How to Make the Most of Only One Day: Daytona Beach

One of the main reasons we travel together is that we have a hunger to learn and experience new things. It’s our hope to continue mastering better ways to make the most of the time we have, especially on these one day trips. If you missed the last of the One Day series, we spent one day in Boston. For this trip, Nate and I were vacationing with my family. We drove about an hour from central Florida to Daytona Beach for a spontaneous day trip. Traveling in a group makes adventuring a little more challenging, but also more fun in some ways. Here’s some tips we learned on this one day excursion to Daytona Beach.

Tip #1: Don’t Over-plan

In Boston, we learned the benefits of pre-planning our activities for the day, but it’s also important to not overdo it. For our trip to Daytona, we knew we wanted to go two places: 1) to the beach and 2) to drive by one of the most famous raceways in the US, Daytona International Speedway. But, for the rest of this one day trip, we kept our itinerary really open and flexible. You’ll see in tip #3 how not over-planning paid off.

Tip #2: Relax

Arriving in Daytona, we discovered that we could drive right onto the beach, which was a new experience for all of us. Since it was the off-season for beaches, our group didn’t go in the water. We just walked the sandy shore and took in the beauty. When traveling, it’s easy to get caught up in activity and busyness, but sometimes just walking along a beach, finding shells, watching the birds, and making memories with your loved ones is really much more important. It’s easier said than done, so I have to be intentional and remember to take a minute to relax.

Tip #3: Speak Up

When traveling in a group of any size, it’s really important to speak up if there’s something you’d like to do that the others might not be into. Nate was a NASCAR fan for much of his teen years and into college, and it was always on his bucket list to visit this raceway. When we got to Daytona International Speedway, we discovered they give tours and knew we had to do it. My family was not that interested in this tour at the price point of $25 a ticket, but they graciously offered to wait for us while we did the approximately 90-minute tour. Nate and I were able to enjoy our time at the raceway while the others went off on their own adventure. It was really a win-win, and we were so grateful. I’m really glad that we spoke up.

Conclusion

Given that this was a spontaneous trip, our time in Daytona Beach ended up being a major success for us. We made some great family memories and marked something off of Nate’s bucket list. It would have been easy to just follow the group and not speak up, but if we hadn’t, we would have completely missed touring the speedway. Traveling and seeing new places and new cities is important to us, and we have to be intentional about making the most of it. Sometimes that means a one day trip like this, and we are happy to take advantage of the time we have.