Best For: Dunes, history, small towns and sandy shores. With a lively Victorian-era downtown and 13 miles of wide-open beachscape skirted by sea-oat-laced golden dunes, Amelia Island is a timeless, everyman’s beach. But if there’s a single activity that approaches iconic status on this northeasternmost outpost of Florida, it’s the simple pleasure of collecting the sharks’ teeth that wash up onto that endless strand with tidal regularity. Anytime of year in any kind of weather, you’ll find folks walking the beach with eyes cast down in a treasure-hunting trance.

“If you stand in one spot at the edge of the water for 20 minutes, you can come up with a shark’s tooth, but you must be patient and also have an eagle eye,” says Donna Strawgate. She’s combing her happiest hunting ground near the pier in Fort Clinch State Park at the north end of the island. “You look for the blackest thing you can find, so the best time is midday when they glisten in the sun. They don’t tumble in the water like shells but rather float flatly. Once you know what you’re doing, you can really zone in. I’ve found 12 or 13 in one day!” It’s not simply coastal dynamics that account for such quality beachcombing on Amelia Island.

One of the last in the chain of islands that skirts the Carolinas as well as Georgia, Amelia is backed by an estuary which is formed by the mouths of three rivers. A Trident submarine base is tucked into the low-country marshland, and every so often the Navy dredges Cumberland Sound and replenishes Amelia’s northern beaches with fresh sand and even fossils. Take the scenic Amelia River boat tour, and chances are the guide will show you the tooth of a megalodon, a prehistoric beast of a shark millions of years old and estimated at around 45 feet long. If you prefer, you can pick up this kind of fossil at Hunt’s Art & Artifacts, a narrow shop packed with such curiosities on the main drag of Fernandina Beach. Quirky businesses like this, along with Trailer Park Collectibles, a shop of oddball finds, and T-Rays, a great burger café housed in a former Exxon station, inject unexpected layers of interest into Fernandina’s aura of quaint Victoriana.

“There’s something about the island,” says Ray Hetchka, the burly, white-bearded proprietor of Kayak Amelia who takes nature lovers deep into the local creeks, marshes, inlets and beaches. “Folks wind up here and fall in love with it, whether they’re retirees with a lot of money or guys who want to live in a beach shack, put their feet up in a hammock and live like Jimmy Buffett.”

Hot Spots: On Amelia Island, the rough and the ritzy rub shoulders quite happily. For the latter, look no farther than the sprawling Ritz-Carlton or Amelia Island Plantation. With a justly celebrated restaurant called Salt (the chef’s tasting menu is a tour de force), an inviting spa treatment called Heaven in a Hammock and suppertime picnics served behind the dunes, the Ritz-Carlton is a direct shortcut to coastal bliss. (And yes, staff members will take your kids hunting for sharks’ teeth while you’re at the spa.) To mingle with Mother Nature opt for the Amelia Island Plantation on the south end of the island. The accommodation choices are endless here. For those who prefer the hotel experience, a room at the Amelia Inn & Beach Club puts you steps from the sands, while villas with one- to three-bedrooms sit facing the Atlantic, manicured fairways and lagoons framed by stately oak trees. A nature trail leads to a lookout point for viewing the sea-oat-dotted shoreline. Ride a rental Segway across the bridge to the island’s marsh side, and spot herons, turtles and other grass-loving creatures. Even a day on the golf course here is a treat with plenty of cool ocean breezes as you play alongside towering sand dunes and verdant marshlands.

For a taste of local island favor on a weekend afternoon, head to the Tiki Bar at Sliders Seaside Grill. Live music mingles with the sound of kids having fun on the sandy playground as waitresses wearing T-shirts that invite you to “Shut Up and Drink” whiz past with trays of icy drinks and baskets of fresh fried shrimp. On a hot summery day at the beach in a joint with cold beer on tap, there’s only one thing to say: “Yes, ma’am!” See the sites: ameliaisland.com.

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