yankee

Going to Savannah and Charleston. I can get a pretty decent fare into Jacksonville and thought I might fly there and overnight in St Marys, Georgia on my way to Savannah. Anybody been there?

J T Kirk

It's been years since I've been there, but St Mary's is a cute, "old-Florida" kinda town. It's the debarkation point for Cumberland Island. If you have time check out Cumberland (it'll take nearly a full day). The ruins of an old mansion, belonging to the Carnegie's, is there, as are a herd of wild horses. And the beach on the Island is pretty nice -- wide, open, dunes, sea grass. I hear they've opened a restaurant on the Island; other than that it's pretty primitive.
I assume you must be getting into Jax late?!? St Mary's is not that far from Jacksonville. I'm not really sure if it warrants a stop in and of itself. It's really, really small.

Olive Oyl

Yankee, Capt Kirk pretty much said it all. If you have any extra time, it sure would be worth your while to visit Cumberland, I agree. Agree too, that it will take most of the day to do it. Because we lived in Savannah at the time, we never had to stay in St. Marys prior to going over to Cumberland. Seems to me it was about 1 1/2 hr drive from Savannah. There was an inn there, but I don't recall the name and have no idea if it was decent.

The JAX airport is excellent, very nice, and very easy to get into and out of, especially for those traveling to points north. You never hit any traffic. It is 2 hours from Savannah, but the airfares were sometimes so much better the savings warranted the extra drive time. Easy driving by the way, interstate the entire way, door to door. I used it any number of times for flights back and forth to Dallas--huge savings and the direct flight cut out the time consuming and annoying plane change in Atlanta that I would have had flying from Savannah.

RB

Hmm...have you considered a night at Amelia Island instead? It is 30 minutes from the JAX airport, and would be a nicer stop, IMHO. Check out the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge, which is a small inn on the water. There also is good dining in the area. Web site: www.elizabethpointelodge.com.

yankee

Thanks, everyone, for your advice. Very helpful. I will arrive JAX late and that's why I thought I'd stay overnight in St. Marys. May check out Amelia Island, too, as a stopover point.