Trip to... Daytona beach, Florida East coast

[sprthompson]

I went to Daytona beach USA last month, very interesting place.

Plus points

Daytona beach is quite near the airport, so having hired a car it was not hard to get there and find out hotel, even thought I was unfamiliar with driving in the USA! The roads are very straightforward.

The area has a lot of shopping malls, e.g. Volusia mall. Also nearby there are some nice attractions e.g. the Daytona racetrack home of the famous Daytona 500. There was nothing on at the track but I went to the hooter bar opposite the main gates which was busy and full of Nascar atmosphere and yummy greasy American food!

The beach is incredible, it's super super long, and you can actually drive along it (how very american!) It's great to walk along as it's quite firm so not hard work, you can also walk in shoes without getting them all sandy (though,there is plenty of softer sand aswell!)

The area is convenient for watching the space shuttle launch- OK so there might only ever be 3 more of these! I was there on Nov 4th, eager to see the STS 133 launch, but this was postponed (and still has not gone up yet..) pretty disappointing!

Negatives

The area seems to be suffering from the economic problems of late. The main road still has restaurants, shops etc, but turn off and you will see a sad state of a lot of closed down restaurants. We actually researched one restaurant online that had opened quite recently, but when we arrived it had been closed down and emptied out - such a shame.

All the hotels looks the same, I can only speak for the one I stayed in which was pretty basic despite charging a reasonable rate. Most of the other hotels I looked at looked the same from the outside, and infact our hotel was in the top 10 on tripadvisor for the region so it makes me think the others in the area must be fairly poor.

I really want to go back and see a shuttle launch

[GuX]

It’s one of the best places to enjoy the summer with family. The best time to visit is from May to September, as the weather is at its warmest. You can even go in late January when Daytona Beach Speedweeks festivities and Daytona 500 take place.
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[lennyf]

daytona is a great time for the younger crowd. tons of great bars and restaurants

[dwibre]

Dantona is fun if you like to play in the surf especialy if there is a storm off the coast

But it gets busy - Personly I would take the extra time to drive to the Gulf beaches around St petes much nicer and far less people.