The Best Hotels in Santa Cruz

A Sixties mid-rise just off the boardwalk that got the full mid-century modern boutique treatment, bold colors and vintage geometry intact. The Dream Inn is a 165-room beachfront hotel that manages to feel like Santa Cruz distilled: sun-bleached, a little retro, and not trying too hard about any of it. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels, which tracks for a place that finally gave this stretch of California coast the beach hotel it deserved.

The landmark bell tower has been standing since the 1920s, and La Bahia is the hotel that finally caught up to it. Set on Beach Street with actual ocean views from many of its 155 rooms, this Spanish Mediterranean property is Santa Cruz's most luxurious place to sleep, with a spa, a pool, and several bars and restaurants ranging from casual poolside to coastal Californian. The rooms mix the building's original Spanish bones with something clean and contemporary.