It’s true, Santa Cruz isn’t sunny all the time, but is a great place to find sandy beaches, magical redwoods, easy food, and good kid fun.
Santa Cruz Has Any Kind of Beach
The Santa Cruz area has really any kind of beach for what you want, dog beaches, surf beaches, hiking beaches, sight-seeing beaches. I’ll list our most frequented. First, one of the only official off-leash dog beaches in Santa Cruz, it was our first discovered and most visited. I think there are rules now for when dogs can be off leash, but regardless it is a good one. Its Beach. Also called Lighthouse Field State Beach, but we just called it dog beach.
Most of the Santa Cruz Beaches are state beaches so they are really strict with dogs, but if you walk far enough down everyone has their dogs off leash out of the sight of enforcement. One beach you can’t get away with a dog off leash nearly any time of day or night is the famous Natural Bridges State Beach, it’s usually always busy and there is lots of enforcement. But dogs are always welcome on leash. It’s a great sight-seeing beach for shore birds, whales and seals.
La Selva Beach was right down the street from the Santa Cruz KOA so we went there all the time, La Selva Beach was our favorite beach for the girls to play in the sand dunes. It’s a wide open beach that goes on for miles with plenty of room to run. Santa Cruz KOA was our home for 8 months, and it will always feel like home.
We Love the Santa Cruz KOA
Can I first say the best living experience in California was at the Santa Cruz South KOA? I am forever grateful for the home we had there. We would go back in a heartbeat to visit. It is the most kid friendly KOA (Campground of America), awesome staff, amazing facilities … like living in joy. We love you Santa Cruz South KOA!
Great Kid Activities
When discussing activities in Santa Cruz you really have to start with the Mystery Spot. Come for the vortex mystery, leave with a bumper sticker. For the van. We became members at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and felt so fortunate that we got to have this as our local aquarium for a season, and went a half dozen time. It is worth a trip across the country in itself. It was a memorable experience for our daughter scuba diving in the Underwater Explorer program. And of course you can get in the water anytime to boogie board and surf around the entire Monterey Bay.
I can’t leave out the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I personally don’t like loud, overcrowded places and when at the Boardwalk, I fantasize running out to the ocean where it is peaceful. But the kids love it. It’s got everything you want for a “check the box”beach amusements. And funnel cake. And, after a day of playing you can do even more back at the Santa Cruz KOA.
Great Kid Restaurants
There were a few super kid friendly restaurants that we loved in Santa Cruz for our short stint living there.
Kianti’s is a great kid-friendly pizza joint. It reminded me of our favorite pizza joint in Maine, Flatbread Pizza Co. Both places, they give the kids pizza dough to play with while the food is arriving. It makes life so much easier for parents with high energy kids. My younger daughter usually ate most of the dough before the food came.
Surfrider Cafe is another classic kid-friendly American food restaurant. They give kids goldfish and a drink right away, again, awesome for parents with high energy kids. Our favorite kid’s meal was the sourdough bread bowl with warm soup. And to top it off – included in the price of a $8 kid’s meal – is a sundae with a cherry on top. The kids and the parents walk away happy from this restaurant every time.
Great Hiking in the Redwoods
There are so many magical redwood forest choices nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. We have been to them all a few times, but mainly frequented Forest of Nisene Marks as it was the closest, again, to the Santa Cruz KOA. It was in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains that we learnt about the difference between a costal redwood and a sequoia, the Ohlone culture, and banana slugs. Among many other things.
Redwoods, ocean, and the Mystery Spot, what is not to love about Santa Cruz van life?
Why Did Van Life Family Leave?
The sole reason we didn’t stay at the Santa Cruz KOA South was that we were burnt out. We were not on an extended vacation, we were trying to live. Dad was trying to finish residency over the hill. After the commute to the kids school, and after school activities I was driving in brutal congested traffic 3 hours a DAY. The traffic from the KOA to Santa Cruz proper on a daily basis was brutal and soul destroying. Dad’s commute over the hill was even worse. Sometimes 6 HOURS of driving round trip, a commute that would take 1.5 hours round tip with no traffic. You get the idea. It’s insane.
There are a million more things to say about the Santa Cruz vibe, and all the friends we made along the way, but I’ll leave that for another day. Next, we are Tahoe bound, to finish the ski season. We’ll be back, Santa Cruz, in our family van. Proud to park next to the even cooler, rusty, tiny, first generation vans covered in decades-of-collected bumper stickers. Peace out, Santa Cruz, until next time.
