A SPRING BREAK: Rooms at The Shores in Daytona start at $159.

Leisure travelers heading to Daytona Beach this month for Bike Week and Black College Reunion will find a new luxury resort on State Road A1A in place of the former Hilton. After a $35-million renovation, The Shores at Daytona Beach held its grand opening in November with 212 rooms, a full-service Asian-inspired spa, an oceanfront pool and an upscale restaurant overlooking the Atlantic.

"We're a destination unto ourselves," says general manager Stacy Martin. "You don't have to go anywhere else unless you want to."

The resort is operated by Seattle-based Noble House Hotels & Resorts, a private company that owns boutique properties. Prices start at $159 a night. Guest rooms are furnished with plasma-screen TVs, and the resort offers packages that include golf and a spa retreat. It also has 19,000 square feet of meeting space.

"Ambassadors" greet preregistered guests at the door, and a concierge leads them directly to their rooms, processing them on a PDA instead of having them stand in line at a counter. "Other hotels are more beachy," Martin says. "We have a little more elegance to us."