48 Hours in Jacksonville

The best thing we found to do in downtown Jacksonville was The Jacksonville Landing. A good place to stop and have dinner and do a little shopping.

Across the river from the Jacksonville is the Friendship Fountain, which is pretty cool.

The best beach we found was Neptune/Atlantic Beach. There's a cute little gateway of shops and restaurants before the beach.

The wedding we attended at Club Continental (also a hotel) in Orange Park was gorgeous. Great place for a wedding.

Quick Tips:

Most of the restaurants that we could find were chain restaurants (Carrabba's, McD's, Ruby Tuesdays, Hooters, etc)... So, looking back, I wish I had done more research on "Jacksonville" original restaurants to go to.

Best Way To Get Around:

Since Jacksonville is one of the most spread out cities in the US, you pretty much have to have a car. The airport is 20 minutes north of downtown, or 35 minutes from the beaches or 40 minutes to Orange Park (the "other side" of Jacksonville).

The freeway system is very nice and easy to follow. Beware of strange "double streets" where people turn right across several lanes of traffic to another street (there's one by the airport). Also, Jacksonville drivers do some crazy things (coming to a halt on the Freeway so they can exit?), but the traffic was never bad at all (of course, we are from Houston!).

Orange Park is an area about 13 miles south of downtown Jacksonville very close to the Naval Air Station Jax. Getting there was easy: The hotel is located very close to the intersection of I-295 and US 17(Park Ave). We chose to stay here because the wedding we were in town to attend was being held close by. It's was fairly convenient to everything in spread-out Jacksonville (Beaches 30 miles, Airport 30 miles), and Orange Park had lots of restaurants, nightlife, a dog track, and a large mall.

Arriving at the 2-story (exterior corridor) hotel about 10 o'clock at night, our reservation was there waiting for us. We checked in very quickly, and were given directions to our room. The desk guy was also helpful in telling us where a nearby club was located. In the lobby was also Damon's, a restaurant offering 2-for-1 drinks till midnight (on Friday). Room service was also available from the restaurant.

The hotel offered a fitness room, an outdoor pool, a childrens pool, and a playground. It's also located in a safe area of town, and parking was free and convenient.

Renovated in 1998, the rooms are decorated simply and nicely. Our room had two double beds, a recliner, a 25" cable TV, a desk, a small bathroom, coffee maker, hairdryer, and an alarm clock. The carpet, linens, and bathroom were all impeccably clean, and our towels were replaced and the bed was made every day.

My only complaint with the hotel was that their doors were very hard to open. They were key-card readers and you had to turn it at the exact same angle every time to get the door to open. It always took us several tries to get the door open. (And other hotel patrons were having these problems too).

Checkout was fast and easy and overall, it was a very nice hotel at a very reasonable price, and I would stay there again if in the area.

A friend had recommended this place as a cool nightclub with dancing, good music, and a good crowd. Looking on the internet, I also found that it was a "five star restaurant" in the Riverwalk area, with a great view of St. John’s River and downtown with shopping nearby. Interesting, I thought.

Upon arriving in Jacksonville, we headed downtown to the Riverwalk to grab a bite to eat. Other than the exit we needed to take being closed, it was fairly easy to get there (lots of informative signs). It was 5 PM on Friday. All the (free) street parking nearby was taken, but there is a $3 valet parking lot in front of the restaurant.

Next to the Brewery is the enormous and very pretty Friendship Fountain. We walked over to check it out. Since the wind was pretty strong that day, the fountain sprayed us, even from far away. There weren't many people around: just a few kids skateboarding and rollerblading. We walked along the river to the marina in front of the Brewery, and then went to the front and went inside.

Once inside we saw the "five star restaurant": Indoors with white tablecloths, elegant table settings, gorgeous view of the river and downtown, and all of 3 people eating there. The hostess explained that the Brewery is divided into two parts: the indoor part with an extensive seafood menu with entree prices ranging from $12-$25 and the outside part with the sandwich-pizza-appetizer menu and a live band. We chose outside, near the bar, where all the happy hour just-off-work crowds of people were sitting at tables all pushed together.

We hunted for an empty table, and finally found one with no chairs. Once we found chairs (and dealt with several rude people), we looked at the menu and saw everyone's delicious looking food and drinks and we were ready to order. We waited for a waitress. And waited. And waited. We could not get any of their attention; they were too busy waiting on the 20-person tables. After 20 minutes without any sort of acknowledgement, we left, expressing our displeasure to the hostess inside.

The valet parking people (not related to the restaurant) kindly offered to refund our money.

So, this is Jacksonville? Wonderful!

[I'm sure their food is probably good, it looked good, it just made me very angry that their service was terrible.]

There wasn’t much else to do or see (that we found) on that side of the river, so we ended up heading across the Main Street Bridge to the Jacksonville Landing.

Friday night, 11 o'clock. We're ready for some action, but not wanting to stray too far from our hotel. The front desk guy recommends this place. We decide to check it out.

We drive down Wells Road, not exactly knowing what we're looking for, and finally we see it. It looks like it's where the road ends, but actually it continues on from there into a neighborhood (i.e. if you're in the neighborhood, you've gone too far). It's in the same parking lot as a Toys’R’Us. Park anywhere. At the door there are two lines (both were about the same length): 21+up and 18-20. Show the bouncer your ID and go in (No cover for 21&up).

Once inside, you're in a well-lit(for a bar), low-ceilinged room with several pool tables and dark walls. Head past that bar, and to your right, there's a large circular bar and past that is the huge main room. The ceiling is much higher and the speakers are thumping a techno beat. The huge crowd makes it difficult to see where the dance floor is, but it turns out that it's like a stage, with 3 different levels of dance floor (DJ booth at the top) and a small triangular dance floor at the bottom. There's a large bar facing the floor, and a couple of beer-tub girls in between. On the far wall is another large bar. Lining the walls are tables and chairs. There's also a large projection screen in one corner with pictures, videos, drink specials, and random graphics flipping by. It's a big place.

First things first: We stop at the circular bar and grab two double rum-and-cokes and a couple kamikaze shots: $22. Not too bad.... But wait.

We walked around for a while, getting a feel for the place. The crowd was a big mix of people: all races, all ages, all classes, all at this club. Very different from what we're used to, but they all seemed to mesh well. The club seemed to be mostly guys. After a long string of techno songs, the DJ threw some hip-hop into the mix, and we got on the floor. Watch out for the very strict dance floor policy: No drinks allowed!

After a while, we got thirsty and headed back to the circular bar. This time, we had a different bartender. This bartender informed us that ALL well drinks were FREE for ladies until 1 AM. Well, that's interesting, considering the OTHER bartender just charged us for them! So, I'm not sure what's going on with the bartender's drink policies, but sounds like someone was lying to us (Not appreciated). Beers were also $2 for everyone all night.

Other than the weird bar experience, we had a pretty good time dancing till 2 AM. After that, the crowd moves to the parking lot for some more socializing and then eventually the police make everyone leave. Interesting crowd and a fun time.

We had a bad experience attempting to eat here, but since it had been highly recommended as a dance club, we decided to check it out on a Saturday night.

Arriving about 11PM, the pay (valet if you want) parking lot ($3) was just about full. (I think you can park for free on the nearby streets, but they were packed too). We headed up to the front door of the restaurant, and once inside (no cover), we saw a few people milling around inside the fancy part of the restaurant, but all the action was to our right.

The indoor room had a small dance floor and was blasting Top 40 rap and dance music. The large rectangular full-service bar was serving up mixed and well drinks in large plastic cups for around $6. There were a lot of people in this room, but it was nothing compared to what awaited us out on the deck (large doors from this "room" led out to an outside deck).

The outside deck was packed with people dancing and standing around talking; you couldn't really tell where the dance floor began or ended. The music was different than what they were playing inside, but the same Top 40/rap format. A few tables on the upper deck were filled with people, and the bar on the lower deck and the one on the upper deck were serving up drinks. The large deck had an awesome view overlooking the St. Johns river, and the April breeze was very nice and kept us cool.

As with the other club we tried in Jacksonville, this one was filled with a very diverse crowd - all ages, all races, all classes. With plenty of room to move around, and two large dance floors, everyone was just there to have a good time and enjoy the atmosphere.

2145 Astor Street
Orange Park
Phone #: (800) 877-6070
Website

I know my friends looked at lots of places to have their wedding in Jacksonville, but they chose this place. It's not hard to see why. The Continental Club is a gorgeous 80-year-old estate overlooking the St. John's River. The view is breathtaking, and not anything I would expect from a "river" view. On the premises there is a Bed & Breakfast, a pool, a tennis court, a dining hall, and a large Mediterranean-style house for special gatherings, like weddings. The grounds are landscaped beautifully with large oak trees, several gardens, and fountains.

Arriving as a wedding guest, we had a bit of a hard time actually finding where (on the grounds) the wedding was, but once we did, we were able to park and walked to the "house area" where the wedding was. The greeting area was on a porch on one side of the house, next to the pool. The ceremony took place in the back of the house, overlooking the river, with a semi-circle "balcony" surrounded by planted flowers as the altar. It was gorgeous.

The reception took place inside the house. Three adjoining rooms in the back of the house were set up with tables and the food meticulously arranged in a smaller room in the middle of the house. The dark mahongany bar (complete with bartender) served up all the drinks in the very center of the house. In the front of the house were the bathrooms (separate for Men & Women), the foyer (leading out into the front courtyard), and the marble-floored (dance floor) room. All the rooms opened into each other, and people freely roamed about.

Continental Club offers up several menus of food for the wedding party to choose from. My friends chose several appetizer-type foods, including fried conch, fried catfish, boiled shrimp, cheeses & crackers, fresh fruit & vegetables, and a pasta bar. It was all delicious.

The wedding was, by far, the best wedding I've been to. Nothing went wrong! The only real problem they had was a woman, decked out in shorts and a tank top, (staying at the B&B, we guess), came in right as the cake was being cut, and, incredibly, asked the bride if she could HAVE the flowers from the wedding!