401-room oceanfront family resort — three championship golf courses, the Magnolia Spa, the most reliably family-programmed booking on the Atlantic Florida coast.
"The Omni is what happens when an Atlantic Florida resort decides its central proposition is a family of four arriving on a Saturday and not wanting to think about anything until Wednesday. Three courses, nine restaurants, and a children's programme that runs without interruption."
Omni Amelia Island Resort & Spa opened in 1974 (originally as the Amelia Island Plantation, a real-estate development with a hotel anchor) and was acquired by Omni Hotels & Resorts in 2010 — at which point Omni invested $85 million through 2018 in a comprehensive renovation that updated the rooms, public spaces, dining, and amenities. The property occupies 1,350 acres on the southern half of Amelia Island, fronting the Atlantic with three miles of beach, and divides its accommodation across two main areas: the Oceanfront Tower (the conventional hotel rooms) and the Villa-style accommodations scattered through the wider plantation property (one-, two-, and three-bedroom condominium-style units with full kitchens, ideal for the longer-stay family booking).
The 401 rooms (and the additional villa accommodations the Omni manages on the property) divide between Oceanfront Tower rooms (the standard hotel-format booking, all with Atlantic views or garden views, refreshed in the 2018 renovation), the Villa accommodations across the property (one-bedroom and larger condominium units with kitchens), and the Ocean Suites at the headline category. Standard tower rooms run 350 square feet; the larger Ocean Suites approach 800. The villa accommodations — which Omni books through the same reservations system as the tower — run from one-bedroom 800-square-foot units up to four-bedroom 2,500-square-foot houses with private pools.
Three championship golf courses sit on the resort: Long Point (Tom Fazio, 1987 — the oceanfront-finish course), Oak Marsh (Pete Dye, 1972 — the original Amelia Island course), and the Ocean Links (Bobby Weed, redesigned 2009). Beyond golf, the resort runs the Magnolia Spa (15,000 square feet, contemporary spa programming), the Falcon's Nest tennis facility, the Camp Amelia children's programme, the Beach Club at the oceanfront, and nine on-site restaurants ranging from the Marché Burette French-style deli through to the Sprouting Project farm-to-table dinner room and the Verandah Restaurant for the contemporary-American option. The 80,000 square feet of meeting space gives the property the conference-resort tone that the Ritz-Carlton next door deliberately avoids.
Omni Amelia Island's central distinction is that it is the working family-resort booking on the island — the Ritz-Carlton at a higher price point delivers the Forbes Five-Star service standard, but the Omni delivers the larger key count, the broader on-property activity range, the three full courses, and the family-villa accommodation type at half the average per-night rate. For the multi-generation American family booking, for the corporate retreat that needs both meeting space and recreation, and for the longer-stay condominium-style booking on the Atlantic Florida coast, this is the address. The 2018-completed renovation cycle keeps the property in the Forbes-mentioned tier without crossing into the Ritz-Carlton-Cloister price range.
The Omni is the working family-resort booking on Amelia Island. The villa accommodations (one- to four-bedroom units with full kitchens, washers/dryers, private pools on the larger units) are the standard multi-generation booking; Camp Amelia runs ages 4–12 supervised programming; the Beach Club, the family pool, the bicycle network, and the kids' tennis clinics handle the structured activities. The Marché Burette deli and the in-room kitchens make the in-and-out family meal pattern work without the booking pressure of restaurant reservations.
Anniversary stays at the Omni calibrate well for the contemporary-resort register at the Forbes-Four-Star price point: an Ocean View Tower room for a quiet weekend, an Ocean Suite for a milestone year, a one-bedroom villa for the retreat-and-reset version. The Sprouting Project handles the formal anniversary dinner; the Verandah is the casual one; the Magnolia Spa runs couple's-treatment days; the dune-walk-at-sunset is the canonical post-dinner activity. Pair with a Cumberland Island ferry day-trip for the version that adds the unique-to-the-Georgia-Florida-line excursion.
The Omni runs a credible wellness-retreat programme on the Amelia Island base — the Magnolia Spa's 15,000 square feet, the Sprouting Project farm-to-table dining concept, the on-property organic garden, the beach-front yoga and meditation programming, the bicycle and beach-running infrastructure. The villas with full kitchens make the longer-stay wellness booking practical (clean-eating self-catering options); the Forbes-Four-Star spa pricing is a third of the comparable Forbes-Five-Star Salt Spa next door.
39 Beach Lagoon Road
Fernandina Beach, FL 32034
United States
Southern half of Amelia Island; 50 minutes north of Jacksonville International Airport (JAX); 1 hour from St. Augustine; 90 minutes south of Savannah
401 rooms + villa accommodations
Tower Garden View rooms from $273/night
Ocean View rooms from $399/night
Ocean Suites from $899/night
One-bedroom Villas from $599/night
Three-bedroom Villas from $1,250/night
Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Opened 1974 as Amelia Island Plantation; Omni since 2010; $85M renovation completed 2018
Three championship golf courses
Magnolia Spa (15,000 sq ft)
Nine restaurants
Camp Amelia family programme
Beach Club & family pool
Falcon's Nest tennis
80,000 sq ft meeting space
1,350 acres on the Atlantic
From $273/night for a Tower Garden View room. Ocean Suites and the larger villa accommodations book three to four months ahead for spring break, July/August, Thanksgiving, and Christmas weeks; the corporate-retreat block dates require advance group reservations.
Book This Hotel →Florida's only Forbes Five-Star Atlantic-coast resort — 446 oceanfront rooms with private balconies, the Salt Forbes-Five-Star spa.
The 25-room Nantucket-shingle-style boutique on the north end of Amelia Island — the small-scale alternative to the larger resorts.
The 1905 Queen Anne–style B&B in Fernandina Beach historic district — the in-town heritage option for a Fernandina-focused stay.