The seaside surf town of Santa Cruz is a fascinating mix of sleaze, students, and surprisingly staid middle-class culture that only a historic, university city on the edge of the wealthy Bay Area could be. It attracts millions of visitors every year in search of a hedonistic beach lifestyle and boardwalk entertainment and the city’s main beach is still the center of action, if not the prettiest part of town. Away from the sand the city of 55,000 feels more like a small suburban town, sprawling lazily around the San Lorenzo River. Only the bustling area around Pacific Avenue lends any sense of a lively downtown area.

The seed of modern-day Santa Cruz was the mission, established here in the late 1700s, around which a small trading post built up. The trading post eventually became a port serving the mountain lumber business and trades associated with the gold rush before the pleasures of the climate and location were recognized by the newly-mobile Victorian society. Santa Cruz was quickly transformed into the resort town it is today as tourism overtook the dwindling logging and fishing industries as the main source of income.

Despite its religious and Victorian heritage, Santa Cruz became famous in the 1960s for being a low-key counterculture town, attracting surfers and the fringes of the San Francisco hippy scene. The city is home to the most progressive campus of the University of California, established here in 1965, and a city council that has been equally progressive, regularly taking a position on international political situations and passing socially conscious legislation including a minimum wage that is almost double that required under state law.

More recently, money has moved in as overspill from Silicon Valley is lured by relatively cheap property prices and the pleasant summer climate. As money gains influence, the laid-back vibe of Santa Cruz is increasingly being challenged with new rules and regulations to bring order to what many perceived as chaos.

The city introduced a stringent law to ban aggressive panhandling, and the signs posted at regular intervals along Pacific Avenue downtown list plenty of other activities now deemed antisocial that could get you in trouble. As increasing amounts of money have flowed into the city from the burgeoning student population and overspill from the Bay Area, the city’s downtown area has undergone a modest redevelopment boom, spurred by the damage inflicted by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Inevitably this has brought more chain stores and restaurants downtown but city still maintains a healthy number of independent businesses to keep the alterative vibe alive.

Santa Cruz is also one of the best surfing spots in Northern California, and riding the waves along the city’s beaches has been a pastime since the 1930s when the sport was introduced from Southern California. Some world-class surfing events are held here each year, including the O’Neill Cold Water Classic every fall, and there’s usually a cluster of surfers bobbing in the chilly water just off Cowell Beach, come rain or shine.

Tasting Rooms

In the height of summer, when tourists throng the beaches and the small of fried fish permeates the air, Santa Cruz might not feel much like a wine town but there are a handful of tasting rooms in the heart of city that pour local wines--a reminder that there’s a great wine region up in the nearby mountains.

In the last few years a new gourmet ghetto has also evolved on the city’s westside, a couple of miles from downtown and close to the Natural bridges State Beach. As manufacturers have moved out and warehouses have become vacant new food outlets and independent fashion stores have moved in along with tasting rooms for a number of wineries, a brewery, and even a distillery.

If tasting pinot before riding a rollercoaster in Santa Cruz does not satiate your desire for wine-fueled fun then make the short, 15 minute drive north to Bonny Doon winery on the cool western slopes of the mountains. The exterior of the modest tasting room under the watchful gaze of ancient redwoods barely hints at the colorful world of wine that lies within. Continue up the road and you'll soon end up descending into the San Lorenzo Valley, from where you can head back to more conservative Silicon Valley civilization or return to freewheelin' Santa Cruz.

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