My HomeAway/VRBO Beachfront Condo Rental in Daytona Beach Shores

On my family’s recent extended trip to Florida, we stayed three weeks in a beachfront condo rental in Daytona Beach Shores. This was our second time renting through HomeAway/VRBO.

The condo is almost 1900 square feet with three bedrooms and three full bathrooms. It has a two-week minimum rental period, and we paid about $136 a night including taxes and cleaning. The rate varies by season and special event, and it goes down the longer you stay.

Many times, I feel that we have to sacrifice location and amenities when choosing a vacation condo rental over a hotel. However, we didn’t experience that with this beachfront condo rental. It was perfect for my family of five, and we are considering booking it again in two years.

The Condo Building and Location

The condo is in Towers Grande condo building on A1A in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida. The building has 16 floors in a u-shape, with some condos having balconies on the side of the building and others having direct oceanfront balconies.

The building has a clubhouse on the first floor that has a billiards table and a library. There is garage parking as well as outdoor parking spaces.

Directly across the street is a fun miniature golf place with live alligators.

Next door is a breakfast/lunch diner. A few feet down the street is a bus stop, which we used for part of the time when we didn’t have a rental car.

Across the street and one block down is a shopping center with a Winn-Dixie grocery store and a few restaurants, including IHOP.

Since Daytona Beach Shores is south of Daytona Beach, it is less congested and more residential. We found a lot to do in the immediate area as well as within an hour of the condo, which I will cover in another post.

I don’t understand why this area isn’t more popular with tourists. The Daytona Beach area is much less expensive than a lot of other Florida beach destination (i.e. Destin area and Miami area). That’s ok; keep going to Destin and we will keep this area a hidden gem!

Inside the Beachfront Condo

The entire condo has tile floors, which was great since we were at the beach. It is decorated throughout in a cute beach/nautical theme.

Right inside the front door is the dining room. We never ate in here; we mainly used the room to store our beach items and dry our beach towels.

To the left off the dining room is the first bedroom. It has a queen bed, a large closet and a bathroom. Every bedroom has a TV.

Off the right side of the dining room is another bedroom with two twin beds, a walk-in closet and a bathroom.

The kitchen is fully stocked with dishes and cookware.

There is a washer and dryer enclosed in a closet off the kitchen. We packed lighter and washed clothes several times during our stay.

Barstool seating at the counter:

Another table:

The living room has a huge sectional sofa (with a sofa bed inside). It comfortably sits at least 7-8 people.

Off the living room is the master bedroom. It has a large bathroom with a separate shower and soaking tub as well as a walk-in closet. My favorite part about this room is the ocean view. Almost every night, we kept the sliding glass door open (sliding screen door closed) so that we could fall asleep to the sound of the ocean.

The balcony stretches across the back of the master bedroom and living room. It has a simple table with four chairs. The table sits in an indented part of the balcony, which offers privacy from other balconies and the beach below.

We spent so much time on the balcony reading, eating, playing Barbies, viewing fireworks and watching storms roll in. We could also see dolphins in the ocean from the balcony a few times a day.

The only thing missing from the condo was a hair dryer. I didn’t bring one, so I had to let my hair dry naturally outside, which made for some interesting hairstyles.

Pools

The condo complex has two pools and whirlpool hot tubs that are identical. Even though we were there over July 4^th week, they were never crowded. We frequently had the pool and hot tub to ourselves at night.

Each pool starts at a depth of three feet and gradually slopes to six feet deep. I saw the pools being maintained and cleaned every morning.

Towers Grande has some strict rules around the pool. You must wear shoes and cover-ups at all times in the building. No floaties or pool toys (including balls) are allowed in the pools, and kids under age 12 are not allowed in the hot tubs. I warned my kids about this ahead of time, and at first they were bummed, but somehow they still managed to entertain themselves in the pool.

The Beach

Beach access is just down a wooden ramp. You have to have a condo key to access it from both sides.

The beaches in the Daytona area will always be the benchmark of a good beach for my kids. The sand is white and fine, and it brushes and washes off easily.

The waves are strong, which is necessary to really enjoy boogie boarding and surfing. My boys went to a surf camp for one week at the beach park 1.5 miles south of the condo.

During low tide, there are tide pools that are perfect for younger kids.

Daytona allows cars to drive on the beach. The speed limit is 10 m.p.h., and most people just drive a short ways to find a spot to park for the day. The beach stretches 23 miles, and it was almost never crowded in back of our condo. The busiest day was July 4^th.

The city has free fireworks every Saturday night during the summer, and those were visible from our condo. On July 4^th, so many families were shooting off professional-looking fireworks in the air that there was no need to drive to an official fireworks show.

Sunrises and sunsets were amazing from the beach. We also had a great view of a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.

As I write this, it’s 108 degrees in Texas with no breeze. How I wish I was back at this condo, listening to the ocean and enjoying the evening temperatures at the beach.

Having all of the indoor space plus the conveniences of the pool and beach at our backdoor made this part our Florida vacation very memorable. I hope we can do this again!

Have you rented from HomeAway, VRBO or Airbnb instead of staying in a traditional hotel?

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