Jacksonville Advice Needed

[cruisebie]

I'm on the fence about this and need some advice from my fellow CC members.

 

DD & I are sailing on the Fascination on 9/10 and are planning to spend a couple of days pre-cruise in Savannah. I'm trying to decide whether we should drive down to Jacksonville on Sunday night 9/9 to be close to the cruise port. The other option is to spend the night in Savannah & drive down the day of the cruise. Google maps puts the drive at around 2 hrs.

 

If we do decide to drive down to Jacksonville on Sunday night, can anyone recommend a hotel? I'm not really looking for cruise & park because we are planning to park at the port, just something with some restaurants & shopping nearby.

 

TIA:)

[JohninDC]

Stay in Savannah -- much nicer city than JAX. ;)

[firecracker24]

We have sailed on the Fascination several times and we always stay at the Hampton Inn, Hospitality Lane. They have a free breakfast and is close to a mall and only a couple miles from the port, real easy to get to.

[04cruises]

Stay in Savannah. It is only about 90 min. to 2 hrs to get to Jax.Port is on the north side of town so it will be very easy to get to coming from the north. And you won't have to pack twice.

[maxandmolly]

If you choose to stay a night in Jax, any hotel marked airport/Jaxport (the cruise port) should have plenty of dining options nearby and there's some shopping as well. Also, you could choose to drive down to Jax early the day before and spend some time in St. Augustine (40 min or so south of Jax) it's a beautiful historical area, I really enjoyed the fort, there's lots of quirky shops, and it can be a nice pre-cruise day. You could compare hotel prices there vs hotel/cruise areas in Jsx. There's a small outlet mall on the way down. I don't believe the drive back up to the port in the morning would be difficult.