New Brighton State Beach

Bonito. Pay U$10 fee.

By far one of my favorite places to stay! Beautiful and close to town!

We stayed at New Brighton State Beach for a week last week during a "hazardous tree removal project" when the park wasn't taking reservations.

Their 1st come 1st serve system didn't seem very efficient, but at least we were lucky enough to get a spot.

The park was filled with families on spring break and it was pretty noisy during all hours including some outbursts during the designated quiet hours.

The beach is beautiful and is likely the reason this park is so popular.

This is one of the few state park campgrounds open all year in and around Santa Cruz. It is on the beach, though not exactly oceanfront. There is a steep beach trail that drops you down on a very nice beach cove. Midweek off-season the campground was quiet and about half full, however the weekend was totally booked and we couldn't stay without reservations. Site 105 has plenty of shade. Bathhouse was clean. Location is convenient to Santa Cruz, Capitola and Henry Cowell. CA-1 has a lot of traffic during rush hour. Overall it was a very nice stay.

We had a great few days at this park. The towns of Capitola and Santa Cruz are fantastic little beach communities with good cafes, coffee shops and a few breweries. The park is on an ocean bluff overlooking the pacific. The sites that face out over the ocean are premium sites and cost $50. It is a short but steep walk down to the beach. You can walk along the beach to the Seacliff pier and beyond. It is also a short walk to the Capitola wharf along the disused train tracks that run through the park.

Others have complained about the noise but we didn't experience that. The campground is busy but we found the sites relatively spread out and we had a good amount of privacy. The hook up sites are a little closer together, but our dry site was perfect. We also had very little shade which is good for our solar panels. Some of the spots are more shady. The marine layer came in each night, but the sun was out by midday, so we had no problems getting fully charged.

The showers were hot, with good pressure (25c for 2 minutes) and there is water fill up and a dump station on site.

For us location is everything, so being able to walk to the town and the beach made this campground a hit.

Nice campground. Expensive and you pay for showers (due to the drought). Really easy access to beach below the cliff. We rode our bikes to Santa Cruz, Capitola and Aptos. Park wifi is decent, even great with external wifi booster.

Stayed here for two weeks, 1st week in site #94 (3.5/5), then 2nd week in premium site #76 (5/5). 1st site was nothing special but spacious and quiet during the week as the non-premium sites are not often full during the winter months, and it backs onto the electric hookup sites so there's no generators abound (other than my own). 2nd site was incredible - arguably the best in the campground as it is closest to the bluffs and has the most open view. You'll need to book this the second it's available, 6 months in advance.

New Brighton is fantastically located, with easy access to redwood and coastal trails, great restaurants nearby, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and only a short jaunt into Silicon Valley. We also took a day trip out to Pinnacles N.P. - highly recommend!

Verizon coverage is decent, though at times slow. No dropped connections like with many other coastal campgrounds though, so Verizon seems to be working more reliably here. Very usable for teleconferencing with a booster.

Birds aplenty here! There are also several stray cats, and while most of them run away at the first sign of a human, one of them was very friendly and we had considered adopting it. Unfortunately the cat seemed to much prefer the outdoors to the indoors and it didn't want to stay.

This was a great state park in the heart of the Central Coast. We visitied Pebble Beach, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and enjoyed the state park, too. Everything was within an hour and the fellow campers were great. The cliffs and big trees were amazing. It was the perfect setting for a campground. We didn’t use the bathrooms so I can’t comment but the bathhouse looked newer. All in all, an excellent campground and location.

I had this on my list of places I must camp since this campground is rated a 10 in Tom Stienstra RV Camping books. Well, I wouldn't call this campground a 10. But I will say, if one is looking for a place to stay close to Santa Cruz then this is a great location. I prefer camping away from towns and cities. Check-in was simple and easy, and staff was very friendly and helpful. There is freeway noise for sites away from the ocean bluff. All sites looked spacious. Site 98 was mostly private due to high growth shrubs on the perimeter of the site. Beach is ok, seen nicer beaches. There are numerous wonderful places to go hiking in the Aptos hills, Byrne Milliron Forest and Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, for those that are looking for more than city life and beach.

We had stayed in quite a few different CA state parks and this one was ok. The sites are a little bit tight and glasses are overgrown. They had us to be put on waiting list and check in again at 2pm to get out spot even though there are open spots already. Even you have reservation and you also have to wait to check in until 2pm .

The access to the beach is a little bit far away from the camp ground by feet.