Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz County has warm beaches and tasty wine that will make you fall in love.
Santa Cruz is the perfect California beach town because it has everything that the Golden State has to offer. In 1885, three Hawaiian kings on vacation were the first people to surf in the United States. In the 1950s, Jack O’Neill invented the wetsuit over there as well. This famous California sport is a part of Santa Cruz’s past. When surfers go to the beach, families lay out on the sand and watch their kids play in the water.
The boardwalk at Santa Cruz Beach
There is only one place in the world where you can ride an old wooden roller coaster on the famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The century-old Santa Cruz Wharf lets you walk out into the water of Monterey Bay, and the surfing museum is inside a lighthouse with a view of Steamer Lane, which is one of the best places in the US to surf.
Surf teachers give you wetsuits and boards and get you out on the waves if you’re a beginner. When you’re ready, grab your big board and head to one of the calm beaches in Santa Cruz County to see what “Surf City” is all about.
Check out the surf mood at Lighthouse Point, where people ride the waves. Pleasure Point is another great place to surf. Professional wave riders can test their skills at “The Hook.”
Fun things to do close to Santa Cruz
Highway 1 in California goes straight through Santa Cruz County. It’s only 90 minutes south of San Francisco and 30 minutes north of Monterey Bay. This legendary highway is California’s most famous scenic drive. It gives unobstructed views of the coast, wineries, Mission Santa Cruz, and the downtown area. The pretty towns of Capitola, Soquel, and Aptos are all south of Santa Cruz. As you go farther south, you’ll see strawberry fields in Watsonville.
Santa Cruz has a lot of different scenery. The area has 14 state parks and beaches. People can ride a vintage steam train through old-growth coastal redwood forests, watch gray and humpback whales migrate through the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in a boat or kayak, look at tide pools, or even walk through a grove of eucalyptus trees where thousands of monarch butterflies spend the winter.
The best place to try wine
The scenery in Santa Cruz County makes the food and wine scene better. One of California’s most unique landscapes is made up of warm, sunny days and cool, foggy nights, along with rich, sandy soil. Farmers’ markets are where the food movement starts. Menus are made to go with the seasons so that locally grown foods are at their best. Some of the best wines in the country come from the Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation area. This is actually one of the oldest wine-growing areas in the United States, and it is home to more than 70 small, family-run farms. When people go to local wineries, the tasting experience is also one of a kind because the brewers are in the tasting room with the customers, making the experience more personal.
You can always visit Santa Cruz because it has over 300 sunny days a year and beautiful redwood woods along the coast.