Plan a Weekend Getaway in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, located on Monterey Bay in California, is an area full of natural beauty that lends itself perfectly to a great variety of outdoor activities. Of course, its proximity to world-famous wine- and food-producing regions is an added bonus.  So if you’re tired of Napa and Sonoma and want to get away from the city for a few days, consider a trip to Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz is easy to reach from San Francisco. The 70 (give or take) mile drive will take you just over an hour. If you aren’t local, Santa Cruz is still pretty each to get to because it’s close enough to several Bay Area airports. The closest airport to Santa Cruz is San Jose Airport, but you should also check for  cheap flights to San Francisco as well as Oakland Airport for comparison purposes. Once in Santa Cruz, you can easily walk everywhere (even to the beach) from most Santa Cruz hotels, but to get there from the airport, and to venture out and aroudn the city, you’ll need your own wheels.

So what’s the appeal of Santa Cruz? There are lots of great things to do in Santa Cruz, including hitting the beach, strolling the beach boardwalk, soaking in local culture at events like the Santa Cruz Film Festival, getting close to nature at Big Basin Redwoods National Park, and sampling wine from some of the over 70 wineries located in the Santa Cruz Valley.

Photo by lsolino