Meet Jacksonville people without joining a rec league.

Set under the deck of the Fuller Warren Bridge on the north bank of the St. Johns, this Saturday market is one of the few outdoor dates that survives a Jacksonville summer, since the interstate overhead doubles as shade and rain cover. Stalls run one into the next, so neither of you has to carry the conversation, and it costs nothing to walk in.

It runs Saturday daytime only, which rules out a spur-of-the-moment evening, but the no-reservation, low-key feel makes it easy when a sit-down date would be too much too soon.

Locals run the same route: dinner in nearby Five Points, then art indoors and a walk through the riverfront gardens here, all without moving the car a second time — a rarity in a city where the next stop usually means another drive. When the conversation stalls inside, you just step out to the St. Johns and keep it going.

Best from October through April, when the riverfront gardens are pleasant; through summer, keep to the indoor galleries and save the garden for last.

A tidy riverfront lawn with a 1920s war memorial at its center gives a walk-and-talk a real focal point instead of an aimless circle. It sits fully exposed on the north bank, so anyone coming from the Southside or St. Johns County crosses a bridge, and the open grass only really works in spring, fall, or the breeze off the water at sunset.

Free, with an obvious meeting point at the monument, it works best as the low-key second half of a Riverside afternoon rather than the whole plan.

Downtown Jacksonville thins out after business hours, which is exactly why this works: the galleries are small enough to finish in one visit, the ground-floor coffee shop lets you keep talking without leaving, and the museum, the main library, and Chamblin's bookstore sit within a couple of blocks — the rare downtown stretch you can do on foot. Being fully indoors, it also shrugs off July heat and afternoon storms.

Weekdays here are calm and easy to talk in; the main hassle is downtown parking, so plan on a short walk from wherever you leave the car.

The room itself is the reason to come: a grand 1927 theatre with arched Spanish-style windows and a hand-lettered marquee, the sort of ornate space downtown rarely offers after dark. Since you can't really talk through a performance, treat it as the anchor of a later evening rather than a first meeting — a show, dinner nearby, and one reason to cross the river once the office crowd has gone.

There's nothing to walk into on a random afternoon; it opens around scheduled performances, so it fits a planned night out more than a spontaneous first meet.

One of the few places in this spread-out city actually built for walking side by side: a boardwalk over a mile long that runs the Southbank with the downtown skyline across the water, ending at a large fountain that lights up after dark. How long you walk, and how long you talk, is up to the two of you. San Marco is closest; from Riverside, you cross the Acosta.

An open-air walk best saved for the evening, and for fall and winter, when the Southbank is comfortable enough to linger on rather than rush across.

A beach strewn with the bleached skeletons of fallen oaks does half the work of a date; the view alone gets you talking. But reaching it means driving up A1A to the far northeast edge of Duval, past the Dames Point Bridge — a whole-afternoon trip, not a first coffee. Whether someone will make that drive with you says a lot about where things stand.

No shade the whole way, and it closes at sundown, so aim for a cool morning or a fall afternoon rather than midsummer heat.

Out on the Beaches side, this is where a date can be something other than one more bar on Atlantic Boulevard: a single park holds a stretch of quiet ocean beach, a freshwater lake, and shaded forest trails, so you can walk, paddle, or sit depending on how it's going. Tucked into maritime forest with an ocean breeze, it holds up on a July afternoon when inland plans wilt.

A small per-car fee gets you in, and the beach here is a quieter, less built-up stretch than the Jacksonville Beach boardwalk a few miles south — better for an unhurried afternoon.

Where Atlantic Boulevard meets the ocean, on the line between Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach, is the one walkable pocket out here — the Beaches' answer to Riverside, where you park once and stay on foot. Begin with a drink; if it clicks, dinner and a walk to the sand are a few steps on. The trade-off is a beach crowd small enough to hold familiar faces.

Good year-round and cooler after dark than inland; come in the evening, and expect it busy with visitors and tight on parking through the summer.