Santa Cruz sits where the redwood-covered mountains of the Coast Range meet the northern curve of Monterey Bay. It is a California beach town with a countercultural streak — part surf culture, part university town, part old-school boardwalk resort. The mix gives it a character quite unlike anywhere else on the coast.
The Beach Boardwalk is the last surviving beachfront amusement park on the West Coast, with a 1924 wooden roller coaster that still draws crowds. Beyond it, the town fans out into a walkable downtown of independent shops, good restaurants, and coffee roasters. Pacific Avenue is the main drag, busy most evenings.
Surfing defines the town's identity as much as anything. Steamer Lane, just off West Cliff Drive, is one of the best-known surf breaks in California, and the water here is full of wetsuits year-round. The coastal path along West Cliff Drive is worth walking even if you never touch a board — the views stretch across the bay to Monterey on clear days, and Natural Bridges State Park at the western end has spectacular monarch butterfly aggregations in autumn.
Up the hill, the University of California Santa Cruz campus sprawls through redwood forest — the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park nearby has old-growth trees over 1,500 years old — which partly explains the town's youthful, progressive feel. The surrounding mountains offer good hiking and mountain biking at Wilder Ranch, and the farms of the Pajaro Valley supply the restaurants with some of the best produce in the state.