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The hot stone massage didn’t really put me to sleep. It completely disconnected me from my body. When I became one again, splendidly noodled, it took me a few minutes to remember where I was. Oh, yes – Daytona Beach – pampering myself at The Shores Resort & Spa. This is the current direction of things in Daytona Beach, where racecars and drive-upon beaches were once more typical trademarks.

But there’s really nothing new about Daytona Beach attracting a discriminating crowd. Its guest list has historically been scrawled with names of fame. James Gamble (of “Proctor &” renown) once owned an estate here that spread from the Atlantic to the Halifax River at the turn of the last century. All that remains are the guest and carriage houses, today Miss Pat’s Inn, offering gourmet breakfasts, rooms outfitted with hand-carved reproduction pieces and baths with jetted tubs.

Another luxury B&B, The Villa, shows off the Spanish Colonial Revival-style splendor created in 1929 by winter resident B.J. Donnelly, a multi-millionaire quarry owner from Massachusetts. Iron security gates guard the restored home and its regally appointed guest accommodations (think cedar-lined closets, antique furnishings and gold-plated bathroom fixtures), all within walking distance of the beach.

John D. Rockefeller too loved the area and wintered at The Casements on the Halifax River in Ormond Beach. Today, visitors can peek at family photos and period-furnished rooms from the early 1900s. It’s worth a visit if only to drive along the mansion-lined, oak-canopied Riverside Drive that passes it.

President Warren G. Harding’s circa-1907 winter home today holds a fine Italian restaurant called The Cellar, located mainland in one of Daytona’s elegant historic neighborhoods.

Its dawning days of grandeur have left an artistic stamp on Daytona Beach. The Museum of Arts & Sciences displays rare Cuban paintings, furniture, sculpture and more from the 18th to early 20th centuries as well as a collection of African religious, household, decorative and other tribal artifacts. Its associated Gamble Place, a rustic, backwoods cottage built in Port Orange in 1907, demonstrates Gamble’s love of the great outdoors. Famous African-American educator and civil rights leader, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, left her name on a college, a fine arts gallery specializing in African art and a performing arts center here.

Historic attractions such as the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse complex and Halifax Historical Museum tell more tales of bygone glories. A colony of historic buildings surrounds the 120-year-old lighthouse, each structure exploring an aspect of lighthouse and local bygones. The museum occupies a circa-1910 bank with exhibits that take you from prehistoric Native American era to the dawning days of car racing.

Daytona’s famous hard-packed beach started the city down the track of racing fame and brought its own era of legendary names such as Henry Ford and Louis Chevrolet, who tested their inventions on the sands. Racing remains an important part of Daytona’s heritage and the beachfront is being restored to its illustrious past: resorts and spas such as The Shores, Hilton and Wyndham Ocean Walk are cropping up along with modern dining and entertainment centers like popsicle-bright Ocean Walk Shoppes, home to movie theaters, retailers and lively restaurants.

Meaning that no matter where you are on Daytona Beach, you can accelerate from beach to plush in no time.

With the opening of the $29-million News-Journal Center in January 2005, the live arts scene in Daytona Beach took a giant jeté. Seaside Music Theater, a 27-year-old Daytona tradition, has since moved in. The Center, along with the historic Peabody Auditorium, will host the 16-day Florida International Festival featuring the London Symphony Orchestra in July 2007. The orchestra has appeared here every other year since 1966.