St. Johns County: Florida's #1 Healthiest County in 2026

Northeast Florida's top-ranked wellness lifestyle, from hospital-grade care to spa culture and open-air living.

Just after sunrise, the trailhead at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas Reserve already has company. Runners loop the marsh overlook, a retired couple walks their dog along the shaded path, and a mother pushes a stroller past the wetlands where herons wade in the shallows. It is an ordinary Tuesday in St. Johns County, and it looks a lot like the reason this county keeps landing at the top of every health ranking in the state.

Niche.com's 2026 rankings named St. Johns County the #1 Healthiest County in Florida, with an A+ overall grade and an A+ in Health & Fitness. U.S. News & World Report and CVS Health backed that up in their own 2026…

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Best Fall Farms & Pumpkin Patches Near Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

Ten local farms and pumpkin patches worth the drive this fall, from corn mazes to church patch traditions.

There is a particular kind of fall magic that only shows up once the Florida heat finally lets go: kids racing between rows of pumpkins, a hayride bumping along a dirt path, cider in hand while the light turns gold by 5pm. It does not last long here, so when it arrives, families make the most of it. Whether you are looking for a full farm day with a corn maze or a quick, photogenic pumpkin pick after school, this list covers ten of our favorite spots within a short drive of Ponte Vedra Beach.

We grouped them two ways: full farm experiences with mazes and hayrides, and community pumpkin patches that are perfect for a fast, festive stop. A…

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Nights of Lights 2026: The Complete St. Augustine Holiday Guide

by Jennifer Heller

The Plaza de la Constitución goes dark for one long minute on Light-Up Night. Then, all at once, every live oak lining the square blinks on, and the whole downtown grid follows, string by string, rooftop by rooftop, until the oldest city in the country is dressed for the holidays. It happens the same way every year, and it still gets a gasp out of the crowd.

Nights of Lights returns to Historic Downtown St. Augustine on Saturday, November 21, 2026, and runs through Sunday, January 18, 2027.

When it starts

Light-Up Night kicks off around 4 p.m. with live music and performances in front of City Hall, building up to the official lighting ceremony at the Plaza de la Constitución around 6:30 p.m. After that first night, the…

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The Village at Seven Pines: Jacksonville's Next Open-Air Hub

Regency Centers breaks ground on a 250,000 square foot open-air village anchored by Publix, with a 2027 opening on the horizon.

Picture a Saturday morning a couple of years from now: you park once, then walk from a fresh cup of coffee to a new pair of running shoes to a table on a shaded patio, all without getting back in your car. That is the vision behind The Village at Seven Pines, and Jacksonville just watched the first shovels hit the ground.

Regency Centers broke ground in early 2026 on this open-air shopping village, the commercial centerpiece of the 1,000-plus acre Seven Pines master-planned community near the southeast corner of JTB and I-295. The first wave of openings is targeted for 2027, and the tenant list already reads like a wish…

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A Local's Guide to the Guana Preserve in Ponte Vedra Beach

By Collette Strickland

Trails, tides, and the best fishing hiding twenty minutes from A1A.

A friend invited me to walk the trails at the Guana Preserve, and I couldn't believe I'd lived here for over a decade and never known they existed. If you've lived in Ponte Vedra Beach for any length of time, you've probably driven past the brown "GTM Research Reserve" signs on A1A a hundred times without ever pulling in. You're not alone. Once you actually turn down Guana River Road, you realize we have something genuinely special sitting in our backyard: nearly 10 miles of hiking trails, a shallow tidal lake full of redfish and trout, and enough marsh, oak hammock, and open sky to make you forget you're twenty minutes from the Publix on A1A.  Here's what to…

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5 NE Florida Boating Spots That Aren't Really a Secret

by Jennifer Heller

Every local boater has a favorite sandbar they swear nobody else knows about, and these five prove that theory wrong every single weekend.

The engine cuts, the anchor drops, and for a second the only sound left is water lapping against the hull. Someone's already wading toward the shallows with a cooler over one shoulder. A paddleboard drifts past, untethered, while its owner swims after it laughing. This is a Saturday on the water in Northeast Florida, and it plays out the same way at five spots that locals still, somehow, call hidden gems.

They aren't hidden. They're just worth the trip, every time, which is a different thing entirely. Here's where the boats are actually going.

Sisters Creek / Shark Tooth Island,…

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The Hidden Titanium Mine Under Old Ponte Vedra Beach

by Collette Strickland

The Buried History Under Old Ponte Vedra's Street Signs

Next time you're driving through Old Ponte Vedra Beach, take a second look at the street signs. Tucked in among the oak canopies and waterfront estates, you'll spot a name that doesn't sound like your typical coastal town: Rutile Drive. It's not a random word. It's a mineral. And it's one of the last visible fingerprints of a chapter in our town's history that many people driving to the beach club have no idea ever happened.

Before Ponte Vedra Beach was Ponte Vedra Beach, it was a mining town called Mineral City. Here's how we got from one to the other. And why a mineral is still sitting on our street signs today.

When Our Beaches Were a Titanium Mine

Back in…

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Inside Ponte Vedra Beach's Clubs: What Membership Actually Feels Like

A real look inside the amenities, dining, and lifestyle of Ponte Vedra Beach's clubs.

Ask anyone who has lived in Ponte Vedra Beach for more than a summer, and they will tell you the club you join shapes your life here almost as much as the house you buy. It decides which beach you park at, which pool your kids learn to swim in, whether Sunday mornings mean a tee time or a table at brunch. With seven distinct clubs shaping daily life along this stretch of coast, from oceanfront resorts steeped in nearly a century of history to a golf and tennis compound tucked along the marsh, the choice comes down to lifestyle more than anything else.

Here is a real look at what each club offers, amenity by amenity, so you can picture your own life inside the…

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New Kingsminster School Rising Near Nocatee, Ponte Vedra

A New Private School Is Rising in Ponte Vedra: What to Know About Kingsminster

If you've driven along Palm Valley Road recently, you may have noticed activity on the grounds of St. Francis-in-the-Field Episcopal Church, just north of Nocatee. That's the future home of Kingsminster Ponte Vedra, a new independent Christian school that broke ground this year and is set to open its doors in August 2027.

 Photo Credit:  Ponte Vedra Recorder

From County Plans to Groundbreaking

The project first appeared in St. Johns County planning documents under the working name Episcopal School of Ponte Vedra. In mid-2026, the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a special use permit for the campus, clearing the way for…

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World's Biggest Beach Bike Ride Hits Jax Beach Aug 14

One Thousand Riders, One Beach, One Shot At A Guinness World Record Title, Right Here In Jacksonville Beach.

The sun is dropping low over Seawalk Pavilion, string lights are glowing against the dunes, and somewhere in the crowd someone is checking their tires one more time before the ride of a lifetime. On Friday, August 14, Jacksonville Beach becomes the site of a Guinness World Records attempt: the Largest E-Bike Party, with 1,000 riders lined up on the sand and ready to make history together.

This isn't a race and it isn't a workout. It's a community showing up, wheels and all, to be part of something Jacksonville has never done before.

The Evening, Mile by Mile

Doors open, so to speak, at 5:00 p.m. with beachside festivities at Seawalk…

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