I am really excited to make this blog post, since this is basically my second home. So many of the people I love live in and around Santa Cruz, California. It’s my husbands home so all of his amazing family lives there. Besides that I got lucky to meet a lot of people at the local church. Santa Cruz is on the west coast of the Untied States, about 1 hour south of San Francisco. Here I want to share some exiting places to go to, if you’re travelling in this area. I will start out with beautiful places to see in nature in part 1 and then mention fun places to go to in part 2.

Lets start out with one of the most famous fun places to go: The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It’s a small amusement park right on the beach. You can pay per ride or buy a day pass for 40$. You can also just walk through for free and buy sweet treats. Sometimes they also show a movie on the beach or they have a concert.

Santa Cruz Down Town is a fun place to go if you want to go shopping or just hang out. There is one major shopping street with stores and restaurants. I like that there are a lot of unique stores, not as you know it from European cities, where they always have the same big name stores.

Speaking of Down Town, they have one of the coolest places there! Pour. It is a taproom. They give you a wristband as you enter. Then you can pick any of the beers, ciders and wines on the wall and pour yourself the amount you want. When you’re done they scan your wristband and then you pay. It is a fun place to hang out, chat and maybe even play board games.

Also in Santa Cruz is the restaurant Shadowbrook. If you would like to have a fancier dinner, this is the perfect place. You will have to reserve a table in advance. You can even request to be picked up at home by a taxi from the restaurant. Down from the parking spots to the restaurants you go by a tiny cable car. The entire atmosphere of Shadowbrook is a place to relax and enjoy.

In the end of July there is a Garlic Festival in Gilroy. If you love garlic this is the perfect place for you to go. They have everything from garlic fries to garlic bread to garlic meat to - you won’t believe it- garlic ice cream. I can say that it doesn’t even taste bad! They have lots of country music and stands with clothes and art. Definitely worth the trip.

Santa Cruz Fun – Food, Drinks & Boardwalk