2026 Top Cities by School Score in Santa Cruz County

About Pasatiempo

Keywords: Marion Hollins, Alister MacKenzie, Santa Cruz Hills

Where Santa Cruz ends and the mountain road begins, Pasatiempo occupies the hills between Scotts Valley and the coast, a few minutes from Highway 17. Redwood country begins to the north, and the bay lies south through the city. Marion Hollins, a champion golfer, announced the project in January 192 ... See Full Page

Santa Cruz neighborhoods ranked by schools

Keywords: Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Surf City Coast, Pacific Avenue Downtown

Santa Cruz sits on the northern curve of Monterey Bay, where the Santa Cruz Mountains come down to the water and Highway 17 is the only real road over the hill to San Jose. The San Lorenzo River runs through the middle of town, and the city reads as a beach town, a college town and a redwood town al ... See Full Page

About Ben Lomond

Keywords: San Lorenzo Valley, Mountain Towns, Highway 9 Corridor

Ben Lomond sits near the middle of the San Lorenzo Valley, where the San Lorenzo River meets Love Creek. Felton is the next town downstream, and Brookdale and Boulder Creek are the next two upstream, all strung together by Highway 9. Ben Lomond Mountain rises to the west, and the river winds along t ... See Full Page

About Boulder Creek

Keywords: Boulder Creek Museum, Valley Head, Redwood Gateway

Boulder Creek is the head of the San Lorenzo Valley, about fifteen miles inland from Santa Cruz, where its namesake stream joins the San Lorenzo River. Highway 9 climbs the valley to reach it, and Brookdale and Ben Lomond are the next two towns back down the road. Two small settlements, Lorenzo to ... See Full Page

About Mount Hermon

Keywords: Mount Hermon Conference, Tuxedo Junction, Redwood Conference Grounds

Mount Hermon sits about seven miles outside Santa Cruz in the mountains, a small community that grew around a Christian conference center. Felton lies just downhill and Scotts Valley, the nearest larger town, sits to the east. The camp took shape in the early 1900s beside a railroad junction, and t ... See Full Page

About Pleasure Point

Keywords: Santa Cruz Eastside, Live Oak Coast, Pleasure Point Cafes

Pleasure Point is the east-side stretch of Santa Cruz, running along the north shore of Monterey Bay between the Twin Lakes beaches and the edge of Capitola. It belongs to the Live Oak area, and its identity is built around surf, bluffs and a short chain of coves. The area breaks into two neighborh ... See Full Page

About Scotts Valley

Keywords: Highway 17 Corridor, Kings Village Center, Santa Cruz Mountains

Scotts Valley is the small city at the top of Highway 17, where the Santa Cruz Mountains flatten into a bowl of valley floor. Santa Cruz is about six miles south and San Jose roughly thirty to the north. The place began as a stagecoach stop between those two towns and takes its name from Hiram Scott ... See Full Page

About Felton

Keywords: San Lorenzo Valley, Roaring Camp Trains, Valley Hub

Felton is the crossroads of the lower San Lorenzo Valley, where Highway 9 meets the roads to Scotts Valley and over Graham Hill. It is the first place in the canyon that feels like a town instead of a string of forest lots, and neighbors from Lompico, Mount Hermon and the upper valley come down to i ... See Full Page

About Bonny Doon

Keywords: Santa Cruz Sandhills, Bonny Doon Reserve, Mountain Coast

Bonny Doon is the mountain district between the city of Santa Cruz and the Pacific, a rural stretch that climbs from coastal grassland to redwood ridges. Highway 1 runs along its western edge, and on days when the fog stays low the ocean is visible from the high ground. The landscape changes quickl ... See Full Page

About Brookdale

Keywords: Loganberry History, Brook Room, San Lorenzo Valley

Brookdale sits in a bend of the valley, with Ben Lomond on one side and Boulder Creek on the other and Highway 9 as its only through road. The place started as a campground. Judge James Harvey Logan, better known for creating the loganberry, turned a lumber-mill site into a creekside campground reso ... See Full Page

About Day Valley

Keywords: Corralitos Wine Trail, Rural Hill Country, Santa Cruz Mountains

Day Valley is rural high ground in the Santa Cruz Mountains behind Aptos, with Corralitos at its edge and a 95003 ZIP code. Houseberry has one neighborhood for the area, so the page treats the whole valley as a single rural district. Instead of subdivisions, the pattern is long driveways, orchards, ... See Full Page

About Lompico

Keywords: Loch Lomond Reservoir, Quail Hollow Ranch, Santa Cruz Mountains

Lompico lies in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Felton, Ben Lomond and Scotts Valley, a hillside community of ridges and creek canyons that began in 1927 as a collection of summer cabins. Forest dominates the view. Redwoods, madrone and oak cover the slopes, and the creek that runs through the are ... See Full Page

About Rio del Mar

Keywords: Aptos Beach Village, Esplanade Dining, Monterey Bay Coast

Rio del Mar is a coastal village in southern Santa Cruz County, part of the Aptos area on Monterey Bay between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. Highway 1 runs just inland, and the village sits between the beach and the redwood hills behind it. The city divides into two neighborhoods with different chara ... See Full Page

About Seacliff

Keywords: Aptos Village Shops, Seacliff Beach Access, Cabrillo College Area

Seacliff is the northern end of unincorporated Aptos, a string of beach towns that also includes Aptos Village, Cabrillo, Seascape and Rio Del Mar. The shoreline faces Monterey Bay, with the Santa Cruz Mountains rising behind it. Seacliff's neighborhood and city boundaries cover the same land, so t ... See Full Page

About Corralitos

Keywords: Wine Trail, Corralitos Creek, Pajaro Valley

Corralitos sits where the Santa Cruz foothills meet the Pajaro Valley farm belt, a few miles inland, along the creek that gave both the community and the old rancho their name. Orchards, vineyards and one famous sausage counter are what put it on the map. The wine trail is its best-known draw. Eigh ... See Full Page

About Soquel

Keywords: Soquel Drive Corridor, Cummings Park Soquel, Nisene Marks Access

Soquel sits on the north shore of Monterey Bay between Capitola and the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with a creek of the same name running through it. Locals say it so-KELL. It is an unincorporated community, not a city, and it was first settled in the 1850s. Houseberry covers the communi ... See Full Page

About Twin Lakes

Keywords: Santa Cruz Harbor, Waterfront Dining, Sunny Cove Beach

Twin Lakes is the harborside strip of the Santa Cruz County coast, with Seabright on one side and Live Oak on the other. Santa Cruz Harbor was built in the early 1960s on an old lagoon, and the whole district still organizes itself around boats, docks and the beach beyond them. Because Houseberry m ... See Full Page

About Aptos

Keywords: Aptos Coast Redwoods, Cabrillo College Town, Monterey Bay Beaches

Aptos is an unincorporated coastal community in mid-county Santa Cruz, set between Capitola and Watsonville with Highway 1 as its spine. The land climbs from cliffside beaches on Monterey Bay up into redwood canyons, so surf, a college campus and a state forest all sit within a few miles of each oth ... See Full Page

About Capitola

Keywords: Oldest Beach Resort, 41st Avenue Shopping, Soquel Creek Mouth

Capitola sits where Soquel Creek empties into Monterey Bay, a few miles east of Santa Cruz and just west of Aptos. It is one of the smallest cities on this coast, and almost everything people picture when they hear the name happens in a few creekside blocks. Houseberry maps the whole city as a sing ... See Full Page

About La Selva Beach

Keywords: Sunset State Beach, Pajaro Valley Edge, Seascape Bluff Parks

La Selva Beach sits at the southern end of the Santa Cruz County coast, where Monterey Bay curves toward Watsonville and the farm fields of the Pajaro Valley begin. Seascape is the next community north and Watsonville lies south, so the area works as a quiet pocket between the bigger Aptos and Watso ... See Full Page

About Live Oak

Keywords: Live Oak Shoreline, East Cliff Drive, Moran Lake Park

Live Oak is an unincorporated suburban area on Monterey Bay, between the city of Santa Cruz to the west and Capitola to the east. It has no formal downtown, and the area shares its 95062 ZIP code with Pleasure Point and Opal Cliffs. The name comes from the evergreen oaks that dot the landscape. Pou ... See Full Page

About Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley

Keywords: Foothills Acreage, Corralitos Crossroads, Pajaro Valley Farmland

Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley is the rural, inland side of mid-county Santa Cruz, a stretch of ridgelines, orchards and farm lanes between Aptos and Watsonville. Freedom Boulevard threads through it, and the little crossroads of Corralitos sits right alongside. Houseberry splits the area into two neighb ... See Full Page

About Freedom

Keywords: Whiskey Hill, Watsonville Wetlands, Monterey Bay

Freedom is one of the small Santa Cruz County communities that wrap around the city next door, close enough to its edge that most visitors never notice where one stops. It sits in the lower Pajaro Valley, a short drive inland from Monterey Bay, and it carries one of the more unusual place names in t ... See Full Page

About Amesti

Keywords: Rancho Los Corralitos, Green Valley Road, Santa Cruz County

Amesti is a small stretch of Santa Cruz County ranch land between Watsonville and the Corralitos hills, and its name honors Jose Amesti, grantee of the old Rancho Los Corralitos. The older roads and a few big parcels still follow the shape of that land, and Green Valley Road is the main line through ... See Full Page

About Interlaken

Keywords: Five Lakes, Lake Tynan, Pajaro Valley Farmland

Interlaken means between the lakes, and in Santa Cruz County the name fits an area with Pinto Lake on one side and Lake Tynan on the other. It covers about ten square miles of the Pajaro Valley, which makes it large for such a thinly settled place, and it sits on the edge of Watsonville. Most of th ... See Full Page

About Watsonville

Keywords: Pajaro Valley, Strawberry Festival, Pinto Lake

Watsonville anchors the Pajaro Valley at the south end of Santa Cruz County, where flat farmland opens toward Monterey Bay. Santa Cruz is the larger city up the coast, and Salinas and Monterey lie the other way. The valley's farm economy is the reason the town exists, and it still sets the rhythm of ... See Full Page