Santa Cruz Vacation Rental house

As described, this house is located only 50 yards from the beach. There is room in the garage for one vehicle plus one vehicle in the driveway. Street parking is available, but you'll need to purchase a $5 daily permit on the weekends if you intend to park on the street.

The house itself is tri-level. The front door is located at the bottom level. The bottom level contain 2 bedrooms and bathroom, as well as access to the garage where the washer and dryer is located. A flight of stairs takes you to the second level, which contain the family room, kitchen, 2nd bathroom and 3rd bedroom. To get to the loft, you have to climb a secured ladder from the family room. The loft is quite roomy and contains a futon sofa, a queen bed, and a pappasan chair. However, as I already mentioned, it accessed via a secured ladder so probably isn't appropriate for younger children. The furnishings in the home is are all tastefully done, but I wish that the family room furniture were more comfortable. There is a very nice HDTV set in the family room, along with a nice surround-sound system. You can even pipe music to the backyard.

The family room and loft offers a great view of the beach and sunset. The family room is on the small side and we found it a bit cramped for our group of 8 people, including 4 children. The kitchen area is really cramped, and can accommodate only about 2 people at a time. For meals, there is only enough seating for 8 people: 2 at the kitchen counter, 4 at a round glass table, and another 2 at a smaller table.

The backyard contains a nice jacuzzi spa, although we weren't able to get the jets to operate during our stay there. There's also a firepit to roast marshmellows. If you prefer to roast marshmellows on the beach, there are about a dozen metal firepits available there, but it seems to be first-come, first-served. During our stay, all the firepits were in use in the evenings even during the middle of the week. In order to get to the backyard, you have to go out the front door, and then navigate down some steps along the side of the house.

The beach is very nice and was there was a good crowd present on each day of our stay. There are a couple of lifeguard towers.

The Crow's Nest restaurant is located at the harbor and I could have easily reached the restaurant with a 3-wood from the house. There is also a Mexican restaurant located next to the Crow's Nest. We did not eat at either restaurant during our stay.