The Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach is located right on the Atlantic shoreline. It’s one of four Hard Rock Hotels in Florida and brings all of the Hard Rock elements you’d expect: fantastic food, great music, and a rock n’ roll experience.
When I was offered an opportunity to check out this Hard Rock Hotel property, I said HECK YES. The travel bug has really bitten me this year. Ben and I have gone on trips with my work, out of town weddings, trips with friends, and our own vacations. The idea of a 2 1/2 hour road trip over to the East Coast of Florida sounded like a fun idea for a weekend getaway – which was a travel theme we hadn’t accomplished yet this year.
Ben and I checked into the Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach on a Friday eager for the weekend. While checking in, the front desk rep asked us what genre of music we wanted to listen to for the times that we’d be in our room. This was a feature that allowed us to use our room’s TV to jam out to a curated playlist of our favorite genre of music anytime we were in our room. Don’t we all pretend our lives have background music to them? Hard Rock makes it a reality.
Anyone that knows us knows we chose country.
The entire music aesthetic to Hard Rock is what makes it so special for me personally. Ben and I’s relationship grew over our love for music (a lot of country music, but other genres too). I enjoy blogging about music on this little blog of mine. Ben and I still find time to go to concerts around Tampa Bay because it’s what we truly enjoy doing.
Walking around this Hard Rock property you notice there’s a music themed tidbit around every corner. During our stay we were treated to a property tour and learned about items that the Hard Rock Daytona Beach has accumulated from a multitude of artists. If you ever wonder how Hard Rock accumulates its rockin’ collection – it’s through charity, donation, or purchase. A fun fact that we learned from this specific tour was that the items on display in this hotel had relevance to Daytona or Daytona specific artists.
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| Kenny Chesney |
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| Rihanna’s “race theme” bodysuit |
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| Taylor Swift’s bathing suit |
Ben and I enjoyed dining at Sessions – the onsite restaurant at the hotel. We ordered a variety of foods to try for the two nights that we were there – drinks, apps, entrees, even desserts. Sessions was great for an onsite date night. When we visited on Saturday, there was a whole group of people watching college football games – proving Sessions can be a great place to watch the game too. If we had stayed all day Sunday, I’m sure Ben and I would have been in there enjoying drinks and rooting for our NFL pick ’em teams.
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| Artisan Charcuterie and Cheese Board |
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| New York Strip – 12oz, chef’s vegetables |
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| Chicken Tandoori Wrap – roasted chicken, mint cucumber raita, naan bread, yogurt marinade |
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| Key Lime Tart – condensed milk, lime juice, berries |
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| Korean Wings – Asian bbq sauce, chili marinade, |
Hard Rock Metal Mayhem concert was happening during our stay. The bands featured for the concert were Pretty Boy Floyd and Nova Rex – both hair bands from the 80s. Ben and I aren’t people who turn down trying something at least once and we were welcomed to join VIP-style! I will say it was defintely unlike anything I had seen before, but in a really good way. We had fun dancing and rocking out to the bands even though we didn’t know the songs. Times like that make me especially grateful for Ben. He’s here for the ride and makes everything a little more fun. At the event, there was a Fender guitar being auctioned off that was signed by both bands. All proceeds from the auction benefited We Rock for Autism. Rock on for a good cause!
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| Pretty Boy Floyd playing at the Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach |
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| Nova Rex playing at the Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach |
Saturday was spent poolside, but not before grabbing lunch at Constant Grind – the onsite coffee bar and cafe at the Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach. We enjoyed pizza and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Hindsight tells me maybe that wasn’t the best meal before getting into a two piece bathing suit, but my tastebuds told me it was totally worth it.
Let me fill you in on a fun fact about this Hard Rock’s pool: it has underwater speakers. That means even when you go underwater you can still hear what’s playing above water. IT WAS SO COOL. While the poolside DJ cranked out 90’s hits, I was able to listen to Backstreet Boys underwater without missing a beat. Who do I need to talk to in order to get these cool speakers installed in our pool at home? It was such an awesome feature and totally Hard Rock-esque.
I mean it when I say that this hotel is located directly on the beach. The pool deck gave us stair access right down to the sands of Daytona Beach. Ben and I ventured out for some fun in the sun, and to see the waves. The water on Florida’s East Coast is completely different than that of the West one. The waves are bigger and you can see them as they form right before they crash onto the shore. People were out body surfing (us included) and some were venturing out with boards hoping to catch a ride.
On Saturday evening we lounged in our robes on our private balcony listening to a duo that played on the Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach’s Wave Terrace. They sang a wide range of cover songs and were fantastic. Ben and I are big fans of live music (part of the reason why we love Nashville so much) so this was definitely a sweet ending to our mini weekend getaway before heading out in the morning.
After a quick bagel sandwich breakfast at Constant Grind on Sunday, Ben and I got on the road to come home. It was bittersweet to leave the property. The weekend had flown by, but we were excited to get home to Nash.
If you’re visiting Daytona Beach anytime soon, let me be the first person to tell you that the Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach is worth the stay! Ben and I thoroughly enjoyed our time on the property. FLORIDA and GEORGIA friends: Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach is offering a new fall package from now until December 2018. Starting at $126, residents of Florida and Georgia can receive 10% off published room rates and daily breakfast for two during their stay. Use code FLAGA18 when booking.
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Thank you so much to Hard Rock Hotel Daytona Beach for hosting us for a weekend! All thoughts, good times, and opinions expressed here are my own.