AMELIA ISLAND, FL. -- There are plenty of cookie-cutter golf-tennis resorts in Florida, but Amelia Island Plantation with its lush vegetation, towering live oaks and sprawling marshes stands head and shoulders above them all.
Amelia Island is a place where Mother Nature takes off her high heels, plops herself down in a rocking chair, sips on a fruit drink and sits back and enjoys the view.
This island is truly in tune with nature and makes no bones about planning to keep it that way.
Resort officials have pledged to never develop more than 20 percent of the island, leaving untouched most of its 1,250 acres of forest land, beaches and wetlands.
Walking, biking, or driving around Amelia Island Plantation provides a scenic extravaganza, with spectacular multi-million dollar homes and lesser-priced homes and villas sprinkled among the thousands of Spanish moss-laden live oaks and pines.
The island, named after the daughter of King George II, has through careful planning and construction retained about 90 percent of its foliage canopy. From the air, the island looks almost uninhabited.
Golf is big at Amelia, with Dye-Fazio-Weed designed championship courses, including one that meanders six holes along the oceanfront.
Ocean Links is perhaps the most attractive of the three, with its seaside holes and dozens of magnificent greenside homes. The course is also perhaps the toughest of Amelia's three layouts, with some tight fairways requiring accuracy even with short iron shots. The course's oceanside holes are reminiscent of links in Scotland, where golf originated.
Amelia's Oak Marsh course wends through wetlands, lagoons and streams and offers many beautiful views. The Long Point course is more open, with many generous fairways and is the home of many regional championship events.
Children age 15 and under play free when accompanied by a parent.
Money Magazine rated Amelia Island Plantation's golf facilities as one of the nation's Top 25 Best Golf Resort Values.
Tennis is also big at Amelia Island Plantation, with the resort each May becoming the tennis center of the world with the annual Bausch & Lomb professional tennis tournament at the resort's Racquet Park. The resort has 23 clay tennis courts, most of them shaded.
Golf and tennis lessons are offered regularly with top pro teachers.
The Amelia Island Resort's beautiful naturalistic settings have made the resort a popular location for weddings, with dozens of couples each year tying the knot on the grounds or at the beautiful chapel.
If you tire of ocean swimming you can relax in one of the resort's 24 swimming pools or hot tubs.
Family Circle Magazine multiple times has named Amelia Island Plantation as the Nation's Best Family Beach Resort.
The resort also has numerous special programs to entertain children.
The resort offers several options to get around the island, including special "island hoppers" (four-person golf cart-like vehicles) and its own free bus tram system (constantly circling the property, with never more than a 15-minute wait).
The island's centerpiece is the beautiful oceanfront Amelia Island Plantation Inn, offering comfortable rooms, with decks providing leisurely views of the beach, ocean and golf course.
The resort also has a relatively new huge conference center accommodating 1,000 or more people.
The resort also has numerous shops, restaurants (including the 4-star Verandah restaurant at the Inn), 25-treatment-room spa and beauty shop facilities, numerous specialty shops and restaurants. Late night social fun and imbibing can be found at the new Falcon's Nest bar.
The island's only town is historic Fernandina Beach, a small community near the north end of the island. The town and island has served under eight foreign flags, with the U.. S. finally obtaining the property from Spain in 1821. Many Victorian homes dot the town, once a popular spot for pirates, and quaint shops and a lighthouse offer interesting side strolls. A large shrimp fishing fleet allows the town to bill itself as the shrimp capital of the world.
More than 1,000 permanent homes in the $200,000 to multimillion dollar range are scattered throughout the 2.5 miles by 20 miles island. The varied earth-tone architecture and often spectacular landscaping make the homes tourist attractions unto themselves.
The resort has strict rules on preserving the environment and no tree six inches or larger in diameter may be cut down unless approval is given by a special homeowners association board. Indeed, several homes actually have large trees that are incorporated into the structure design, with large oaks notched into the buildings.
The lush vegetation is often guarded by boardwalks and/or high protecting sand dunes, offering aesthetics only nature could provide.
Amelia Island is located just off Florida Highway AAA, just north of Jacksonville, Fla. (at night, the lights and bridges of Jacksonville can be easily seen from several Amelia Island locations). U. S. Highway 17 and Interstate 95 are only a few miles away.
Numerous price ranges for lodging and golf are available, based on seasonal changes, but tend to range toward upscale. For information, call 800-874--6878 or visit the resort's web site at

This story was published on 20 Nov 2003.