The consummate Florida beach town, with its T-shirt shops, amusement arcades and wall-to-wall motels, DAYTONA BEACH owes its existence to twenty miles of light brown sand where the only pressure is to strip off and enjoy yourself. Once a favorite Spring Break destination when half a million college kids would indulge in underage drinking and libido liberation, Daytona Beach now discourages such activity, leaving it free to focus on its true love: motor sports. Life in this down-to-earth resort now revolves around three major festivals: February's Daytona 500, Bike Week in early March, and the relatively new Biketoberfest .
For all the excitement that racing generates, the best thing about Daytona is the seemingly limitless beach: 500ft wide at low tide and fading dreamily into the heat haze. Lined with an all-but-endless procession of enormous but surprisingly low-priced motels, oceanfront Atlantic Avenue holds little to lure you away from the water. At the landward end of Main Street Pier, a $3 ride up the candy-striped Space Needle enables you to look down on the surrounding morass of low-rent bars and tattoo parlors. You can't get to the far end of the pier, though, because Hurricane Floyd knocked out 280 ft of it in 1999.
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