After visiting Universal in Orlando, Dave and I spent the rest of our short vacation with family in Florida. We had a very nice relaxing time there. Of course, we couldn’t miss spending some time on our favorite Florida beaches. One day we dedicated to go to delightful Daytona Beach, which is considered one of the best beaches in the country. Daytona Beach has 23 miles of sandy, white beaches, which are open to pedestrians 24/7 with free access! This time we entered the beach from the side of the open amphitheatre, which is located on the North end of the Boardwalk amusement area and overlooks the ocean.
The Daytona Beach Bandshell in the picture below is part of the open amphitheatre. It was built in 1937 and is made out of coquina. The Bandshell seats 5,000 people and is used for concerts, outdoor weddings and receptions, events and convention activities. This fabulous structure is a popular attraction in Daytona Beach all year long.
Right from the steps of the amphitheatre we spotted the beautiful white beach.
There is a Boardwalk with numerous shopping and dining options. It is not large, but is very cute old-fashioned beachfront fun: shops, arcades, amusements and a classic pier stretching a quarter mile into the ocean. This is the part of Boardwalk which runs to the recently renovated pier.
The Pier and Boardwalk area was just remodeled in 2012 and is a very nice location now. The new Joe’s Crab Shack is on the pier and is a great place to eat and drink, not fancy but fun. The deck and bar on the roof is huge and pretty cool with an incredible view of the ocean.
It wasn’t warm enough for a swim, but it felt nice walking on the beach. An interesting fact is that there is always some room on the beach available. The beach never gets so overcrowded like Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. The post about Rehoboth Beach can be found here.
Cars are permitted on designated areas of the beach from sunrise to sunset, tidal conditions permitting. For me, it is a completely different experience, when I have my car parked on the beach. It is very convenient. We enjoyed walking on the beautiful white sand, which is so firm that you can walk without sinking in it, ride a bike, a scooter, or a car. Here are some pics from our previous (2011) Daytona Beach visit, when we rented a scooter for riding on the beach.
The ocean here doesn’t get deep quickly, so you can walk relatively far into the water, but beware of the strong current.
I love the ocean at any time and in any condition, whether it is calm like a lake, or strong and rough like in the picture below. It is always associated with such energy and beauty! Note a bird standing up front of the wave.
Dave and I like to visit a couple of our favorite restaurants while we are there. One of them is The Ocean Deck restaurant, which is located right on the beach. You can just walk barefoot from the beach into the restaurant, or eat at a table outside. The other one is The Blue Grotto located in the Marina. It has great food and nightly entertainment. Visitors can dock their ship at the restaurant’s pier and dine outside overlooking the Marina, like in this picture taken during our previous visit.
This time we had a nice outdoor late lunch at Mai Tai bar located below Sloppy Joe’s restaurant overlooking the open amphitheatre. Sloppy Joe’s Daytona Beach 360° Photography from its official site can be viewed here.
As soon as our food was delivered to our table, some birds started moving closer to our food hoping to get something.
And the other birds from this side were interested in our food as well, so we threw some to them.
The view of The Daytona Beach Bandshell from our table at lunch.
We decided to take a short walk on the beach before leaving.
So many hotels with a wide price range are located on the beach.
We went through a different part of Boardwalk on the way to our car.
We passed Ocean Walk Shoppers tunnel to the parking garage over State Road A1A, which is depicted in the next picture.
The entrance to the beach, but vehicles waren’t allowed to enter the beach at that time.
Driving on Daytona Beach streets.
I had to take a picture of these gorgeous palm trees which grew next to the gas station, where we stopped for gas. Aren’t they charming?
The ocean access ramps have been often seen by us while driving from Daytona Beach. This one is located in Ormond by the See following by the picture of the beach there.
Ormond by the Sea is located on Florida’s Atlantic coast, just north of Daytona Beach. This is a nice residential district with some beautiful beach homes, nice sand dunes, and lots of birds. It is home to sea turtles, therefore we could often see the turtle nests, wile walking on the beach. Ormond Beach lacks the slightly tawdry carnival atmosphere of Daytona and actually has a long stretch of beach without hotels and condos. The sand is too soft here to drive on, so there is no automobile traffic on the beach. There aren’t many parking places next to the beach. As a result, there are not a lot of people out on the beach. Ormond by te Sea doesn’t have the white firm sand of Daytona Beach, but I like the fact that the beach here is never crowded. Sometimes it felt like you owned the beach and had it all to yourself… Dave and I used to live across the street from the ocean and enjoyed the ocean view every day. Especially, we were fascinated by the powerful warm Tropical storms here. Water in the ocean gets deep quickly on this part of the beach, but how incredibly warm it becomes in the summer due to the warm Gulf Stream Atlantic Ocean current. It is not even refreshing anymore. I love it!
The other day we drove to the Flagler Beach. Here is Flagler Beach pier, or part of the pier which is left after the hurricane from a number of years ago.
I always enjoy driving on State Road A1A, which runs right next to the Atlantic Ocean. Then we stopped to take a closer look at the ocean in Flagler Beach. The beach has shrunk noticeably because of numerous tropical storms and hurricanes.
Here is a view of a few of the oceanfront hotels and restaurants along of A1A.
Standing near the edge of the Atlantic Ocean on Flagler Beach. The sand has a brilliant orange color.
Flagler and Ormond Beaches have sand that contains a high percentage of crushed and worn coquina shells, giving it an almost orange appearance. It really is beautiful and feels nice to walk on. The closer you get to the water, the more orange the sand appears.
It was nice to spend some time with the family on the patio next to the pool. It was a little chili for a swim though. 🙂
I am amazed by this beautiful plant next to the pool. It has been there since I can remember it, for a long time. It doesn’t require much maintanence, besides cutting down the branches, which grow like ‘crazy’. 🙂
We enjoyed delicious oranges and grapefruits right from the trees in the garden. For some reason, even when we lived there, the atmosphere of vacation always hangs in the Florida air, accompanied by the bright sunshine. There is a reason: Florida is the Sunshine State!
Please meet one of our favorite family member Puggy. I finally got him to pose for me at the patio.
This is the last post about our week in Florida (October – November, 2012).