Things to Do in Jacksonville Beach

High-profile destinations often cite their high ratings on TripAdvisor, which named e2ride bike tours Jacksonville’s No. 1 attraction. However, few boast that they were highly rated by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her iconic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is credited with helping to ignite the Civil War, but most of her opinions on travel have been lost to the ages—except on the company’s historical bike tour of Olde Mandarin. As the tour group winds past the lush area’s museums and public parks, the tour guide notes that Stowe dubbed the area “a tropical paradise.”

On the company’s other tours, guides offer equally juicy historical tidbits, such as that Riverside-Avondale was originally only occupied by just two homeowners or that Truman Capote vacationed in Springfield. As they learn about the past, groups cycle down present-day roads lined with homes in styles ranging from Tudor and Georgian to Star Warsian.

The student walks into the packed studio, decked out for a night on the town. He’s nervous, thinking that perhaps one salsa class wasn’t enough to prepare him for the social setting. But once the Latin beats start to fill the space, the steps come back to him. He grabs a partner’s hand, and they hit the floor. Such is the scene at one of The Dance Shack’s in-house dance parties, where Shackers try out the skills they have learned in group or private lessons within the studio’s familiar confines before they hit the club.

In the 1940s, Walt Baptiste and his son Baron created a new branch of yoga—called Baptiste yoga—that combines the principles of yoga, meditation, and inner reflection. The Baptiste-yoga movement grew rapidly, and in 2005, senior Baptiste teacher Mark White introduced his community to the practice with three studios. He and a staff of 13 certified yoga instructors guide students from pose to pose while observing proper alignment and breathing technique. Studios are heated to 90 degrees to keep bodies limber and destroy any ice cream that enters the building.

Each summer, beer-toting mini-golf enthusiasts congregate for Putt N' Crawl, a golf-themed beachside bar crawl. Clad in golfing garments, teams compete on home-built mini-golf putting greens, and dodge windmills and fiberglass stegosauruses on their way to a dozen different bars. In addition to quality time with golfing buddies, the event promises prizes for exceptional teams and plenty of specials on frosty pints.

For more than 50 years, bowlers have hurled balls down Beach Bowl's gleaming lanes, vying to topple over groups of unwitting pins. By day, the alleys host friendly matches and kids’ birthday parties, and by night, they light up for cosmic bowling with day-glo stripes. To bowl higher scores, competitors can lubricate their minds with cocktails from the Strike Zone Lounge, and fuel up between frames with hot and cold sandwiches and snacks at the snack bar. Afterward, players can overturn losing games with a rematch at the foosball or pool tables in the arcade.

Pump It Up party centers pique the spirits of young and restless rovers with safe, clean, and climate-controlled indoor arenas packed with a bevy of custom bounce houses, obstacle courses, and merry-making inflatables. Their trained staff continuously casts watchful eyes over young bouncers, ensuring that kids safely burn off excess energy as they leap, duck, and dive with abandon during open play sessions, summer camps, and birthday parties. The customizable, multi-hued playscape, vibrant with primary colors and a sound system, captures the romping imaginations of tykes and magazines alike, earning a mention in Parents Magazine’s list of "Six Fun Places to Party." Parents are always admitted for free with their child, and may join in the fun as well, engaging their inner youth as they lovingly supervise, socialize with other parents, or fill out patent papers for the world's first inflatable minivan.