"We're similar a beach town with a big side of country," Jay Dodson tells me equally we toast a couple of beers at x:xxx in the morning. We're continuing backside the bar at Hoptinger Biergarten, his Jacksonville Beach beer bar that plays absurd beach shack by day and bad-decision hotspot at night.

Dodson is dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, and is almost a mascot for what this urban center on the northeast coast of Florida has become: a whole lot of beach, a good dose of business savvy, Southern hospitality, and absolutely no pretension. It'south the kind of place where having a beer at breakfast time isn't at all unusual, and taking it with yous out to the embankment is encouraged.

While the Gulf Coast beaches and the bright lights of Miami draw the majority of Florida'south non-mousey tourists, Jacksonville might just be the country'southward all-time undiscovered destination. Information technology's affordable, it'due south warm, and information technology has but enough composure to continue y'all interested in one case you lot've had enough of the sand. And best of all, yous won't exist sharing it with painful numbers of snowbirds.

Jacksonville has the kinds of beaches people cantankerous oceans for.

Jacksonville Beach, where Hoptinger sits, is home to almost of the urban center's nightlife too as 22 miles of by and large unspoiled Atlantic coastline. With that much space to spread out, the city'southward 800,000 residents never crowd the sand likewise much, and different more-popular embankment destinations in Florida, yous'll almost never accept to fight for a slice of sandy real estate.

The coastline is dotted past other picayune embankment towns likewise, like Atlantic Beach, where coffee shops and yoga studios give it a distinctly California feel — minus the California traffic and prices. Hither you lot'll discover people jogging the beach at sunset and returning to their fiddling bungalows on the sand, a pleasant deviation from the glut of condo towers one usually finds in Florida.

Head a little farther south and you'll notice one of the most spectacular American beaches nobody has ever heard of. Guana Land Park, almost a 35-minute drive from downtown Jacksonville, sits at the foot of towering, grassy sand dunes. The wide, golden sand has nary a soul, and the clear blue water is bathtub warm six months out of the year. It feels completely isolated and remote, reminiscent of beaches in Zanzibar and other hard-to-accomplish destinations. But this i is only a brusque bulldoze from a major airdrome.

Artists come up hither considering it's affordable.

A few blocks from Jacksonville's hipster Riverside district, total of stately historic homes, Thai fusion restaurants, and the creative hangout at Bold Bean Coffee, you'll find the CoRK Arts District. This one fourth dimension furniture warehouse is now a massive artists' work infinite, where you can walk down the hall and see a sculpture made of bottle caps, ballsy murals, and cartoon greeting cards with rubber ducks captioned "No, Siri, I did not say 'Badass Motherducker.'"

Though information technology's non open to the public near of the year, it does requite the city an infusion of artists who accept a straight impact on the urban center'southward culture. Downtown Jacksonville has covered itself in murals over the past five years and has drawn some of the biggest names in street art to help liven upward its in one case-struggling urban core.

There's more outdoors than whatsoever big city in Florida.

Lost in Florida's allure behind Deco Bulldoze and Cinderella's Castle are the mangrove passageways and deep green estuaries that get in an outdoorsman's paradise. As the largest city by area in the lower 48, Jacksonville is teeming with outdoor opportunities, whether that's taking an airboat out on the St. Johns River and into some of the tiny waterways that feed information technology or angling the tidal flats with stops for dejeuner on deserted beaches.

In all, Jacksonville has one,100 miles of navigable waterways, meaning you lot can escape people pretty easily. And when you're floating down a perfectly even so tributary with pine trees surrounding and a heron flying overhead, information technology'south hard to feel annihilation other than relaxed.

The city also has what passes for surfing in Florida. Non exactly breaks y'all'd travel for, just hit Atlantic Beach or the Jax Beach pier and you'll find enough to keep you occupied if you're a novice. Though it's non exactly getting back to nature, we'd be remiss in discussing the outdoors here if we didn't talk well-nigh golf. Ponte Vedra, just south of Jacksonville, is the abode of the PGA Tour, and the famous TPC Sawgrass course and its iconic island green.

In the spring, it hosts The Players Championship, which, much like the Kentucky Derby, is really more than of a weekend-long party than a sporting event. The tournament, with its miles of local food vendors and beer tents, is a neat fourth dimension even if you don't know a nine-iron from a steam iron, making this far and away the best fourth dimension of twelvemonth to visit.

The metropolis has dozens more courses across TPC, too. So even if you can't score tee time there, yous're never brusque for options.

Sports are accessible, and downright fun.

The just thing a lot of people know almost Jacksonville is that it'due south home to the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars. What few know is that Jags games, in addition to having hot tubs from which to scout the action, are as well some of the easiest and most affordable tickets in the NFL. As the simply major league team in boondocks, the Jags accept a passionate following too, and a trip to TIAA Banking concern Field will show yous a solid cantankerous-section of the urban center.

But if you happen upon Jacksonville betwixt April and Baronial, you admittedly must brand a point to lookout the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. That'southward a baseball team, in case you were confused. The AA chapter of the Miami Marlins play at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, a classic brick ballpark where you're never more a couple hundred anxiety from the action. Ticket prices here average about $15, with beers most $5, and the crowds here sometimes top the big league squad in Miami.

On Thursdays, the $1 beers at Jumbo Shrimp games make them the social hub of the metropolis, a popular pregame for the younger set before hit Jax Beach. But also a elevation spot for affordable family unit amusement.

You'll accept admission to accolade-winning food.

James Beard awards and nominations have go the benchmark by which a city's culinary scene is judged, and unbeknownst to many, Jacksonville has notched multiple nominations, for Orsay and Boondocks Hall. They're office of the family of restaurants run by Jonathan Insetta, a Jax native who is effectively the driving force behind the city's dining scene.

His cuisine falls mostly forth the New American spectrum, with an emphasis on some Southern specialties similar Carolina trout with glazed haricot vert. Painted Hills ribeye with cauliflower and spinach gratin is another classic.

In addition to his Beard-nominated spots, Insetta also runs Black Sheep in the Five Points neighborhood, best known for its rooftop bar and spectacular sunsets. You can also sample his creations at Bellwether downtown, a fast-casual concept with stuff similar Korean fried broccoli, confit duck leg, and chicken meatball banh mi.

You'll rarely have to expect long for a table at any of these spots, and meals can exist had for a fraction of what you would pay in larger cities.

Nightlife is flip-bomb coincidental, and painfully affordable.

My favorite anecdote to tell about nightlife in Jacksonville was when I went into a jam-packed bar in Jax Beach on a Sabbatum night and ordered a drink for myself and my friend. The bartender told me, "Eight dollars." I told him I wanted to pay for both, and he responded, "I know, that'll be eight dollars."

This wasn't at a seedy neighborhood dive bar, either. This was at Surfer: The Bar, a two-level sweatbox of a nightclub frequented by local college students and young professionals. The crowd is as attractive as it is energized, but has none of the exclusionary, you-tin can't-sit-with-us attitude of nightlife you'll find in other parts of Florida. It shares the Jax Embankment spotlight with the same Hoptinger, which is a fiddling similar going to a tailgate at 2:00 AM. And Lynch's, a sprawling Irish bar with live music and equally inexpensive drinks.

Jax Beach is the hub, only nightlife isn't limited to the coastal stretch. Downtown y'all'll find a bustling jazz lodge total of local musicians at Breezy. Harder-core rock fans should hit the 1904 Music Hall. Both sit simply a short walk from the historic Florida Theatre, a mid-century Art Deco venue that draws nationwide acts in an intimate infinite.

Jacksonville might not be the sexiest proper name in Florida. At least not withal. But if you're looking for all the elements of a first-rate Florida vacation — pristine beaches, warm weather, great nutrient, and heart-pumping nightlife — yous'll find it, far cheaper and less crowded than in the rest of the land. And that's exactly why information technology's a fantastic place to visit. That, and the friendlier locals, none of whom mind if their hometown stays a little overlooked.

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