Santa Cruz Main Beach, Santa Cruz

The boardwalk area is crowded but if you are looking for that carnival experience go for it. The walk along the light house is really nice. Clean and not too crowded. The place looks gorgeous during sunset. Also, the drive to the beach from the Bay Area is beautiful.

We stopped here for a few hours a couple weeks ago. We arrived very early since we had just driven up from Monterey. The boardwalk wasn't even open yet.. lol We hung around and walked over to the pier while we waited and discovered a bunch of seals and sea lions living under the pierand making all kinds of noise. Hilarious to watch. When we walked back over to the boardwalk they were opening up a few things and testing all the rides. It must have been a whole bunch schools last days before summer because there were busses of kids arriving.. fun to watch them all. I would recommend both the boardwalk and the pier for some fun and games.