Amelia Island is where the car earns its keep
Rent for Amelia Island, the beaches and anything with a ferry in it; for two nights in the old town of St. Augustine, the car mostly sits in a $40-a-night valet while a $60-each-way sedan does the driving — that’s the one trip here where we’d leave it at the counter.
Start with the map, not the rate: JAX sits between the ship and Amelia Island, 26 miles from downtown Fernandina Beach against the terminal’s 31, by our route estimates.
We looked for a bus, a shuttle or anything with a posted fare between the airport and the island, and came up empty.
That leaves a car, or a car service whose fare we couldn’t find published.
Once you’re there, Fort Clinch State Park charges $6 a vehicle, and another $2.50 a person gets you inside the fort itself.
Downtown parking has cost $2 an hour since February 2026 — voters turned it down in August, and local news reports the city will end it Nov 18, 2026.
Cumberland Island is the trip that takes real planning, because the boat leaves from St. Marys, Georgia, about 38 miles from the terminal, at 9 and 11:45 in the morning.
The round trip is $44 for an adult plus tax, the island adds $15 a person, and the Park Service recommends booking ahead.
Give it a whole day, not a spare afternoon.
What does a $42 valet do to the math?
The defaults: a couple, two nights, a JAX pickup and the Casa Monica’s overnight valet. Swap in your own hotel before you trust the verdict.
The rental, line by line
Rough numbers, ours, and no kind of quote: the $45 a day is an assumed rate, while on Sept 28, 2026 Discover Cars advertised JAX rentals “from $25” a day and cautioned that a US price there can exclude some taxes and surcharges. Your own quote’s rate goes in the box, along with any one-way drop charge it lists. The $4 daily facility charge at JAX (five days at most) comes out of the airport authority’s financial report for 2025, and the airport fee % is our guess; the county sales tax (7.5% where the county is Duval or Alachua, 6.5% in Orange or Volusia) and the $2-a-day rental surcharge are Florida DOR’s, and Chatham County’s 7% is Georgia DOR’s. Fuel assumes 30 mpg, with gas at $4.37, the statewide AAA average on Sept 27, 2026; the shuttle rows are Prime Time’s own fares, and any taxi range is Rome2Rio’s, a third party. The default loop runs JAX to St. Augustine and back, about 104 miles with no tolls, with parking set at the Casa Monica’s $42 overnight valet until you change it; neither column counts the ride from the ship to JAX, since you pay it either way.
With the Casa Monica’s valet in the sum, the car comes to about $218 for two nights, against $120 for Prime Time’s private sedan out and back, at its starting fare.
The sedan wins, and it never needs a parking space.
Set the parking box to $0 and the car drops to about $134 — close to the sedan, not past it.
What tips it is a beach day or a run up to the ferry — the kind of trip a shuttle can’t do for you.
On Amelia Island, with the Hampton Inn parking you for free and no shuttle fare we could find, the comparison mostly stops being one.
A car makes sense if
- Amelia Island, Fort Clinch or Cumberland is on the list
- You’re sleeping in more than one town
- The hotel parks free, or close to it
- The ship is behind you and only a flight is ahead
Leave it at the counter if
- It’s the historic district and nowhere else
- Your hotel only valets, at $40 or more
- The trolley’s stops cover your list
- You’d be driving up from St. Augustine on sail morning
Check the parking policy before the room rate
| Hotel | Where | Parking, per its own site |
|---|---|---|
| Casa Monica | St. Augustine | Valet only: $42 overnight |
| Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront | St. Augustine | Valet only, $40 |
| The Collector Inn | St. Augustine | Valet $25 a day, plus a $25 nightly amenity fee |
| Embassy Suites St. Augustine Beach | St. Augustine Beach | Valet only, $42 |
| The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island | Amelia Island | Valet only, $50 a day |
| Omni Amelia Island Resort | Amelia Island | Self-park $25 or valet $40 a night |
| Hampton Inn Amelia Island | Fernandina Beach | Free self-parking |
Parking terms from the hotels’ own sites, read Sept 28, 2026. Most didn’t show a resort fee, so look for one when you book. Checked Sept 28, 2026
Every St. Augustine hotel on that list is valet-only, and most of them sit around $40 a night.
The Collector Inn looks like the bargain at $25 — until you spot the $25 nightly amenity fee listed right beside it.
Amelia Island has the widest spread, from nothing at the Hampton Inn to $50 a day at the Ritz-Carlton — the Omni sits in between.
If you remember One Ocean Resort in Atlantic Beach, that’s the one that reopened in March 2026 as the Dune House Hotel & Spa.
On foot, by trolley, or in someone else’s sedan
| Option | What it costs | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Time Shuttle, JAX to St. Augustine | From $35 a person shared, $60 private | Those are its published starting fares, one way; it shows no return price |
| Old Town Trolley, St. Augustine | From $33.15 a day online | Hop on and off at 22 stops; a ticket also parks you free at two of them |
| JTA St. Johns Express Select | $3 | Weekdays, St. Augustine to downtown Jacksonville, with no stop at the airport or the port |
| Amelia Island | — | We found no public transport with a published fare |
Fares as each operator posts them. Checked Sept 28, 2026
Since Prime Time publishes only the airport-to-St. Augustine direction, the return leg in the calculator is our assumption, not its fare — ask for both when you book.
Kingsley, a $7 ferry, then A1A
Heckscher Drive is the road you take to the terminal, and it keeps going east to Fort George Island and the river crossing, which makes the slow way to St. Augustine a nicer start than the interstate.
Kingsley Plantation, on the island, costs nothing to visit — though the planter’s house opens only Friday through Sunday.
A little farther on, JTA’s St. Johns River Ferry takes the car across to Mayport every half hour for $7 on weekdays and $8 on weekends.
The hours change on Oct 1, 2026, to 6 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and 8 AM to 9 PM on weekends. A late crossing may no longer be there — check before you build the evening around one.
From Mayport, A1A runs south through the beach towns to St. Augustine. Parking in Jacksonville Beach is free except in its March 6 to Nov 1 season, when Friday nights, weekends and holidays are paid, up to $12 a day, per local news.
You won’t pay a toll on I-95, State Road 9B or A1A, so the rental company’s toll program only becomes a question if Orlando comes next.
6 stops, measured two ways
| Stop | From the terminal | From JAX | Parking or entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Augustine, historic district | 42 mi · 1 hr 02 min | 52 mi | City garage $20 an entry; streets $2.50 an hour |
| St. Augustine Beach | 50 mi · 1 hr 09 min | — | Anastasia State Park $8 a vehicle |
| Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island | 31 mi · 52 min | 26 mi | Downtown paid parking ends Nov 18, 2026 |
| Fort Clinch State Park | 34 mi · 1 hr 01 min | — | $6 a vehicle, $2.50 a person for the fort |
| Jacksonville Beach | 19 mi · 34 min | 29 mi | In season, paid Friday nights, weekends and holidays |
| St. Marys, Georgia (Cumberland Island ferry) | 38 mi · 53 min | — | Ferry $44 an adult round trip, plus $15 park entry |
Miles and minutes are our own OpenStreetMap routing at free-flow speed with no stops, so pad them for traffic; parking and fees come from each city, park or operator’s own page, except Fernandina’s parking change and Jacksonville Beach’s season, which come from local news. Checked Sept 28, 2026
Read the two mileage columns against each other: for Fernandina Beach the airport is the nearer start, and for St. Augustine and Jacksonville Beach the ship is — which only helps if you’re driving the coast before you sail.
Coast after the cruise, if you get the choice
Ferry, beach towns, St. Augustine
Take a taxi to JAX, collect the car and follow Heckscher Drive east to the ferry. A1A does the rest, and the flight home leaves from JAX, 52 miles back up.
Fernandina, Fort Clinch, Cumberland
From the airport it’s 26 miles to Fernandina Beach, and two nights covers Fort Clinch, the old downtown and — if you’ve reserved it — the morning boat to Cumberland Island.
Coast first, airport hotel last
Spend two nights on the coast and the last one at a hotel by JAX. Hand the car back that evening, and sail morning is 12 miles with someone else driving.
The old town on a shuttle and your feet
Prime Time Shuttle lists the airport run from $35 a person shared or $60 private, the Old Town Trolley starts at $33.15 a day, and most of the historic district is close enough to walk.
Coast after the cruise
- The ship docks in the morning, leaving you the whole day
- Avis, Budget and Enterprise at JAX open at 6 AM
- Your flight is the only deadline
- JAX is closer to Amelia Island than the ship is
- I-95 traffic can’t make you miss anything
Coast before the cruise
- About an hour from St. Augustine to the ship, before the drop-off and a taxi
- No rental company at the terminal, per JAXPORT
- So spend the last night near JAX
- Check your line’s arrival window first
- Allow slack for I-95 and I-295
Both directions work. After the cruise the coast is simply more vacation; before it, the coast has to be finished by the night before — so plan it that way, not as a morning dash.
Nights, hotels and the ride to the ship, in one plan
One counter at both ends: JAX
Set JAX as both the pickup and the return. After the cruise it’s where you fly home from, before it the counters there stay open latest, and on a trip north it’s the closer start anyway.
- Pick-up and drop-off: JAX
- Avis and Budget counters open until 1 AM
- Any one-way fee shows in the total
- Free cancellation to 48 hours before pickup
St. Augustine and Amelia Island, asked and answered
How far is St. Augustine from the Jacksonville cruise port?
Roughly an hour with clear roads: about 42 miles from the JAXPORT terminal to the historic district, by our route estimate. From JAX it’s farther, about 52 miles.
Do I need a car in St. Augustine before or after a cruise?
For the historic district alone, usually not — much of it is walkable, the Old Town Trolley starts at $33.15 a day, and the old-town hotels charge about $40 a night to valet. Add the beaches, Anastasia State Park or Amelia Island and a car starts to pay.
How far is Amelia Island from JAXPORT?
Downtown Fernandina Beach is about 31 miles from the terminal and 26 from JAX, by our route estimates, so the airport is the nearer of the two.
How much is the St. Johns River Ferry?
JTA charges $7 a car on weekdays and $8 on weekends, crossing every half hour between Fort George Island and Mayport. Starting Oct 1, 2026, it runs 6 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and 8 AM to 9 PM on weekends.
How much is parking in St. Augustine?
The city’s Historic Downtown Parking Facility is $20 an entry, and street and lot spaces are $2.50 an hour. An Old Town Trolley ticket includes free parking at two of its stops.
Can I visit Cumberland Island from a Jacksonville cruise?
Yes, as a day of its own before or after. Boats leave St. Marys, Georgia, about 38 miles from the terminal; the round trip is $44 for an adult plus tax, and the island’s entry is $15 a person. The Park Service recommends reserving ahead.
More on renting around a Jacksonville cruise
Which way are you taking the coast?
Give us the ship and the dates. An advisor will order the nights, pick hotels that park sensibly and sort the ride to the terminal, at no extra cost.
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