Mitchell's Cove is a small pocket beach below West Cliff Drive, useful when the main Santa Cruz waterfront feels too busy. Cliffs frame the sand, tide pools appear around the rocks, and the view back across Monterey Bay is better than the size of the beach suggests.
Check the tide before making it your plan; in winter and at high water the beach can shrink dramatically. The stairs down from West Cliff make access simple, but this is still a cove shaped by surf, not a groomed resort beach.