Santa Cruz California

About a 40 mile drive up to the northern end of Monterey Bay, you'll find this popular beach community. It's also about an hour and a half's drive south of San Francisco.

The Santa Cruz beaches are a big draw for Northern California surfers and beach lovers. Families and teens also come for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, with its colorful carnival atmosphere and variety of rides and other amusements.

Santa Cruz California is the largest city on the central coast, though it's still quite small compared to San Francisco. There are tons of motels and hotels to choose from.

For shopping and dining, there is the Pacific Garden Mall, filled with a variety of restaurants and shops. But there are also restaurants all over town.

If you or someone you love is into trains, check out the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Guage Railroad up in Felton in the Santa Cruz mountains. You can take one of their trains all the way down to the Beach Boardwalk and back. Shorter rides up in the redwood forest are also offered.

Like to go wine tasting in the Santa Cruz mountains? See about the Santa Cruz wineries on our sister site, www.experience-wine-country.com.

Just a little south of Santa Cruz is the cute little beach town of Capitola California, a perfect place to spend a few hours by the sea.

To find accommodations, see Santa Cruz hotels. There are also many Santa Cruz motels to choose from in this fun beach town, including two Santa Cruz Super 8 motels.

Travelling by RV? Prefer sleeping in the great outdoors in a tent? Whether you enjoy the mountains, the beach, tall redwoods or sand dunes, check out these Santa Cruz camping options.

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