Santa Cruz and Monterey
Going over the mountains to the west, you'll find a few more great towns to visit. If you're interested in ocean sports, these are most likely the places you want to visit.
Santa Cruz
To get to Santa Cruz, it's a 50 minute drive from Palo Alto. Or, take Caltrain to the San Jose Diridon Station and hop the Amtrak Throughway Motorcoach. Downtown Santa Cruz has restaurants and boutiques.
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
400 Beach Street, Santa Cruz
Hours: 11a-10p daily
The Boardwalk is a half-mile long historic amusement park next to Santa Cruz’s mile long Main Beach. It features more than 34 rides and attractions including two National Historic Landmarks: the 1924 Giant Dipper roller coaster and the 1911 Looff Carousel plus plenty of modern thrill rides, dozens of restaurants, shops, games, indoor arcades, and miniature golf.
Mystery Spot
465 Mystery Spot Road, Santa Cruz (plan to drive here)
Hours: 10-6p weekdays, 9-7p weekends
The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot is an area where gravity doesn't seem to work properly. Balls roll uphill, chairs sit on walls, and people lean over so far they can't see their shoes but don't fall down.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park
18,000 acres of old-growth redwoods about 25 miles north of Santa Cruz. Excellent hiking trails. There is a small charge for parking.
Monterey County
Amtrak has stops in Carmel and Monterey Bay (near the Aquarium), but to visit Big Sur, you'll need a car or be ready for a really long bike ride.
Carmel-by-the-Sea
As inspiring and beautiful as it was more than a century ago, Carmel attracts artists, poets, musicians and actors and once boasted Clint Eastwood as mayor.
Cannery Row
Anchored by San Carlos Beach on one end and the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the other, Cannery Row stretches along the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and offers unmatched access to natural marvels. Visitors will find no better place to explore the bay, whether they choose to peer into coastal tide pools, watch sea lions splash, kayak along kelp beds or dive at one of several walk-in scuba spots.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Corner of Cannery Row and David Ave, Monterey
Hours: 10-6p weekdays, 9:30-8p weekends
One of the world's best aquariums, Monterey Bay Aquarium has one of the largest collections of seahorse species in the United States, sea otters, and a large collection of jelly fish.
Big Sur
Hike along the streams in the cool, tree lined valleys. Climb up on the high ridges for a spectacular view of the coastline on the western slope and gaze into three million acres of wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest on the eastern slope.
