Santa Cruz Travel Forum

Hi All,

Three of us girls have a day to enjoy Santa Cruz on a spontaneous idea. We will be driving down the coast to get there on Hwy 1. We're leaving from just south of San Francisco.
Anyone have any ideas of must see and do activities? We're driving down today and it is quite windy but we'd like some fun things to do - great shopping, dining, etc. How about on the drive down. We are open to all ideas. We have money and would pay reasonably for great sites, experiences.
As always, your advise is most welcome.

Andrea

On the way south from SF you can stop in the tiny town of Davenport. There's a decent restaurant there and a shop or two, along with views form the ocean cliffs.

Santa Cruz: walk along West Cliff Drive. Walk Pacific Garden Mall and look into some of the shops. Eat and have a mai tai at Hula's Grill right downtown. Have another drink at the Crows Nest overlooking the harbor. Go to Capitola - yes it is touristy, but still can be fun: little shops and a small but pretty beach. There are some decent bars there along the water also. The ever popular Shadowbrook is always a good dining experience.

Have fun!
There's a Patagonia outlet on River Street, between downtown and Highway 1, if you want some fairly good prices. My wife stops there from time to time and enjoys it.

Thanks for the information. We ended up walking around downtown Santa Cruz where it's like a young, Berkeley type of atmosphere, We went into some neat shops and had a nice pizza lunch. I've heard of that West Cliff Dr. though and we'll do that on the next trip.

Andrea