Santa Cruz Beach – Downtown Trolley

Came down from Marin to spend the day in Santa Cruz. Was able to charge my EV at the Soquel garage and take the trolley down to the boardwalk after we did some shopping downtown. Extremely convenient and helpful! Avoided a ton of traffic down by the baordwalk and more expensive parking.

This is a service funded by the down town merchants association and operated by the santa cruz metro.
Essentially it’s a trolley bus service a couple of stops downtown that runs to the santa cruz wharf. This is intended for people to park downtown-​where all the shops are-​and then ride to the wharf/​boardwalk which is where 90% of people who visit santa cruz on summer vacation want to go. Or so it seems when you are stuck in that endless traffic loop on the approaches to those same places in peak tourist season.
Anyway the downtown trolley offers an mellower option. if you park downtown, which you’ll still have to pay for, but the rates are infinitely better then the boardwalk parking, the trolley will drop you off right across from the Wharf in a theoretical 15 – 20 mins. Perfect if you are older, have some mobility issues, are super tired/​lazy or suffer from children. The schedule is theoretically one trolley every 15 minutes. Sometimes it makes that schedule, sometimes it doesn’t. Traffic gets sticky downtown sometimes and well, stuff can go wrong. Also you can walk to the wharf in about 15 – 20 minutes from downtown.
Totally worth a ride once, if not more then once and overall is quite charming.

If you are going to the Boardwalk your first ride of the day should be on the Trolley! The parking situation at the Boardwalk is a bad joke with overpriced parking and narrow congested streets. There is plenty of parking downtown and mostly free on Sundays. The Trolley runs daily from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend.
After having lunch downtown (much better options than the Boardwalk), I boarded the trolley at the Del Mar Theatre stop. You must have exact change (just 25 cents per ride). Why so cheap? The Trolley is run by the Santa Cruz Trolley Consortium, Inc. a 501©4 non-​profit organization.
It’s a short and pleasant ride down to the beach then just a hop skip and a jump to the Boardwalk fun.

It’s fathers day, we got a late start to hit up the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and parking is not going to happen. I grew up in SC. I’m not about to circle and wait for a parking spot. I also don’t plan on being there all day so I don’t want to wait in line for an hour to get a spot in the expensive new parking lot. What’s a dad to do.
I drop my wife and kid and head downtown to get some coffee at the Santa Cruz coffee roasting company. Got rock star parking on Pacific Garden Avenue and grabbed a cup of coffee, stuff enough coin in the parking meter them jump on the trolly.
So I get parking, coffee and a low stress ride to the beach. It’s got great music and air conditioning. Happy father’s day, I win. The family got to have a bit of fun (waiting in line without me) before I get there and I get to relax instead of looking and waiting for parking. And did I mention the AC.

This doesn’t run on a 20 minute loop. Not even close. And it doesn’t take you to the Boardwalk, only as far as the Wharf. In the time it took for my family to wait for the next shuttle, I was able to walk to Trader Joe’s downtown and drive back to them.
Good idea, but poorly executed.

I love the trolley! This has to be one of the best additions to Santa Cruz in years. Up until this year, I would walk from my hotel to the downtown area. I was so excited to find out I could be totally lazy, and ride the trolley from the front of wharf to downtown for only a quarter! As much as my wife likes to shop, and I like to eat, we used the trolley several times on this last visit. It is also far easier to take my 5 year old daughter on the trolley than hear her whine about the walk.
The trolley runs every 30 minutes from 11am-​9pm. It is comfortable, quick, and easy to get from the wharf to the downtown area. The downtown stop is on Pacific and Cathcart, which is almost in the middle of the downtown shopping area.
For all you people that hate paying ridiculously high prices to park in the boardwalk parking lots, after waiting in traffic for an hour to go 1 mile. You can now park downtown way cheaper than the lots near the boardwalk, ride to the wharf for a quarter, and walk ½ a mile to the boardwalk faster than the wait in traffic. Just a thought.

I cannot believe this wonderful transportation service has yet to be reviewed. And I cannot believe I just discovered this. On crowded summer weekends don’t fight beach traffic or pay ridiculously over-​priced beach parking rates. Instead, park downtown in the many inexpensive lots and take this Trolley.
The trolley has a 1930s look, is ADA compliant and operates on compressed natural gas. The trolley runs daily during the summer (and on weekends in the spring/​fall) from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm. It runs back and forth between downtown Santa Cruz (Pacific Avenue) and the Boardwalk. The two stops are in front of the Del Mar Theater (Pacific Avenue) and the entrance to the Santa Cruz Wharf.
And get this. A one-​way ride is 25 cents!
Nice.