The Museum of Arts and Sciences is the most rewarding indoor stop in Daytona Beach and one of the most eclectic regional museums in Florida. It sits in a quiet pine hammock on the west side of the Halifax River, and houses fine collections of Cuban art (assembled by the family of dictator Fulgencio Batista, who fled to Daytona Beach in 1959), American decorative arts, and Florida prehistory.
The "Root Family Museum" wing inside is a surprise — a private collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia and antique American railroad cars, complete with a working tableau of Coca-Cola signage from the early twentieth century. Outside, the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art next door holds over 2,600 oil paintings and watercolours of Florida — the largest collection of Florida art anywhere — and the on-site planetarium gives daily shows. Allow at least half a day.