Best Daytona Beach Hotels

Talk about your vest-pocket jewels, this boutique hotel is small but has everything you need: It’s on the beach, has a great restaurant (Azure), a small but full-featured spa and well-appointed rooms with views over the ocean. It also has character that you won’t often find in the bigger chain hotels. The ground floor interior is all marble and dark wood, with metal accents and a big fountain. There are little cubby-ish seating areas scattered around, perfect for taking a break from the sun with a trashy summer novel. The property is in Daytona Beach Shores, a few miles south of the “strip,” so the beach here is quieter; in fact, if it’s not high season, you can get up for a morning run on the beach and have it almost to yourself. Up a dozen steps from the sand, atop the seawall, is the hotel’s enormous pool deck. This contains an oceanfront pool and children’s pool, a Jacuzzi, cabanas, outdoor seating for Azure, a Tiki bar and plenty of loungers. There are even two fire pits, perfect for after-dinner drinks and socializing while watching the stars come out over the ocean. The Shores is low-key, but graceful and even charming.

Bruce Rossmeyer was an icon in the national biker community; he died in a motorcycle accident in Wyoming in 2009, but not before turning the biker lifestyle into a complete recreational complex in Daytona. The rooms and suites are upper-end motel quality—clean and convenient—some with microwaves, refrigerator and coffee/tea maker. But the real reason to stay here is to be with other bikers, realizing that most of them are dentists from Ohio in town to blow off some steam and show off their hidden tattoos. For their amusement Rossmeyer included a tattoo shop, a cigar store, a leather clothing boutique, a gift store called Hawg Tyd, the Saints and Sinners Lounge and more. Of course, there is Rossmeyer’s Harley dealership, and you can even rent a Harley with advance reservations. Especially during bike weeks and race events at the Speedway, prices soar to more than $200 a night. Rooms close to the Saints and Sinners pub may be noisy, especially during party weeks. 

Just a few miles north of Daytona proper, Ormond Beach is quieter, but just as pretty. The DBRCC is an older beachfront property with rooms in a tower section and a low-rise bank parallel to the beach. Even though it’s not brand new, the hotel has been well taken care of, with rooms in the newer tower section somewhat larger than those in the five-story wing. If you can, get an ocean view with a balcony—you’ll love sitting out as the sun goes down watching the waves roll in. The decor includes lots of crown molding and wall finishes, so the environment feels more luxurious than the rates indicate. Reflections, the onsite restaurant, serves the usual American casual fare and there’s a poolside bar and a spa, Terra Acqua, as well. Pricing varies, and with special packages or during off/shoulder season, you’ll probably pay less than $100 a night, which for a quality beachfront room is a great deal. The hotel caters to small business meetings and has good meeting and event space available.

There are just 18 rooms in this 1885 pink Victorian beauty located in New Smyrna Beach. It overlooks the Halifax River about three blocks from the ocean, its three stories, tin roof and gingerbread trim a beacon for boaters who pull up to the dock out back to come up and eat in the restaurant. The Grille at Riverview is very good, with a nice range of standards (steak and seafood), along with some specialties, such as yellowfin tuna in an espresso coffee crust served with prosciutto cream sauce, and macadamia-crusted Gulf grouper. You can dock your boat out back for an extra $15 a day ($1.25 a foot if not renting a room), or you can be totally terrestrial and just enjoy the view of boats on the Intracoastal from one of the second- or third-floor balconies. There’s an onsite spa, and the interiors are comfortable and appropriately antique-ish, but not at all shopworn or musty. You can walk to other restaurants and the small shops of New Smyrna—park your car and don’t drive for days if you like—or you can drive over the adjacent causeway and access the attractions and restaurants just north in Port Orange and Daytona.

If you’re looking for something a little quieter and away from the partying downtown, the Hampton Inn is south, almost down to the Dunlawton Bridge that crosses into Port Orange on the mainland. That also makes it closer to New Smyrna, so it’s a nice in-between location convenient to both New Smyrna and Daytona. The hotel is unremarkable—it’s clean and neat with free breakfast daily like most Hamptons—but it does have a nice beachfront location with a pool overlooking the sand and surf.