One of our favorite spots to camp at is at New Brighton Beach in Capitola, CA. It’s very close to Santa Cruz and the campsite is right on the ocean bluffs. The sites are large and there is running water with coin operated hot showers, flushing toilets, and Capitola is about 10 minutes away by bike or less than 5 mins by car. Last year, my husband and I were lucky enough to book one of the campsites on the bluffs and we could hear the crashing of the waves at night. It sure beat any hotel you could stay at for only $35/night. This was our first time “glamping” as it was his birthday and I wanted to do something nice for us and we had so much fun!!! Sleeping on the Intex Pillow Rest Raised Airbed with Built-in Pillow and Electric Pump, Queen, Bed Height 16 1/2″ in our Kingdom 6 tent from REI was plenty of room and comfort for a couple of nights stay. I liked the double height of the air mattress as it felt more like a real bed since you don’t have to bend down all the way. This is what we got:

I also got an Intex Quick-Fill 12v-DC Electric Air Pump, Max. Air Flow 21.2CFM so I could blow up the air mattress from our car. It fully inflated in less than 5 minutes and it was easy to place inside out tent. (I was worried it wouldn’t get through the opening but it did.)

Some other things that I brought to make our trip fun were:

• Sand Castle Supplies – Why not? have fun no matter your age
• Bluetooth speaker for some music
• French Press Coffee Maker – I got mine from REI and it’s insulated so it kept the coffee warm between cups.
• Muffins for the morning with coffee
• Glow in the Dark Rings – we passed these out to other campers for fun and to celebrate his birthday. You can find these cheaper at the Dollar Store or Wal-mart.
• Playing Cards
• Birthday Cake with candles
• Birthday Decor – Yup, I went to the good ole Dollar Store for supplies and decorated our campsite so everyone knew it was his birthday 🙂
• Hammock – I highly recommend bringing a hammock. It was nice to take an afternoon nap or read a book in the shade while listening to the ocean waves. I did purchase this Ultimate, Compact, Single-person Adventure Hammock by Tribe Provisions (Orange) from Amazon and IT WAS SO MUCH CHEAPER THAN AN ENO!! I my husband has an ENO and we both think this one is more comfortable. Although, I do recommend getting the Eagles Nest Outfitters Atlas Polyester Hammock Hanging Straps for setting up the hammock. Paying the extra money for these straps are work it!!! The para-cord that comes with this hammock is not the best and stretch so ya eventually are touching the ground. 😦

• Bicycle – We found getting around town much easier with our bicycles than driving, especially because it’s a small town and parking was at a premium. Also if you go around Easter or Halloween, the community of Capitola normally does something on the beach (i.e. Easter Egg hunt on the beach for the kiddos).

Some of the fun places we like to visit Capitola are:

1. Margaritaville – this place it right on the water with great staff and fresh ingredients. It’s a place were you can hang out all night with the view from almost every seat.
2. Panache – or as we refer to it as the “Rubber Duckie Store.” This store has a TON of different rubber duckies from Einstein or Ben Franklin duckie, to Pink Flamingo duckie, Devil Duckie, and more. We couldn’t help ourselves bought this enormous rubber duckie for our bathroom, lol:
3. Shadowbrook – is a really nice place for elegant, more fine dining. The location is romantic as it’s right on the canal and you even take a funicular down to the restaurant. Be aware that there is a dress code. Luckily they don’t enforce it too much if you are traveling and trying to make an effort of having nice clothes on. I wore a sweater dress with capris and my keen water sandals. I was worried about my sandals; however, I was unaware of the dress code before packing for this trip. Just wear some nice khakis, no rips/tears and nicer sandals and you should be fine. Luckily no one said anything to me….maybe because it was my shoes, no one really saw them under the table…..
4. Exploring the town of Capitola – there are many little privately owned shops in Capitola so it was really nice to just park/lock up the bikes and walk around exploring. We even got a slice of pizza and just ate lunch on a beach bench taking our time and enjoying the breeze and scenery. But there is wine tasting and more in the area. I would go on TripAdvisor and see what activities may interest you before going as well. Also this campsite is about 30 minutes away from the Monterrey Aquarium if you wanted to do a day trip.

Here’s some other photos from our trip:

Our site all set up:

A little skunk ate our Birthday Muffins. We locked up our food but the little bugger was able to get into the wooden locker with his little paws and then let his mark on our trunks (what we haul our gear in).

Building Sand Castles after coffee (Thank you Dollar Store). We gave our bucket and shovel to a family with small children to play with afterwards. 🙂

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Cheers!!