Santa Cruz

I’m planning to go to Santa Cruz next weekend and because I’m writing about fun things to do near San Francisco this summer, I thought this could be a interesting post for more people.

First of all, here are some reason why is interesting to visit Santa Cruz. Well.. it has beautiful beaches and its weather in summer is between 55 and 68 degrees  Fahrenheit. Also, Santa Cruz is one of the oldest counties in California; discovered on 1769 by the Spanish Don Gaspar Portola.  California became a state in 1849 and is one year later when Santa Cruz got its title as county.

How to get there? Driving is the easiest, fastest and most recommendable way. Santa Cruz is only 1 hour and 27 minutes south from San Francisco; you can take the I-280 S or if you prefer to drive next to the pacific coast I will recommend you to take the CA 1 S but it will take you at least 20 minutes longer and is approximately $45 on gas one way. However, if you don’t have a car you can also take the Caltrain from San Francisco to San Jose and the 17 bus from San Jose to Santa Cruz, therefore it can take you 3hr 10 min and is $19 for round trip.

The famous thing to do in Santa Cruz is to go to the Beach Boardwalk which is an amusement park right in front of the amazing beach of Santa Cruz and a State Historic Landmark. The Beach Boardwalk is very important in Santa Cruz history because of the Looff Carousel from 1911 and the Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster from 1924. Here are some pictures for that time and don’t worry because I’m pretty sure they renovated it already.

This amazing park does not have admission fee but they charge for rides and attractions so you can buy tickets individually for $3 and $5 or you can buy seasonal tickets for $67 to have access to all the attractions and rides and daily tickets for $37.  Parking is also available for $12 and the park is open in summer season from 11am to 11pm. The main attractions in this park are Mini Golf, Laser Tag, Fright Walk, Vault Lazer Maze, Climb 'N Conquer and Boardwalk Bowl bowling.

Another amazing thing about this beach is that they offer free shows, free movies and Friday night concerts. The Emperor’s Imperia Circus is the main show performing this summer. The shows are scheduled from Monday to Thursday at 12pm and 3pm and Sundays at 12pm and 6pm.

Hungry? Don’t worry , I also thought on that. There are many restaurants, snack shops and food carts serving corn dogs made from a secret family recipe, so they must be good..!. Also, deep fried artichokes, chocolate covered bacon and deep fried twinkies. However, if you are looking to get a table to eat there is the Barbary Coast Restaurant, Fisherman’s Galley and Surf City Grill just to mention some.

And the final and most important thing to enjoy in Santa Cruz is the sandy beach famous for it surfers, and where if you are lucky; you can also observe dolphins, sea lions and whales.. Sounds fun to me..!

Here is a video of how awesome is to see the whales in Santa Cruz coast.

 Useful links

http://www.santacruzca.org/

http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=7

http://housing.ucsc.edu/cro/pdf/things-to-do.pdf