DRiving, not diving, the Florida Coast

[JohnQPS122]

My wife and I are driving from Wisconsin to the Keys in two weeks for 5 days of diving. We have built one extra day into our schedule on the way down for some sight-seeing. We are thinking of stopping in Jacksonville to visit JU (I attended in 1987) and then drive down the coast until we get near the Everglades National Park and then goofing around there for half a day or so.

I assume we'll drive all of A1A, but what parts of the Florida coast do you think are the most scenic when driving on US1?

More importantly, what parts are not very scenic, but just lots of stop and go city traffic we should avoid in order to get to the Everglades faster?

I'm referring to the parts of the coast south of St. Augustine and down to Florida City, not US1 from there to Key West, which we're already familiar with.

Thanks for your input.

 

[kb8lxc]

I live in Palm Coast (between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach) and in my opinion, everything between St. Augustine and Ponce Inlet is beautiful. A1A and US-1 will take you through all of it and just south of Ponce Inlet you could swing back over to I-95 or stay on US-1 if you like. I can't speak to the rest of the coast line as this tends to be about the range of my typical travels.

 

[NJ to FLA]

Delray is nice. I'm sure your wife would love it. If you want to stop and eat.. I would HIGHLY recommend "Boston's"..(couple restaurants down from the corner of Ocean Blvd and Atlantic) and it's right across from the beach but you can sit outside downstairs and you can sit upstairs overlooking the ocean. I've only eaten lunch there but they have the best lobster salad sandwich EVER! The drive down A1A in Boca is also nice if you want to see nice houses and boats.. South of that, like Deerfield beach and Pompano Beach are more like city traffic I think..