The best thing to do in Jacksonville?

That’s a harder question than it ought to be.

Not because Jacksonville is awful. It isn’t. It’s home. It has people I love, a church I belong to, a school where I work, restaurants I enjoy, familiar roads, familiar routines and enough little pieces of life that it has become part of my story.

But if we’re talking about the best thing to do here, I have to be honest: Jacksonville is not exactly overflowing with obvious answers.

The beaches are fine, but I lived in Sarasota and Fort Walton Beach. Once you’ve spent time on those powder-white Gulf beaches, it’s hard to get too excited about sand that looks like it was designed by a committee.

Shopping? Not really my thing. I know people love the Riverside Arts Market, and I’m sure it’s great, but I’ve never been. I’ve also never been to the Cummer Museum, the Jacksonville Zoo, or the Timucuan Preserve, so I’m not going to fake my way through a tourism brochure.

Two of the best Jacksonville answers used to be going to Jaguars games and visiting MOSH. Those were real Jacksonville things. But right now, both are in that awkward in-between stage.

EverBank Stadium looks skeletal as they prepare for the new version of the stadium. MOSH has been mothballed as the city waits for the new museum. Both may be great again someday. In fact, Jacksonville may have a whole new look in a couple of years.

For now, though, the city feels like it has a sign hanging over it:

Please check back in 2028.

So what’s the best thing to do in Jacksonville right now?

Honestly, sometimes the best thing to do in Jacksonville is leave Jacksonville.

Not permanently. Just briefly.

Jacksonville’s greatest strength may be that it gives you access to better-defined places. Head south and you can be in St. Augustine, where the history is real and the streets actually feel like they remember something. Head north and you can find Amelia Island and Fernandina, which have more charm packed into a few blocks than Jacksonville sometimes manages to scatter across an entire county. Head farther out and you can reach Orlando, Savannah, Gainesville, Daytona, the springs, or, if you’re willing to make the drive, the Gulf Coast beaches that remind you what Florida sand is supposed to look like.

That sounds more insulting than I mean it to be.

Jacksonville is a fine place to live. It is just not always the easiest place to recommend. It is spread out, unfinished, under construction and oddly hard to define. It has bridges, traffic, football hope, river views, Publix, and the constant sense that something better might eventually be built.

Maybe that’s the answer.

The best thing to do in Jacksonville is to use it as a launching pad. Go somewhere nearby. Enjoy what that place does best. Then come back home.

Because Jacksonville may not always be the destination.

Sometimes, it’s the place you start from.

Copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.