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Family Beach Break What do spring and summer days in Daytona Beach bring to mind? How about the London Symphony Orchestra, manatees and dolphins, a double-decker eco-bus and the Fountain of Youth? With Daytona Beach's special Spring Family Beach Break season, Daytona Beach International Festival, eco-tours and a new interactive children's museum, spring break and summer holiday are a lot about family and the arts.
Daytona Beach
DeLeon Springs State Park West Volusia TAA
Think Daytona Beach and cars and beach come immediately to mind. Here the two meet to create a reputation for speed and good times. The reputation began more than a century ago when car manufacturers tested and raced their horseless carriages on the hard-packed sands of Daytona Beach and neighbouring Ormond Beach. In time, racing moved to Daytona International Speedway, home to the Daytona 500 every March.
The famous speedway also hosts other headline events such as the Pepsi 400 in July and the Rolex 24 in February. Even between races, fans can “feel the thunder” and excitement of racing on a tour of the track and by visiting DAYTONA USA. At this interactive attraction, surround-sound movies and other simulation lets visitors in on the racing sensation.
It seems no matter where you go in Daytona Beach, it’s about the speed. The town is filled with go-kart tracks including Nitro Alley, where you reach speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour. Downtown Daytona Beach, which is turning a historic area into a smart, attractive shopping and dining district, you’ll find the Halifax Historical Museum, which traces the history of auto racing and Daytona. And although there’s no racing on the wide beach today, Daytona Beach is one of the few places left in Florida where you can still drive on the beach. The pace is quite a bit slower these days, and portions are designated pedestrian-only. Upmarket hotels are bringing Daytona Beach into the 21st century, but the scene is purely boardwalk-beach classic, with carnival rides around the Main Street Pier, watersports, golf cart rentals and surfing waves all big crowd pleasers.
The best surfing is at quiet Ponce Inlet, where a salty village of casual restaurants and visitor attractions has gathered. Climb Florida’s tallest lighthouse (and the second highest in the U.S.); the swirling 203 steps reward you with a stunning 360-degree view of the Atlantic and salt marshes of the Intracoastal Waterway. Around the lighthouse, a cluster of buildings explores
Main Street Pier Daytona Beach Area CVB
different aspects of Daytona history. In the same neighbourhood, the Marine Science Centre educates visitors about mangrove and shoreline ecology and the plight of endangered sea turtles. After touring the attractions, stop in one of the local waterfront cafes for a cold drink, a fresh grouper sandwich, and an eyeful of quiet saltwater marsh as well as the birds that come to feed.
Other attractions in the Daytona Beach area balance beach fun and speed with nature and the arts. The Museum of Arts and Sciences contains the largest Cuban art collection outside of Cuba and an ancient giant sloth skeleton. The Seaside Music Theatre stages professional stage entertainment. In Ormond Beach, Tomoka State Park is known for its canoeing and art museum. For a visit to sweet yesteryear, explore the area’s past reputation for growing sugar at Bulow Plantation Ruins State Historic Site, near Ormond Beach, and Sugar Mill Botanical Gardens, with its dinosaur statues, remnants of a former life as a theme park, south of Daytona Beach in Port Orange.
New Smyrna Beach harbours its own reminders of the era at New Smyrna Beach Sugar Mill Ruins. A drive-on beach like Daytona, New Smyrna Beach is quieter with the feeling of a historic hometown off the beach. Its Apollo Beach is part of the extensive Canaveral National Seashore that continues to the south, all natural and minimally developed.
Inland, thriving and charming DeLand is the centre of a world made from manatees, springs, unusual parks and the mighty St. Johns River. Blue Spring State Park in Orange City draws wintering manatees to its 22°C spring waters. Hontoon Island State Park requires a shuttle to reach the river island for hiking, fishing and camping. De Leon Springs State Park, erstwhile site of a sugar plantation and later a health resort, is a fun place for a refreshing swim and a hearty flapjack breakfast that you make yourself at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill & Griddle House. In addition to all this nature, Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge protects pine and hardwood forests as well as the birds and other wildlife it attracts.
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