Santa Cruz Date Night Ideas
Looking for a fun day in Santa Cruz that leads into an incredible date night? Well, if you plan to visit Santa Cruz, my suggestion is to go to Main Beach and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
Main Beach stretches from the mouth of the San Lorenzo River to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. Even with a large expanse of sand it gets packed with tourists and locals on sunny summer days. Lifeguards are on hand most of the time at Main Beach making it a safer place for families to play in the waves. There are also volleyball courts located on the beach, public restrooms, and it is just steps from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. So during your day at the beach, you and your date can walk over to the amusement park for some fun!
Not only will the Boardwalk provide you hours upon hours of fun people watching and entertainment, because the rides are off the chart amazing, but the Big Dipper roller coaster is one of the oldest wooden roller coasters still in existence. If you haven’t ridden on it, you should absolutely do it; it is a fun and an exhilarating ride. And looking at the photos of yourself on the ride, is absolutely hilarious. And you can get an amazing view of the entire park, and Main Beach, from the Sky Glider. I highly recommend going on this ride at sunset to take in the gorgeous views. If you’re feeling competitive, ride the Ghost Blasters, you can challenge your date to see who can blast the most ghosts. There are so many other incredible rides to check out.
However, If going on rides is not necessarily what you and your date are into, do not worry. There is so much more to do at the Boardwalk! One of my favorite activities to do on a Boardwalk date, is to play a round of mini-golf at Neptunes Kingdom. I just love this two story old fashioned arcade complete with an indoor pirate themed miniature golf course, air hockey tables and a bar upstairs for worn out parents! The mini golf course is filled with a variety of putting challenges, pirate animatronics, and a portion of the course was glow in the dark! It’s a fun and affordable way to pass the time with your date.
Not feeling up to playing mini golf? Well, how about bowling? Just steps away from Neptune’s Kingdom is the Boardwalk Bowl. The Boardwalk Bowl is a state-of-the-art bowling facility with 26 lanes, an arcade, and Coasters Bar & Grill. On certain evenings, generally weekends, they offer “Atomic Bowling” where the entire bowling alley is under black lights, they play dance music and have disco balls. It is a really fun time! You can even order a pitcher of beer or some pizza from Coasters Bar & Grill and bring it to your lane! And at Coasters Bar & Grill you can watch or participate in Karaoke Monday-Saturday nights starting at 8pm. The Boardwalk Bowl is a wonderful place to laugh, sing, dance, and bowl with your date!
Other fun things that you can do down at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk are, during the summer, they have Friday night bands and Wednesday night movies right on Main Beach, which is absolutely fun for all ages, family, friends. Bring your blankets, bring your beach chairs and come and enjoy an evening of free fun at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on Main Beach.
Also located at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is Marini’s Candies. Marini’s has been around since 1915 and is famous for their Taffy, and yes, they make it on-site so you can watch them make the Taffy, and then you can get a lovely bag for you and your date for your Santa Cruz date night. The gooey treat originated on the East Coast and Marini’s is thought to have been one of the first to bring it to California. Marini’s uses the original recipe handed down by Victor Marini, founder of the company. Marinis is still run by the family, with the taffy packaging being the same antique Model K taffy wrapper.
For your date night, If you’re ready to leave the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk area, you can walk or bike to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf for dinner and drinks. The Santa Cruz Wharf has phenomenal restaurants, and there is several different types to choose from. One of our favorite places to go to is Stagnaros. You can either have a sit down meal in the restaurant, or you can go to the walkup counter and get some fish to cook yourself at home. Stagnaros has the most delicious red bowl of clam chowder and I highly recommend their crab sandwich. Everything is fresh, caught, delicious, right in the bay, right here at Santa Cruz.
There is so much to do in the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk area! I hope that this helps you plan a really fun date night in Santa Cruz!
If you would like additional Santa Cruz date night ideas, feel free to reach out to me! I am happy to help!
