Omni Amelia Island Plantation

OMNI AMELIA ISLAND PLANTATION RESORT

It’s no secret that Amelia Island Plantation is our favorite place.  It’s beautiful, peaceful, serene… it leaves you with so many amazing memories and caters to families.  We adore the island so much, that our daughters middle name will represent the place that we treasure.  Amelia Island Plantation encompasses every stage in life – family vacationing from when children are just babies until they’re adults, to honeymooners and retirement folks.  It’s the package deal in our eyes.

We love that we’re a 5-1/2 hour car ride from the beautiful experience that Amelia Island Plantation provides.  If I can paint a picture, just imagine one side of the resort draped in a mossy sheet that decorates the giant oak trees.  While the other side is a white ground of soft sand that meets the ocean.  Truly, a picturesque destination.  The all white cabanas, beach chairs and umbrellas don’t hurt the picture either. 😉

Many of you know that we’ve been coming to Amelia Island Planation for several years now and we hope to continue the family vacation tradition.  My husband grew up vacationing at the plantation with his family.  It’s important to him, that he can recreate all of those special memories with our little family.

Warning – this post is about 5 million years long!  There’s just so much to cover and share. 

THINGS TO DO

There is so much to do and without wishing Henry’s years away, I am really looking forward to when we can explore the marsh creeks on paddle boards and kayaks.  The hubby is looking forward to when we can all golf together as a family and finish all 18 holes.  In years past, we’ve been able to make it through 9 with Henry and it’s by far the prettiest course I’ve ever seen.  In a few years, Henry will be able to attend the Camp Life right on the plantation with all of the other children.

Here’s a look into what we did this trip:

Amelia’s Wheels: Every morning we rented bikes or an island hopper from Amelia’s Wheels and took a spin around the plantation.  An easy way to catch an island breeze, soak up the scenery and grab some breakfast (and stock up on old-fashioned candy) from our favorite spot, Marché Burette.  This is a great way for a family to explore the plantation and see the grounds with little ones.

Beach + Pool:  We spent the majority of our time oceanside under a beach cabana, on the uncrowded 3.5 mile beach of Amelia Island.  We hopped between the beach and the family-friendly pool and splash-pad.  For all of you honeymooners, they have a beautiful infinity edge adult only pool.  Next year on our agenda, we will do a private beach fire.

Splash-Pad + Tanner the Turtle:  For some added poolside fun we went between the splash pad, hammocks, enjoyed lunch by the pool and even visited with a turtle.  If you follow me on Instagram, then I’m sure you saw Henry’s glowing love for the resorts resident mascot, Tanner the Turtle.  Henry looked up to Tanner and my favorite part of the trip was watching his excitement and little pitter-patter around the pool as he followed Tanner.  Tanner’s job everyday at 2pm is to pass out Italian Ices to all of the children.  Let’s just say, they became fast friends.

We haven’t explored much outside of the bikes, golf, pool, beach and the great dining, but just off the pool, they do kids crafts a few times a day.  We tried to pull Henry out of the pool long enough to do a craft, but my little fish wasn’t having it.

I can’t say it enough… so much for the kiddos to do!

POOL + OCEANSIDE EAT + RESTAURANTS:  You can enjoy your meal poolside or inside the beautiful Oceanside restaurant for both lunch and dinner.  The best fish tacos that we’ve ever had!

Honestly, the food all-around is amazing – in all our visits, we’ve never been disappointed.  Verandah always goes above and beyond with their menu, presentation and wine list.  My goodness they will spoil you and they make it extremely easy to enjoy a ‘fancy’ meal with a toddler.  Once again, they catered to Henry and our family making our dining experience so enjoyable and not rushed.  For dessert – the chef came out with local honey, nitrogen infused popcorn – so when you bit the popcorn, your mouth would smoke.  Henry thought this was “sooooo cool”.  They also came out with mini cotton candy suckers.

MINIATURE GOLF:  Heron’s Cove Adventure Golf right on the plantation was so much fun!  It was actually nice to break the heat and get a few holes in under the canopy of live oaks that feature the 18-hole putt putt course.  Fun for the whole family!

NATURE CENTER:  We also enjoyed exploring the Nature Center and Henry got to make his own Tanner the Turtle (similar to Build-A-Bear).  You can make a visit with the plantations rescued critters while inside the center too.

WHERE WE STAY:  Normally we stay in the Villas on the property, but this time around we opted to stay in the hotel.  The Omni is absolutely beautiful and boy will they spoil you.  During one of our dinners on the plantation, we asked for Henry’s favorite, chocolate chip cookies.  The restaurant didn’t have any, however, when we returned to our room – they had milk boxes and chocolate chip cookies waiting for us.  We couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

Everything about our trip was so perfect for our little family!  We had the best time making memories that will last a lifetime.
I received a lot of questions during our trip, so I thought it would be best to capture our thoughts and experience in one large post.  It was truly an amazing vacation for our family and I hope you all can enjoy, Amelia Island Plantation one day!

Xo!