside the Jacksonville city limits since the governments of the city and Duval County were consolidated in 1968, and most of it is occupied by the naval station.
Ponte Vedra Beach lies south in St Johns County.
About Jacksonville Beaches
What are the main landmarks in Jacksonville Beaches?
San Pablo Island is the ground all of this stands on. It runs thirty-seven miles as a barrier island, with the Atlantic to the east, the St Johns River to the north and the Intracoastal Waterway to the west. A channel made it an island.
Ten miles of digging in 1912 connected the San Pablo and Tolomato rivers and cut the land from the mainland. The island had no name for a century. Local advocates pressed for San Pablo Island to help tourism and regional identity, and the Jacksonville City Council voted to adopt it on 23 October 2012.
What is the history of Jacksonville Beaches?
The Timucua were here when Europeans arrived. They held this stretch as they did most of the Jacksonville area, and no other people are recorded on the Beaches before them. Mayport grew first.
A small community of fishermen and river pilots gathered there, especially after the United States bought Florida in 1821, while the rest of the Beaches stayed very thinly settled. Resorts changed that at the end of the century. Jacksonville Beach was called Ruby and then Pablo Beach, and it grew around a series of luxury hotels, with the Jacksonville and Atlantic Railroad bringing the traffic.
Atlantic Beach followed the same pattern. It grew as a resort community around a large hotel, with smaller ones built nearby.
Where is Jacksonville Beaches?
The Jacksonville Beaches occupy the northern half of San Pablo Island in Duval and northern St Johns counties, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, with the St Johns River closing the northern end.
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Updated September 2026