Santa Cruz
Visitor Index Stay awhile. Wherever you’re travelling from, you’ve obviously chosen the area for its beauty, surf-town culture and premier dining offerings. (We do have some world-class chefs here.) Many people visit Santa Cruz County throughout the year, but few may know of its hidden gems. We hope to guide you in finding some of them, whether its the off-the-beaten path rec trail or a funky local restaurant that has a great amount of style.
Tips on wedding planning from:
Cocoanut Grove
Feast for a King Catering
Minister Christine Jones
Heidi Hughett, The Couture House
The Buttery
Monterey Bay Laser Aesthetics
Jewels on Pacific
A Festive Affair
Get the Bridal Expo 2010 insert in this Good Times this week complete with exhibitor map and booth listings
Chaminade at Santa Cruz / 1 Chaminade Lane, Santa Cruz
800-283-6569, chaminade.com / It’s a Spanish mission-style building originally built in 1929 that was remodeled as a Benchmark Hospitality resort in 1988. You’ll find unprecedented views of Monterey Bay here. Full gym with daily aerobics classes, game room, sports lawn, indoor basketball court, sand volleyball, badminton, croquet, four outdoor tennis courts and three miles of hiking trails. Massage therapy and body treatments available. Guestrooms have full amenities and room service, plus, there are conference, wedding and small group packages available. A great dining experience to boot!
Photo: jennifer walters
See all Resorts, Hotels, Spas in Santa Cruz County >
A list of beaches in the North and South County area.
The Santa Cruz area offers several locations to connect to the internet for free while enjoying a coffee, meal or conversation. See the Good Times list for Free WiFi hot spots.
Whether you live here or are visiting the hiking and running trail options are amazing and some of the most beautiful in the world. Explore the local hills, redwoods, beaches and more. Explore our list of great hiking spots, leave your comments and submit your favorite hikes.
Note: There are some pending park closures due to the CA state budget - contact the Dept. of Parks and Recreation to confirm park hours and availability.
City of Santa Cruz >
Santa Cruz Department of Parks & Recreation >
As the long days turn to twilight and the sun sets to the west the Santa Cruz nights light up with something for everyone. Whether you are looking for cool jazz, rock 'n' roll or some acoustic guitar you'll find it here. Locals and travelers join together to celebrate great food, cool drinks and night beats.
Local theaters around the greater Santa Cruz area.
Find out about New releases, Movie Times, Reviews, Previews and reader comments in our On Screen section. Click Read More for a full list of theaters with addresses, contact information and descriptions.
SEASCAPE GOLF COURSE
Located so close to the ocean that you can hear the waves crash as you swing your club. It off ers both 18- and 9-hole courses over 6,000 yards, situated between cypress tress to shield you from a windy day. It also has an on-site Nike Golf learning center for golfers interested in taking lessons.
Price range: $23-$72 depending on day and time. 610 Clubhouse Drive, Aptos, 688-3213.
NEW AGE/OMNI-FAITHS/ EASTERN
CATHOLICISM
CHRISTIANITY
PAGAN/OCCULT
JUDAISM
Santa Cruz is a very ecologically minded place. Combine that with students strapped for cash and you get a community particularly interested in alternative forms of transportation. Fortunately, whatever your reason—whether it be the exercise from riding a bike, the lower carbon footprint associated with public transit, or simply saving money with a carpool partner or highly efficient car—there is likely to be a local a solution for you.
Santa Cruz is the of the world's finest surfing areas.
Here's the Good Times guide to surfing.
CAPITOLA JETTY, THE HOOK
MANRESA/LA SELVA, PLEASURE POINT
PRIVATES, COWELL’S
STEAMER LANE, NATURAL BRIDGESTHREE MILE, FOUR MILE
SCOTT’S CREEK, WADDELL CREEK
click Read More to see reviews of all by area
Sure, both UCSC and Cabrillo sport a bundle of great fitness classes—you may really dig the gyms there, too. But take note of some yoga alternatives here in Santa Cruz:
Please note the the Vets Hall is temporarily closed. Contact yoga instructors for new locations.
Welcome Students! Santa Cruz is an amazing place to live and learn. Grab a copy of the Good Times Dilated Pupil student guide for tips on the best places to eat, study, do laundry, whatever. Also make a minute to learn about local people, places, issues & ideas.
by Elizabeth Limbach
The Santa Cruz area is teeming with political activity—from the activists to the pro-growth folks, everyone has their cause. Here is a sampling of contentious local issues happening your new hometown.
ALL THIS CLEAN FUN FOR A BUNDLE OF QUARTERS. WHO KNEW? TAKE NOTE: FOUR WASHERS = BEST SPINS.
RECESSION-PROOF YOURSELFOur biggest issue—ever—unfolds on the following pages. Thousands of words occupy the literary real estate your eyes are about to explore. Welcome to the Best of Santa Cruz 2009. For more than 25 years, GT’s annual readers’ poll has saluted the best the county has to offer—from its arts and entertainment to its restaurants and shops, and beyond. This year is no different—the kudos are doled out—but there are some new nuances. For starters, nearly 3,000 readers voted this year, the biggest voter turnout to date. As always, there are also some surprise winners, some curious ties and some wildly eye-popping missed-it-by-a-hair losses. You’ll notice this year, too, we’ve included listings for Runner-up. PLUS: Venture online to see a more extensive breakdown of the top five winners in each category. The Best Of journey begins on page 14 but take note of page 66, where our Critics’ Picks reveal another round of winners—and losers—not found in the typical voting categories. What else? Well, at 152 pages, there’s plenty,
Twenty years after the fact, a geologist and a historian say we must not forget
“Loma Prieta was a humbling experience for most of us. a reminder of our diminutive stature in the grand scheme of things. I think that remembering events like that is a perfect antidote for our collective hubris; it keeps us honest.” —Sandy Lydon, ‘History Dude’
Exclusive '89 earthquake footage shot by filmmaker Peter McGettigan.
Twenty years ago, Chip Scheuer was a photographer for the Pajaronian. He happened to be on the scene after the quake pummeled downtown Santa Cruz. The following is his story—in words and pictures.
THE GROUND WAS STILL SHAKING AS I ran toward a mushroom cloud of black smoke billowing from a home engulfed in flames on Myrtle Street across from the Santa Cruz High School pool. One of the residents was fleeing the inferno and I photographed him as firefighters battled the intense flames. Approaching Pacific Avenue, I couldn’t believe the devastation. Santa Cruz looked like a bad Japanese science fiction movie—as if a drunken Godzilla had stumbled through the center of town.
The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake may have shaken Santa Cruz to the core, but it did one thing and one thing very well—it brought the community together. Here, GT probes the minds of several well-known Cruzans to get a better perspective of how things unravelled back then and … what may lie ahead. (Pictured: Mark Primack on a piece of the old Cooper House.)
What do you remember most? With my family safe and our home secure, I walked the length of Pacific Avenue a half hour after the earthquake. As an architect and Zoning Board Chair, I felt compelled to attempt my own assessment of damages. I didn’t have a camera, so I tried hard to take indelible mental notes on the apparent condition of each building I passed. Those first impressions informed later efforts at housing displaced businesses and saving older buildings. It is those white-knuckled images of cracked and battered buildings that come most clearly to mind when I remember the ’89 quake.
UCSC class captures earthquake survivors’ recollections in new audio archive
“Twenty minutes before the earthquake, the dog suddenly stopped and just went down, spread-eagle, on the ground, and would not budge … like, holding the earth.”
So spoke one longtime local to the students of “20 Years after Loma Prieta,” a five-week UCSC class that examined the infamous 1989 earthquake’s repercussions on the City of Santa Cruz. Sarah Yahm, a graduate student in the university’s social documentation program, created this class with the goal of creating an audio walking tour of downtown Santa Cruz that would reflect the experiences of locals during and after the quake. The results can be heard at santacruzafterthequake.wordpress.com.
It was a true crosswalk of Santa Cruz. The location was absolutely perfect, right at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Cooper Street. Notice how even the space in front of O’Neill’s where the Cooperhouse stood, attracts people. If you came here after 1990 or you are under 20 “The Cooperhouse” is only a bunch of old photos and wild stories. Now it’s just a part of Santa Cruz history. It was once our County Courthouse and from June 1972 to 1990 it was the happiest, busiest, gathering, shopping-drinking place (or as we now say, “small locally owned business incubator”) in all of Santa Cruz. For a little while longer, while we older long time residents last, the Cooperhouse will be a bit more important than the Santa Cruz Mission or the vanished bridge at Natural Bridges because it was a real part of our lives.
We were inundated with essays for The Loma Prieta Earthquake writing contest. This one stood out.
It was 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1989. I had one hour left before 30 people would show up at my front door for a meeting on Child Abuse Prevention. Our guest speaker was Diane Siri, the new Superintendent of Schools for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. As Board President of the Santa Cruz County Child Abuse Prevention Council, it had taken me months to pull together this gathering of department directors and social service providers. But it was worth it. This was going to be a golden opportunity to integrate the sometimes contentious elements that impacted the life of every foster child in Santa Cruz County. Ms. Siri would be the spark that ignited this important effort. I could sense the possibility of change. I wanted everything to be perfect.
Santa Cruz
