New Brighton Camping

We just got back from 2 nights of camping at New Brighton State Beach. New Brighton is located in Capitola just south of Santa Cruz. Just take the New Brighton/Park Ave exit off of Highway 1. New Brighton is located atop a bluff right on the coast. There is a path that you walk down to reach the beach. The campground has 111 developed campsites for tents or RV's up to 36' in length. Ten of the campsites have partial hookups. And a different nine campsites are considered premium campsites. The premium sites are located along the edge of the bluff, these have a view of the ocean and the shortest walk to the beach. The premiums have an added fee to them. All the sites have the standard picnic table and fire ring. Flush toilets and coin-op showers in each loop, 25cents get you 2 minutes. Some sites are limited on shade. We really liked New Brighton. Its a nice clean campground right next to the beach. Will probably return next summer.

We also enjoyed how close it is to Capitola and Santa Cruz. On Saturday we actually grabbed our bikes and headed out. First stop was Capitola where we parked the bikes and checked out all the little shops. We then biked to downtown Santa Cruz, where we strolled around some of the stores and checked out an art festival they were having. We then headed down to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The boardwalk hasn't changed much over the years and was extremely crowded. After eating at the Boardwalk we headed back to the campground. The Santa Cruz area is very bike friendly, with bike lanes or bike paths everywhere.

New Brighton Beach. Trail on the left of pic leads up to the campground.