Santa Cruz sits at the northern end of MONTEREY BAY in California, about ninety minutes south of San Francisco over a mountain pass, and it is three things at once: a seaside town with a hundred-year-old amusement park on the sand, one of the serious surf towns of the Pacific coast, and a university city with a campus in a redwood forest above it.
AND IT IS NOT THE OTHER SANTA CRUZ, OF WHICH THERE ARE SEVERAL. Santa Cruz de la Sierra is Bolivia's largest city; Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the Canary Islands capital; Santa Cruz is also an island in the GALAPAGOS and a famous barrio in SEVILLE. This post is about the Californian town on Monterey Bay. That belongs in the second paragraph rather than the last, because a reader packing for Bolivian lowland heat on the strength of a Californian coast post would be badly served.
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What Is Here
THE BEACH BOARDWALK IS THE OLDEST SURVIVING AMUSEMENT PARK IN CALIFORNIA, OPENED IN 1907, AND ADMISSION IS FREE. You pay for rides, not to walk in, which is unusual and makes it a genuinely public space rather than a gated attraction. Two of its rides are NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS: the GIANT DIPPER, a wooden roller coaster from 1924, and the LOOFF CAROUSEL of 1911, which still has a working ring toss and a 342-pipe band organ. The first photograph is the Boardwalk, and it is one of only six frames of it in the whole available set, which is why this post takes exactly one.
NATURAL BRIDGES IS THE SECOND PHOTOGRAPH AND IT IS DOWN TO ONE ARCH. The state beach at the western end of town was named for three natural stone arches; two have collapsed, the outermost in 1980, and one remains. It is also a MONARCH BUTTERFLY OVERWINTERING SITE, with tens of thousands of butterflies clustering in the eucalyptus from roughly October to February, which is a genuinely remarkable thing and is free to walk to.
STEAMER LANE IS A WORLD-CLASS SURF BREAK AND YOU WATCH IT FROM A CLIFFTOP PATH. The third photograph is the aerial by the lighthouse, and that lighthouse holds the SANTA CRUZ SURFING MUSEUM, which is small, free and the oldest surfing museum in the world. West Cliff Drive runs about five kilometres along the top of the cliffs with a paved path the whole way, and it is the best thing to do in the town that costs nothing.
AND THE REDWOODS ARE FIFTEEN MINUTES INLAND, WHICH MOST VISITORS MISS. HENRY COWELL REDWOODS and BIG BASIN are old-growth coast redwood forest in the mountains above the town. Big Basin is California's oldest state park and was badly burned in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire; it has reopened in stages, so check what is actually open rather than assuming. The university campus itself sits among redwoods and is open to walk.
When to Go
August to October, and that is not the obvious answer. The Californian coast inverts the usual summer logic: June and July are the FOGGIEST months here, when a marine layer sits over the town until midday and sometimes all day, and the clearest warmest weather arrives in late August, September and October. That is also when the water is at its least cold.
THE FOG IS THE THING TO PLAN AROUND AND IT IS A DAILY RHYTHM RATHER THAN A SEASON. A summer morning is often grey and fifteen degrees, burning off to sunshine and twenty-two by one o'clock, then returning in the evening. So a day here needs a layer you can take off and put back on, and a visitor who packed only for California sunshine spends the mornings cold.
AND THE WATER IS COLD ALL YEAR: ROUGHLY 12 TO 16 DEGREES CELSIUS. That is why every surfer in those photographs is in a wetsuit in August. The California current brings cold water down the coast and upwelling keeps it cold, so swimming without a wetsuit is a brief business whatever the air temperature says. Winter is mild, green and wet, with most of the year's rain between December and March.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in the United States and no country-level warning. Its guidance concentrates on the practical differences a British visitor meets: entry requirements and ESTA, the cost of healthcare without insurance, extreme weather including hurricanes on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts between June and November, and wildfire and heat risk in the west and south-west.
Getting There
Fly into San Jose for the short drive or San Francisco for the better fares. San Jose is about forty minutes over Highway 17; San Francisco is about ninety minutes. HIGHWAY 17 DESERVES A WARNING OF ITS OWN: it is a steep, winding, heavily used mountain road with a poor safety record, no shoulder in places, and frequent slow lorries, and it is not a road to drive tired or in heavy rain for the first time.
THE TOWN WORKS WITHOUT A CAR AND THE REDWOODS DO NOT. Downtown, the Boardwalk, the wharf and West Cliff Drive are all walkable or a short bus ride, and Santa Cruz Metro runs the local buses. A car is what you need for Big Basin, Henry Cowell and the coast road south. PARKING NEAR THE BOARDWALK IN SUMMER IS GENUINELY DIFFICULT and paid.
The Santa Cruz Packing List
A daily fifteen-degree swing between foggy morning and sunny afternoon, cold water, five kilometres of exposed clifftop path, and redwood trails fifteen minutes away.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is close to the ideal garment for this particular coast, because the problem here is not cold or heat but the SWING: a wool layer regulates across a fifteen-degree morning-to-afternoon change without being taken off and carried, which is exactly what a cotton t-shirt and a fleece cannot do.
A Columbia Benton Spring long hoodie, which is the single most useful item for Santa Cruz: light enough for a foggy morning, enough sun cover for an exposed clifftop afternoon, and not a jacket you resent carrying.
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket as the windbreaker. West Cliff Drive is exposed to an onshore wind on even a bright day.
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX hiking shoes for the redwood trails, which are root, duff and mud for much of the year.
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat, because the afternoon sun off the water is strong once the marine layer lifts and the morning grey leads people to skip sun cover entirely.
A quick dry travel towel, since the beach is the point and the water is twelve to sixteen degrees.
Not linked and worth packing: SUNSCREEN, which this registry does not carry at all and which matters more here than the fog suggests; SUNGLASSES, with no eyewear entry; and A SWIMMING COSTUME you are willing to be cold in, or the hire of a wetsuit, which every surf shop on the front does by the day.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Santa Cruz
Emergency numbers: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile. Calls are answered locally and dispatchers will stay on the line. For non-urgent police matters many cities also run a 311 information line.
THE WATER IS THE REAL HAZARD HERE AND IT IS NOT THE COLD. This stretch of coast has RIP CURRENTS and, at the more exposed beaches, SNEAKER WAVES: an unusually large wave that runs far higher up the beach than the ones before it, which drags people off rocks and out of the shallows and kills people on this coast every year. The instructions are specific and worth carrying: never turn your back on the ocean, do not stand on rocks or jetties with the surf running, keep well back on a flat beach, and if you are caught in a rip do not fight it, swim parallel to the shore until it releases you and then come in at an angle. Beaches are lifeguarded only in season and only in parts. COLD WATER SHOCK is the other half: twelve to sixteen degrees takes the breath out of you in the first seconds, which is the moment people drown.
THE TOWN ITSELF IS EASY, WITH THE SAME DOWNTOWN NOTE AS MUCH OF COASTAL CALIFORNIA. Pacific Avenue, the Boardwalk, the wharf and West Cliff are busy and well used into the evening. There is a visible street homelessness problem in a few downtown blocks and along the San Lorenzo river levee path, which is worth stating plainly: the people affected are far worse off than any visitor and are not a threat to her, and the practical answer is to avoid the levee path and the beach itself after dark, which is ordinary coastal-town advice. Car break-ins at trailheads and beach car parks are the commonest actual crime against visitors, so leave nothing visible.
This is the single biggest practical difference for a visitor: there is no public health system, an emergency room visit without insurance can run into thousands of dollars, and an ambulance is billed separately and is not free. Comprehensive travel insurance with a high medical limit is not optional in the United States, and you should carry your policy number and the insurer's 24 hour number somewhere you can reach them. Urgent care clinics handle anything short of an emergency far more cheaply and quickly than an emergency room, and are the right choice for a sprain, an infection or stitches.
US State Department travel advisory: there is none, and this is not an omission. The State Department issues travel advisories for other countries, not for the United States itself, so no US advisory for this destination exists to link. In its place, the Government of Canada advice for the United States gives an equivalent third-country assessment.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits. The FCDO names no advised-against areas anywhere in the United States. The same advice also covers Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Main hospital or clinic: Dominican Hospital on Soquel Drive is the main hospital with a full emergency department, and Watsonville Community Hospital covers the south of the county. For major trauma the regional centres are in SAN JOSE, about forty minutes over Highway 17, which is worth knowing because that road is the bottleneck in any emergency. Urgent care clinics handle minor problems far faster and far more cheaply than an emergency room. INSURE PROPERLY BEFORE YOU COME: there is no public health system and an emergency room visit can cost thousands of dollars.
Official health authority: the CDC travellers' health pages, the US federal health authority for visitors, is the US Centers for Disease Control travel health service
Embassy contact: the United States is the host country, so there is no US embassy to contact. Your own country's embassy is in Washington DC, with consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Miami and Boston. Find yours before you travel and save the number.
Official tourism authority: Brand USA, the national tourism marketing body, covers the country, and California State Parks publishes what is open at Big Basin, which burned in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire and has reopened in stages, so it must be checked rather than assumed
Takeaways
This is Santa Cruz, California, not Bolivia, Tenerife, the Galapagos or Seville.
The Boardwalk opened in 1907, is free to enter, and has two National Historic Landmark rides.
June and July are the foggiest months. September and October are the clearest.
The water is 12 to 16 degrees all year. That is why the surfers wear wetsuits in August.
Natural Bridges has one arch left of three, and tens of thousands of monarchs from October to February.
Highway 17 over the mountains is steep, winding and has a poor safety record.
Solo women safety assessment: Santa Cruz is an easy and pleasant solo destination, walkable in its centre, well used in the evening, and with a university town's mix of people. THE FCDO PUBLISHES NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREAS ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES. THE GENUINE RISK IS THE OCEAN, not people: rip currents and sneaker waves kill people on this coast every year, the water is cold enough to take your breath away in the first seconds, and lifeguards cover only some beaches in season. Never turn your back on the water, stay off rocks and jetties when the surf is up, and if caught in a rip swim parallel to shore rather than against it. On land, a few downtown blocks and the river levee path carry a visible homelessness problem that makes them bleak rather than dangerous, and the people there are worse off than you are; avoid the levee and the beach after dark, which is ordinary advice anywhere coastal. Car break-ins at trailheads are the commonest crime against visitors, so leave nothing in the car. Highway 17 is the one piece of infrastructure to treat with respect. Medical care is excellent and expensive: insure. 911 for everything.
Reading On
Santa Cruz sits at the top of Monterey Bay, so its neighbours run down the coast and over the hill. South around the bay, the Monterey packing list covers the aquarium and the other end of the same cold water, and the Big Sur packing list the coast road beyond it, including the Highway 1 landslide closures that decide whether that drive happens at all. North over the mountains, the San Francisco packing list covers the city most visitors fly into and the Sausalito packing list the north side of the Golden Gate. For the same fog-and-cold-water pattern further up the coast, the Mendocino packing list covers northern California, and the Cannon Beach packing list carries the sneaker wave and Cascadia instructions in full for the Oregon version of this coast. For the redwoods and the mountains inland, the Sequoia packing list covers the other great California conifer. For the country as a whole, the USA travel guide for women carries the regions, the costs and the driving in full. For why one wool layer handles a fifteen-degree swing between a foggy morning and a sunny afternoon, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
