Coasting Florida's Eastern Shore

Long stretches of golden beaches are the unifying theme of this drive along Florida’s southeastern coast. The drive starts with bang in Daytona before moving to even greater heights at Kennedy Space Center. Then, it meanders alongside barrier islands until it lands in the Treasure Coast with its appealing mix of quaint, rustic and upscale beach towns set between peaceful nature preserves and the glitz of Palm Beach. Finally, the trip winds up with the razzle dazzle of Miami.

If you’re coming down from the Eastern seaboard, avoid the endless drive along I-95 by taking the Amtrak Auto Train. The train will pick up you and your car just south of Washington, DC and effortlessly whisk you overnight to Sanford, Florida, just miles away from Daytona Beach. The train provides more than just a carefree way of getting from here to there. On the way, you can watch movies, lounge in your very own sleeper car or trade vacation ideas with fellow passengers in the dining car. You’ll arrive in Florida well-fed and well-rested and ready to roll.

You’ll wish your car had racing stripes when you enter Daytona Beach, where motor sports are passion. This is the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious stock-car race in the world. Racing enthusiasts usually make Daytona USA their first stop. The interactive motorsports attraction lets you provide play-by-play commentary for a race, participate in a pit stop on a NASCAR Winston Cup stock car, computer-design your own race car and talk to your favorite competitors via video. You can actually drive along Daytona’s beach as well. In fact, this is one of the last spots in Florida to permit driving on the sand. Rent a dune buggie and go cruising.

Daytona Beach as a whole has an ocean park atmosphere, with a boardwalk lined with arcades, gift shops, snack bars and restaurants. During the summer, there are fireworks over the water every Saturday night.

Aside from going to the beach, you can cool off at Adventure Landing, where you can float on tubes in the Lazy River, careen down 15 waterslides and race go-carts. Or check out some of Daytona Beach’s air-conditioned cultural venues, such as the Southeast Museum of Photography and the Museum of Arts and Sciences.

Next, rocket down the coast to The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, perhaps the best entertainment bargain in Florida. Visitors can tour restricted areas including shuttle processing facilities and watch scheduled space launches. Highlights include the Astronaut Encounter, the opportunity to come face to face with a real astronaut; the Saturn V complex, featuring a dramatic recreation of the first manned Apollo launch and Early Space Exploration, with an up-close look at Mercury Mission Control.

Close by, but a world away, is the 140,000-acre Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where you can see wildlife and rivers of grass up close. Wander peacefully along nature trails at this habitat for migratory waterfowl.

Continue down the coast for more tranquility at Vero Beach, an affluent town with a strong commitment to the arts. At the Indian River Citrus Museum, exhibits explore a time when oxen hauled the citrus crop to the railroads and family fruit stands dotted the roadsides. The outstanding Environmental Learning Center has a boardwalk running over mangrove shoreline and a one-mile canoe trail.

Eco-tourism is also on order in the small town of Jensen Beach, located on Hutchinson Island. Sea turtles dominate here; between late April and August more than 600 turtles come to nest along the town’s beach. The Coastal Science Center includes a mangrove forest, visitor center and science center. Bathtub Reef Beach is a draw for families with young children. The waters are shallow and unusually calm for nearly 300 feet offshore.

On Jupiter Island and Hobe Sound, visit Blowing Rocks Preserve, a 73-acre Nature Conservancy holding. The Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge actually consists of two tracts – 232 acres of sand pine and scrub oak forest in Hobe Sound and 735 acres of coastal sand dune and mangrove swamp on Jupiter Island. Trails are open to the public in both places. Ogle baby alligators, baby crocodiles and scary-looking tarantulas at Hobe Sound Nature Center. Hobe Mountain is an ancient dune topped with a tower. It yields a panoramic view of the park and the Intracoastal Waterway.

In Palm Beach, see how the other half of the top one percent (in terms of wealth) lives. The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, the palatial mansion commissioned by the co-founder of Standard Oil, is a must-see. Many of the original furnishings of the 1901 home are on display, and Flagler’s personal railroad car, the Rambler, is parked behind the building.

Originally built by Flagler in 1895 and rebuilt by his descendants after a fire in 1925, The Breakers, a large luxury hotel, resembles an ornate Italian Renaissance palace. Stop in for a peek at the enormous lobby and dining room. Meanwhile, shoppers (window and otherwise) will want to head to posh Worth Avenue. The quarter-mile avenue is lined with high-end shops and is filled with examples of Moorish-style architecture.

Boca Raton, another upscale town at the south end of Palm Beach County, reflects the unmistakable architectural presence of Addison Mizner, principal developer here in the mid-1920s. Visit the International Museum of Cartoon Art, showcasing more than 160,000 pieces of art created over two centuries. The permanent collection at the Boca Raton Museum of Art includes works by Picasso, Degas and Matisse. A big draw for children is the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, with its four huge saltwater sea tanks and long boardwalk through dense forest.

End your trip with a little Miami spice. By day, many local pleasures revolve around water and sunshine. There’s the beach, of course. But dip a toe into the Venetian Pool as well. Perhaps the most whimsical municipal swimming hole anywhere, the ornate pool comes complete with gondola moorings and Italian architecture. Back in the 1930s and 1940s, more than 800 Art Deco structures were built on the southern tip of Miami Beach. Today, the historically designated Art Deco District represents the largest collection of this type of architecture in the world. With its confetti-like colors, electrifying neon lights and sleek aerodynamic lines, the District serves as a backdrop to one of the world’s most eccentric and in-vogue neighborhoods.

Not only is South Beach a fantasyland of exuberant architecture, it is the place for pulsating nightlife, trendy eateries, and a spectacular shoreline in a scene as cool as the sun is hot. Occupying less than two square miles on the southern tip of Miami Beach, South Beach’s subtropical sandbar has an identity all its own.

Just up the street, Lincoln Road, a fun pedestrian- only shopping district, offers an irresistible combination of avant-garde art galleries, clothing boutiques, bookstores and home design shops. Both Lincoln Road and South Beach also offer great entertainment in the form of people-watching from outdoor cafes.

Of course, another part of Miami’s appeal is its rich cultural landscape. Explore Cuban life in Little Havana, where you can sample the local flavor by savoring a cup of café con leche, watching the older generation play bocce ball in Domino Park, or listening to music on Calle Ocho.

Or visit Vizcaya, a grand Italian Renaissancestyle villa built around 1915. Strolling through the estate’s 34 exquisitely decorated rooms will make you feel like you are in Europe. Outdoors, the ornate gardens are filled with fountains, classical statues and fanciful grottoes, along with a cornucopia of flowers and many plants indigenous to the tropics.

And don’t miss Miami’s many family attractions, including the Seaquarium, Parrot Jungle and Gardens (re-opening this July in a new home) and the Miami MetroZoo.

Of course, this journey along the southern half of Florida’s East Coast is just one small slice of the orange, so to speak. The Sunshine State is filled with delightful vacation options, from the beaches of the Panhandle in northwestern Florida to the Keys at its southernmost tip. In between, there are the famous theme parks of Orlando, the white sand beaches of Florida’s Gulf Coast, and historic places like St. Augustine. The choices are as abundant as the famous Florida sun.