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Daytona Beach

Photo: Karen Kleis / CC BY 2.0

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Daytona Beach

Daytona Beach, FL · Space Coast

About

This is the beach that put the cars on the sand: 23 miles of hard-packed Atlantic shoreline you can actually drive onto, anchored by the 1925 Main Street Pier jutting a thousand feet into the surf. The boardwalk behind it runs on a loop of fried dough, the Coquina clock tower, and a Ferris wheel turning over the dunes, while surfers work the breaks off the pilings. Come for the wide-open sand and the crowds, stay for the kind of summer-night noise that earned it the nickname World's Most Famous Beach.

Highlights

1925 Main Street Pier reaching 1,000 feet into the AtlanticHard-packed sand you can legally drive and park onBoardwalk amusements, Ferris wheel, and the Coquina clock towerSurf breaks off the pier pilingsNicknamed the World's Most Famous Beach

Getting there

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Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Daytona Beach.

Popular Florida Atlantic Coast Beaches13 places

Popular Florida Atlantic Coast Beaches

This is the other Florida Atlantic, the one with a soundtrack: beach-town shores where the boardwalk, the pier, and the bars are half the point. Park once and walk to South Beach's pastel lifeguard towers, Daytona's hard-packed sand you can still drive on, Cocoa Beach's morning surf, and Fort Lauderdale's strip of cafes across from the water. Come for the crowds, the people-watching, and the easy day where everything you need is steps from the sand.