Courtesy FloridaHistoricCoast.com
Off to Amelia Island
On Tuesday afternoon following the conference’s closing luncheon, a two-night FAM trip will begin. Meeting planners who attend the conference and sign up for the trip will take a ride to Amelia Island, a barrier island with 13 miles of coastline located 45 minutes northeast of Jacksonville.
There, they will be guests of the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, recently awarded two AAA Five Diamond awards, one of only two Florida resorts to receive the double honor.
The beachfront hotel recently completed a renovation and redesign of its 446 guest rooms, marking the final phase of a five-year project that added a spa, new meeting spaces, restaurants and beachfront activities.
Planners will tour the hotel and its 48,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and see other aspects of the island, voted No. 5 among Top 10 North American Islands by Conde Nast Traveler’s 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards and listed by USA Today in May as one of 10 Charming Towns with Local Flavor.
Head to historic St. Augustine
After breakfast and tours on Wednesday, the group will travel 90 minutes south to St. Augustine and the Casa Monica Hotel, an 1888 landmark with the air and appearance of a Spanish castle.
Restored in 1999, the hotel overlooks Matanzas Bay. The 138 guest rooms in the AAA Four Diamond hotel carry the building’s architecture, with tapestries, wrought iron accents, intricately carved woods and Moorish-style chandeliers.
Its 12,000 square feet of meeting space includes two divisible ballrooms and lively outdoor spaces such as the Sultans Pavilion, a Moroccan tent with Austrian chandeliers.
After a reception and dinner at a historic restaurant in downtown St. Augustine, the group will return to the hotel for dessert. The next morning, they’ll board trolleys for tours of America’s oldest city before they depart for home.
For more information about the FAM tour, contact Nicole Trueblood at ntrueblood@visitjacksonville.com or (904) 421-9182.
