Sea Cliff Dr., Aptos, CA
Romantic Beach
by Joy
(Napa, CA)
View from our window, Sea Cliff Dr., Aptos, CA
Having grown up on the Santa Cruz coast, I've always appreciated the ocean. For our honeymoon, my husband and I paid top dollar for a hotel on the beach in Monterey, but because it was so cold and windy (in the middle of June), it wasn't the wildly romantic beach getaway we had planned.
My FAVORITE part of our honeymoon was the night we stayed on Sea Cliff drive in Aptos, just south of Santa Cruz CA. The beach is so beautiful. The weather was perfect. The picture is of the view outside our window, looking out over the cliff. If you go much farther up the coast on highway 1, the beaches, though much less crowded, are very windy and cold, and of course, as we found out, they're not very warm if you go too far south, either. Beaches in the Santa Cruz area are the best for miles in either direction.
The best restaurant we went to on our honeymoon is Dharma's, in Capitola, CA. It has great ambiance, very healthy food and the best flavor you'll find in the Santa Cruz mountains. It's the kind of place only the locals know about, but those who have tasted its heavenly goodness become lifetime patrons.
