Travel Guide

Reminiscent of a bed and breakfast romantically placed seaside, the twenty-five-room Elizabeth Pointe Lodge (elizabethpointelodge.com) boasts the amenities of a larger property but the intimacy of a quant inn. (It received a 2008 Conde Nast Traveler Reader's Choice Award for being the second-best small hotel in the United States.) No matter the time of day, you'll find just-baked cookies, keep-it coming lemonade, and enough rocking chairs on the property's expansive proches to never feel crowded. The boutique hotel (from $220 per night), which is on Amelia Island, just outside Jacksonville, offers a daily full buffet breakfast with home-fixin's like scrambled eggs with dill and applewood-smoked bacon and freshly made organge bread paired with warm berries. When you're not lazing on white sand, bicycles are the transportation of choice; grab a sandwich to-go before a day exploring the town's beachy streets and strands. Built with the comfort of a big-brand hotel, Elizabeth Pointe offers high-end amenities like oversize soaking tubs and beach access with lounges and umbrellas. Should you need a late-night snack, twenty-four-hour room service means a super friendly staff member will cook you up whatever is in the kitchen. Larger parties will love Katie's Light, a reproduction of a Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse; it has a "captain's bed" in the master bedroom, sleeps up to eight, and is surrounded by a 360-degree sunning deck with 180-degree ocean views. --Tara Bradley