Island retreats and coastal havens to escape the chill

The Ocean View Club on Harbour Island in the Bahamas.

As snow, ice, and cold invade the South this week, we’re yearning for sunny skies and summer sea breezes—like the ones you’ll experience in these coastal towns and laid-back Caribbean isles. Below, find a few stories to inspire your next warm-weather adventure, whether now or in the coming months.

Northeastern Florida. To kick off a long family weekend, I took the Silver Meteor Amtrak train from Charleston, South Carolina, to little Palatka, Florida. My parents and brother picked me up at the train station, and then we took a drive to historic St. Augustine. We got to know the area by…

Soaking up some shade: Swathed in palms, cypresses, and soaring oaks, Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka was the perfect spot to stretch our legs. The Works Progress Administration built the green space in the 1930s, and it feels like the best of Old Florida.
Wandering St. Augustine: While traveling, I’ve been trying to grab my phone less and slowly learn film photography with my grandpa’s old Canon AE-1. I focused my lens on drifting sailboats on the St. August Inlet near the Castillo de San Marcos stone fortress, and on Flagler College’s fountain, encircled by terra-cotta frog statues.
Rocking out: The entire point of this family trip was to see Blackberry Smoke at the pilgrimage-worthy St. Augustine Amphitheatre. The open-air venue did not disappoint, and the band didn’t either—the encore included “Freebird” (played on one of the late Gary Rossington’s guitars) and a cover of one of my all-time favorite songs, “Willin.’” Driving out the next day, my brother introduced our family to the app Bandle, a guess-the-song game that we’re all totally hooked on now.