Cocoa/Daytona Beach

[sweetheart2576]

Ok..I am so up in the air about what beach to stay at for a3-4 days. We are planning on going to WDW for 7 days and then head to the Gulf(Clearwater or St. Pete. Beach) for a few days, and then were planning on going to Daytona, but now I was thinking about Cocoa beach. We have been to Daytona Beach 4-5 times, August 2003 our last. We have 2 kids 6,9. We all love Daytona Beach. We love staying at Oceanfront hotels, we also like the boardwalk. I thought about trying Cocoa Beach for something different, so I have a few questions. The kids would love to see the cruise ships, since they really want to go on one.

If you've been to both, what beach do you prefer? Is it busy? Is there little boutiques to shop at? Boardwalk? What are the pros and cons of both of these beaches? How are the hotels, some of Daytona's are a little rundown. Anything to do there(other than KSC), boat tours, aquariums, etc.? Any oceanfront hotels you would recommend? I will probably have more questions later as i think about it more. I am so undecided and probably wont decide until we get closer to August. TYIA

 

[Paige3]

We are also trying Cocoa Beach for the first time this April. We always go to the west coast, but are going to split this trip up between Cocoa Beach and Clearwater. There is a brand new resort in Cocoa Beach called Ron Jon Cape Caribe Resort. I saw it in a Fla. Travel magazine. It looks great, especially for kids. It is oceanfront, has studio, 1 and 2 bedroom villas, and a huge pool area with a lazy river and slide. I have 4 nights booked here. I'm still waiting to hear from someone who has actually stayed here. The website is ronjonresort.com. Good luck in your planning!

 

[InSearchForDisney]

I've been to both beaches and my choice is definitely Daytona Beach. When I went to Cocoa Beach, I thought the beach was not as nice and the water was dirty. Good luck with whatever beach you choose!

 

[mar3990]

We like to drive over to Cocoa Beach for the day but not to stay there. The water/beaches are dirtier than the Gulf Side and we have yet to find a decent hotel. There is no boardwalk/shops area that I know of. The reason we usually go is the kids like the waves to Boogie board and we all love Marlins retuarant at the Pier. The food has always been great and you can watch surfers out the window. The kids like a drink there called the Sonic Boom.
We enjoyed Daytona(there are more extra things to do) but really like the Gulf beaches better.

 

[momof2inPA]

We stayed at Daytona in January and the new Oceanwalk hotel looked really great. It even has a small lazy river, and it's connected to shops and restaurants. There were some deals out for it then. I'll see if I can find one.

 

[momof2inPA]

The nightly rate at the Oceanwalk seems to be about $149 or $119 with the timeshare presentation. I found a weekly 1 bedroom:

http://www.greatvacationhomes.com/rentals/16235.html

Just a suggestion. We stayed at the Radisson, which I would not recommend, but I was pleased to see a few new hotels in Daytona like the Adams Mark and Oceanwalk. Where does your family usually stay?

 

[sweetheart2576]

We wanted to stay in Ocean Walk last August but the 1 bedrooms were all booked up. That hotel looks really nice.In August we made the mistake of booking a room while in Orlando before seeing the hotel.We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn. We had a 1 bedroom oceanfront suite. We found it in one of the discount books for 99 a night. The room was nice, the pool was too deep in the shallow end for our 5 year old, but still nice, they had one of the mushrooms for the kids that spray water. The only thing I hated about the hotel were the hallways to your room. They were disgusting, really disgusting. They were outside, which was fine, but they were really disgusting. I will definitely look into the ocean walk resort this year a little earlier before they sell out. I think we will stick to staying in Daytona Beach, rather than Cocoa Beach. Maybe we will take a ride up their for the day to check it out. Cant wait to see the gulf coast beaches heard so many nice things about them. Thanks for the link

We've stayed at a few more but honestly can't remember the names anymore, nothing really nice. think quality hotel (1995)was one of them, comfort inn(2001)BOardwalk(2003) and a few more.

 

[floridagirrl2]

"We like to drive over to Cocoa Beach for the day but not to stay there. The water/beaches are dirtier than the Gulf Side"

Re: Dirty water, just a reminder that Florida West Coast (Gulf) water is much clearer than Florida East Coast (Atlantic) water, and this is not related to cleanliness. It's related to the turbulence of the Atlantic vs. the Gulf. The beaches on the Gulf side also tend to be fine white sand, and the beaches on the Atlantic side are darker sand and broken shells.

If you like more waves, tha Atlantic coast of Florida is nice--there are also MUCH fewer stingrays on the Atlantic side. After our experience going to Ft Myers for the 4th of July, I don't think I would choose that area in the summer again--we saw literally hundreds of stingrays in the water. Plus the temperature of the water during the summer was like bathwater--not refreshing at all.

That said, there certainly ARE some dirty beaches in Florida here and there, and I haven't been to Cocoa in 15 years, so maybe it is dirty now!

 

[GIOny]

Paige, I believe that the ron jon resort is in Ormond Beach, not Cocoa Beach. Ormond Beach is just north of Daytona Beach, which I think is about 45 min. to 1 hour north of Cocoa Beach. Just didn't want you driving around Cocoa Beach looking for that resort. The big Ron Jon Surf Shop is in Cocoa Beach.


Never mind Paige, I tried to delete this post but I couldn't but I looked up ron jons cape caribe and you are right it is in cape canaveral which is right near cocoa beach, I didn't know ron jons had 2 resorts, I believe the original one is up in Ornmond Beach. Anyway have a good time wherever you go!