Santa Cruz Getting there & around

Getting there & around

Santa Cruz is 20 miles from Silicon Valley on fast-moving and often perilous Hwy 17. It is 90 miles south and 43 miles north of Monterey on beautiful Hwy 1. Without your own wheels, the easiest way to reach Santa Cruz is on a bus.

Greyhound (831-423-1800; 425 Front St), next to the Metro Center, has daily buses to San Francisco ($11, three hours), Salinas ($13, 70 minutes) and Los Angeles ($43, 10 hours). To reach Monterey you’ll need to change buses in Salinas.

Santa Cruz Airporter (831-423-1214, 800-497-4997) runs shuttles to/from the airports at San Jose ($42) and San Francisco ($47).

Santa Cruz Metro(831-425-8600; www.scmtd.com) is the local public transit operation. It operates Hwy 17 Express buses from Santa Cruz to the San Jose CalTrain/Amtrak station ($4). Metro also operates a thicket of bus services (tickets $1.50, day pass $4.50) throughout the county and is an excellent way to get around. Most routes converge on the Metro Center between Pacific and Front Sts downtown.

Useful routes follow. One-way trips cost $1; a day pass costs $3.

Bus No - Destination

3B - Natural Bridges State Beach

35 - Felton, then on to Boulder Creek & Big Basin State Park

40 & 42 - Davenport & the north coast beaches

69 - Capitola Transit Center