Got to love a beach front anything! And this place is just that. OMG it takes an act of God to get into the full hook-up sites (30 amp water sewer 40 foot max $70 bucks), but one can most times get into the "overflow" dry camping areas ($50 bucks) via a lottery held at noon. They have changed these sites to now include big rigs up to 45 foot (used to be 34 foot max) The web-site has not been updated to reflect this as of this review, so typical of the California State park system.
What can one say about being only 10 feet from the sand? Wonderful always comes to mind. You need to reserve about 9 month in advance for full hook up sites (30 amp). Only drawback I know of is you MUST back in. Kind of kills the whole beach ocean view thing in a motor home. TT and FW will be better if yours has a large rear window. Plan on having sand as your best friend while in full hook up sites. As your door drops ya right into a sand box (without the cat tooie roll thang) site gathering area.
The overflow "DRY" camping area lets you pull straight on in. Look Ma, no sand at my door step! So if you can do without umbilical cords and are careful with water and holding tanks, these are the bomb in my world cause you face out towards the ocean view in a MoHo. Understand you will have people refilling their battery banks from the night before via genset, some people buy really cheap gensets and thus could cause you to scratch you head from the noise. Between 8 pm and 10am it's no noisy gensets allowed.
Now to the bad news on dry camping. Sea Cliff has NO dump station (California State parks can seem rather brain dead)! But if you are quick and witty you can fire up that bad boy and roll into an empty full hook up site and do your business (and fill up with water too) and quickly (key to keeping camp host at bay) return to your dry space, before anyone knows what you just did. We have done this many,many times. Otherwise you will have to drive north on Hwy 1 two miles to New brighten state park to visit the wacky dump station here.
There are many wonderful places to shop and eat out. There is a Safeway shopping center within a good walking distance. A great hardware store worth stopping into and looking around in this center also.
There are so many things to do if you have kids along. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is only 15 minutes away. One of the few amusement parks with free admission. Of course rides, do cost extra. Still a great value if you buy the all day rides band.
Looking for an extra special place to take your partner for a romanic dinner? Will that would have to be the Shadow Brook restaurant point your mouse to http://www.shadowbrook-capitola.com/ Early bird specials will save some money on the bill (I must be getting older)
