After soliciting things to see while visiting San Francisco, a trip to Santa Cruz came highly recommended, so I booked a rental car and started planning!
Details
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz is located south of San Francisco and is known for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California’s oldest amusement park, which has been deemed a historic landmark. It is also said to be one of the best places to surf, earning the nickname Surf City, and is the home of O’Neill Wetsuits, Santa Cruz Surfboards and Santa Cruz Skateboards. Santa Cruz is also home
Itinerary
Because of the wide variety of things to do, I suggest leaving early so that you can have a full day to experience everything that Santa Cruz has to offer. If you’re making the drive from San Francisco, start your morning with a drive down Route 1. The most direct route takes about an hour and 20 minutes, but the views are worth the extra 20 minutes to the trip by staying along the coast! Once you get to Santa Cruz, head to Pacific Avenue to park and start your day!
While I was driving, I pulled off randomly and discovered a **super secret spot** (or maybe it’s a well-known spot and I just didn’t know!). Stopwhen you see the Pescadero State Beach sign. There is a large parking lot if you drive all the way to the end of the turn-off, but stop right after you turn in and there is a little tiny walkway that takes you to this AMAZING spot where you can see all of the views AND there is a cute little bench there where you can just sit and look out at the beautiful ocean.
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Wharf
I would recommend giving yourself at least 3-4 hours once you’re at the beach because there is so much to do. I got to Santa Cruz around 9:00, but the amusement park wouldn’t be opening until 11:00 so I started my morning with a stroll on the wharf. There are several shops and restaurants, but you can also see sea lions or take up several activities such as fishing, kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding.
After spending some time at the wharf, head back to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to embrace your inner child! There is no shortage of fair food such as funnel cakes, giant donuts, fried everything, spiralized potatoes on a stick and so much more! While I wanted to get ALL of the food, I had already made plans for lunch and dessert for just a short hour later so I settled for a (half of a) funnel cake, eaten with a beautiful view of the beach and ocean. After that, take your pick of amusement park activities and/or rides. I rode the historic wooden roller coaster, the Giant Dipper. This roller coaster was constructed over 47 days and opened in May 1924, making it 95 years old this May! I definitely recommend if you like roller coasters!
Based on your interests you can spend as much or as little time at the wharf or the boardwalk as you choose! Fill in any extra time with some time of the beach!
Before heading over to Cliff Drive, make sure to stop and grab some lunch and ice cream! I consulted the internet and found this awesome list of food suggestions. Having crossed off the Beach Boardwalk funnel cake already, I picked Jack’s Hamburgers for lunch for the cheeseburger basket and then hopped two blocks over for dessert from The Penny Ice Creamery. I went there solely to try the toasted marshmallow fluff topping. The ice cream flavors were very unique and I actually tried a bourbon bacon chocolate ice cream (which I honestly hated) and decided on the dark chocolate gelato (which was just okay). The toasted marshmallow topping was definitely the highlight of that meal.
Cliff Drive
As you head over to Cliff Drive, I suggest parking wherever you’re able to find a spot. I parked on the eastern end of Cliff Drive (closest to downtown) so that I could walk the length of the road as much to see as much as I could. First up on my walk was the Surfing Monument and the Surfers Memorial, which is just a short walk away as you continue south. Both of these overlook one of the best surfing spots in the city. As you continue south towards the Lighthouse Point, make sure to stop and watch the surfers (or go take part if you’re a surfer yourself). On the day that I visited, the swell height ranged from 11 to 17 feet and there were SO MANY AMAZING SURFERS out there just killing it. Also, if you are a surfer – I don’t think you can leave Santa Cruz without hitting the waves, so get your butt in the water, even just to say you did it!
Once you get to the Lighthouse Point, you have the option to stop in at the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum. I actually walked right past it, not realizing that this tiny building was the museum. As fate would have it, the museum was actually closed on the day of my visit due to a 5k run that had all of Cliff Drive closed off for most of the day. I continued my walk along Cliff Drive for another 1.5 miles before turning around to make the trek back. The views are just amazing at every point and I would have walked forever if I could!
Seymour Marine Discovery Center
Since the surfing museum was closed and I was staying to see the sunset, I had some time to kill, so, fortunately, I stumbled across the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. It was definitely geared more towards educating children, but I still ended up spending almost two hours reading about everything! They have a lot of different sea creatures and several that you actually get to touch, so for the first time in my life, I touched a sea urchin, a sea anemone, and a SHARK! The shark was the weirdest experience because its skin (is it skin on a shark) felt weirdly familiar to me in a kind of disturbing way. The woman overseeing the exhibit mentioned that it feels like a cat’s tongue and she was 100% spot on! So intriguing! This center also houses almost the entire skeleton of a 50-year old female blue whale that washed ashore in 1979 that was 87 feet long. Incredible! This was not in my original plan, but ended up being one of my favorite stops!
At this point, if you’re hungry (which I totally wasn’t) pick your poison for dinner and go and indulge. I probably could have done without eating dinner after all of the other food I ate all day, but there was a Thai restaurant on the list that I really wanted to try. And try I did. I ate just a few bites of each thing I ordered and took the rest home to enjoy over the next several days.
**Someone also recommended that I take a drive through the UC Santa Cruz campus if I had a few minutes so I detoured on my way to the beach. The campus is beautiful and overlooks the town and ocean. It was so unlike my college campus as far as architecture and just overall look and feel. So many east coast schools are all about preserving the original aesthetic of the campus, the University of Richmond included, so it was very cool to see something so different.
Natural Bridges State Beach
Plan to end your night at the Natural Bridges State Beach to watch the sunset. I recommend street parking on the main road as you approach the beach so that you don’t have to pay the $10 parking fee. Head on down and fight the crowds to take your pictures (just kidding, but there were tons and tons people there with tripods set up to capture the sunset). Sit back and enjoy the view before heading back to San Francisco!
Transportation
Self-Guided via Car – I highly recommend to rent a car to make this trip since it’s a nice 1.5 to 2 hour drive each way and the things to do in Santa Cruz are pretty spread out. I was not able to find any tours to Santa Cruz from SF. You may be able to hire a car, but would likely spend more than renting for the day.
What to Bring
I would bring a backpack or bag that you can carry some of the following essentials:
- I always recommend having water on hand, especially when there is a lot of walking and time in the sun involved.
- I also recommend having some food packed (my choice is a protein bar and a piece of fruit) just in case!
- You will definitely want to bring sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat.
- The walk along Cliff Drive and the time at the Natural Bridges State Beach were very cool due to the wind. Have a sweatshirt/jacket and bring some sweatpants that you can slip on at the beach as the sun is setting.
- I also recommend traveling with a portable charger to ensure that your phone is fully charged, whether to take pictures or for emergencies!
- Don’t forget to bring something to take pictures of the amazing views, whether that is just your phone, a camera, a GoPro or all of the above!
What to Wear
I highly suggest wearing a bathing suit, with some more comfortable clothes over it that you don’t mind being in all day (or you can bring a change of clothes for after the beach!). Pack a sweatshirt or jacket for the walk along Cliff Drive and the sunset at the beach and also bring some extra sweatpants that you can slip over your other clothes at the beach, as it got very chilly. I would recommend wearing
Thanks for visiting! See my one-day Muir Woods & Sausalito day trip itinerary here and come back soon for even more San Francisco day trip itineraries!
