Santa Cruz beach camping: every coastal option

New Brighton State Beach in Capitola is the closest state beach campground to Santa Cruz that takes RVs. It sits on a forested bluff above Monterey Bay. Of its 100-plus developed campsites, 11 are hookup sites, numbers 46 through 56, and State Parks says those 11 include electricity only. There is no water hookup and no sewer at any site. Water and a sanitation station are available in the park, and use of the dump station costs $10 on top of the campsite price as of July 2026. The other options near town are in our RV dump stations near Santa Cruz guide. If you come to the park only to dump, you pay a day-use fee plus the dump fee.

The posted maximum is 36 feet for both trailers and campers. That is the ceiling for the park, not a promise about any one site. Individual sites on ReserveCalifornia post shorter limits, so check the length on the specific site you are booking rather than the park page.

Park hours are 8:00 a.m. to sunset. There are restrooms and showers. Check-in is 2:00 p.m. and check-out is noon, quiet hours run 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and generators may be operated only between 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. One RV and up to eight people are allowed per campsite, with a maximum of two extra vehicles. The maximum consecutive stay is seven days, after which you have to be out of the campground for 48 hours, and camping is limited to 30 days.

From April 1 to October 31, State Parks says early arrivals may be charged $10 per parking space occupied, and early-arrival parking is only at the Seacliff upper day-use lot or Manresa Main depending on availability. The campground map notes that hookup sites and premium blufftop sites cost more, without giving the amount. The rate for a specific site shows on ReserveCalifornia when you book.

The park page does not state a camping season, and it does not publish a distance from the campground down to the sand. Call the park at (831) 464-6329 for both. Vehicle day use is $10, and $9 at 62 and over, as of July 2026. That fee is for day visitors and is separate from a campsite.

Sunset State Beach is in Watsonville, about 16 miles south of Santa Cruz off the San Andreas Road exit from Highway 1. It has about 90 family sites and no hookups of any kind. State Parks' visitor brochure describes them as shady, dune-protected family sites without hookups that hold RVs up to 31 feet, and the park page posts the same 31-foot maximum for trailers and campers. With nothing at the site you are on tanks, battery and propane for the whole stay. There are restrooms with showers, plus outdoor showers. Ask the park what water is available in the loops.

Sunset also lists group campsites and hike-and-bike campsites. If the six-month reservation window is already gone, the hike-and-bike sites are worth asking about. Call the park at (831) 763-7063 for current availability.

Sunset's park page does not give a distance from the campground to the sand, and does not mention a dump station either way. Call the park before you count on dumping there. State Parks does not document ocean views at Sunset site by site, and the brochure's own word for the sites is dune-protected, so do not book Sunset expecting a view out the window. The park page does not state a camping season either.

Manresa Uplands is on the bluff, and it takes no RVs. State Parks lists it as tents only, no RVs, mid-May through October. It has over 60 walk-in tent sites, which means you park in a lot and carry your gear to the site. The campground address is 205 Manresa Uplands Road, off San Andreas Road in Watsonville, on the same road as the KOA.

There are restrooms, outdoor showers and drinking water. State Parks describes picnic tables along the top of the bluff with panoramic ocean views. It does not describe the beach access route or the carry distance from the parking lot on its park page, so call the campground at (831) 761-1795 before you book. The day-use beach entrance is a separate address, 1445 San Andreas Road.

New Brighton, Sunset and Manresa Uplands all book through ReserveCalifornia. The public can reserve six months in advance from the current date, each new date opens at 8:00 a.m. Pacific, and reservations can be made at most state parks until two days before arrival, subject to availability. For a summer weekend, plan on booking the morning the date opens.

The cancellation terms changed on July 1, 2026. Cancel seven or more days before the start date and site fees are refunded, minus the $8.25 cancellation fee. Cancel two to six days out and you are charged a penalty of the first night's site fee. Cancel within 48 hours of arrival, or do not show up, and you forfeit all fees paid. Three no-shows in a calendar year means a one-year ban on placing reservations. The $8.25 reservation fee is not refunded either way. A modification also costs $8.25, you get at most two of them, and each has to be made at least 48 hours before the start date. All of that is current as of July 2026.

State Parks does not publish nightly camping rates park by park. Amounts vary with the accommodation type and the amenities at that park, and the rate for a specific site shows on ReserveCalifornia when you book.

No. It has been closed since January 2023.

Seacliff State Beach in Aptos had 63 ocean-front RV sites on fill behind a timber seawall at the edge of the sand, drawing nearly 70,000 visitors a year. It was the only beachfront RV camping in the county. On January 5, 2023 a major wave event destroyed nearly all of the seawall and much of the fill the campground was built on. State Parks' account is that much of the underground utilities were lost to the sea, along with the parking lot pavement.

What comes next is unsettled, and State Parks says two things that do not line up. The Seacliff park page says State Parks is in the planning process for rebuilding the campground. Will Fourt, a planner for the State Parks Santa Cruz District, told Lookout Santa Cruz in January 2026 that they "do not plan to rebuild the RV campground in that location." Replacement locations are under a feasibility study, with New Brighton, Sunset and the upper Seacliff area named as the candidates and public input meetings planned for fall 2026 and 2027. Nothing has been decided, and no replacement campground has been approved. Do not plan a trip around Seacliff reopening.

Campground directories, campsite-photo sites and travel blogs still carry live-looking Seacliff listings with site numbers, hookup counts and rates. The park's own page still posts a 36-foot trailer and 40-foot motorhome maximum, left over from when the campground was open. If you see Seacliff recommended as oceanfront or beachfront RV camping, the listing is stale. State Parks names New Brighton as the closest state campground and the closest tent camping.

No coastal state beach campground in Santa Cruz County has a full-hookup site. New Brighton's 11 hookup sites are electricity only, Sunset has no hookups, and Manresa Uplands is tents only. Seacliff's oceanfront sites were the exception and they are gone. For water, power and sewer at the site near the water, that means a private park or the harbor. Note there are no restrooms on the harbor lot, so the rig has to be self-contained.

Beach RV Pleasure Point is the only RV park in Pleasure Point, on the Santa Cruz East Side. There are sixteen sites, with water, power and sewer at every one. The beach is a nine-minute walk. The Hook and The Point, in the middle of the Pleasure Point surf neighborhood, are a twelve-minute walk, and you can watch surfers from the bluff. Sites fit rigs up to 43 feet, which is longer than any coastal state beach campground in the county accepts. The park is on Portola Drive next to Rodeo Creek, across from Corcoran Lagoon. Capitola is a five-minute drive, the Boardwalk fifteen, the redwoods twenty, Monterey forty-five. The park was established in 1978 and reopened in 2025. It is owner-operated, and there is no gate.

We are not on the sand. There are no tent sites and no cabins here, because the park is RV only, and there is no pool, no clubhouse and no playground. Sites are compact, and rigs over 43 feet do not fit. You can see all sixteen on the sites page, and the park policies cover pets and quiet hours.

The Santa Cruz Harbor RV Park is the other option with full hookups close to the water. The Santa Cruz Port District, a public agency, rents overnight RV spaces in the North Harbor. Each site has sewer, fresh water and 30- and 50-amp electric, the maximum overall length allowed is 42 feet, and the stay limit is seven nights. It takes fully self-contained RVs only, meaning permanent working plumbing and sealed tanks, and there are no tents, no cabins and no pool. Harbor Beach is roughly a mile from the sites. The rate was $75 a night with hookups as of July 2026, booked through Campspot up to six months, or 180 days, ahead. It is a paved RV lot run by a public agency, not a campground.

Farther south, the Santa Cruz / Monterey Bay KOA sits at 1186 San Andreas Road in the La Selva Beach area of Watsonville, near Manresa State Beach. It is open year round with full-hookup RV sites to 50 amp, plus a pool and hot tub, a playground, a pet park, a camp store, laundry, a dump station and a range of cabins. No maximum rig length is published, so call (831) 722-0551 with your length before you book. It is in Watsonville, not Santa Cruz.

There is no campground at the Boardwalk. Main Beach and Cowell Beach are City beaches where camping is not permitted, and Main Beach closes at 10:00 p.m. Seabright, east of the river mouth, is a state beach with no campground. Nothing within walking distance of downtown or the wharf takes an overnight rig or a tent.

The nearest places to sleep in a rig are the harbor's RV lot and our park. From Beach RV Pleasure Point the Boardwalk is a fifteen-minute drive. Everything else is farther out and south on Highway 1: New Brighton in Capitola first, then Sunset, Manresa and the KOA toward Watsonville. If the Boardwalk is the reason for the trip, plan on driving to it from wherever you camp. Note there are no restrooms on the harbor lot, so the rig has to be self-contained.

Beach RV Pleasure Point is RV only, so we have nothing for a tent camper or for anyone who wants a cabin.

For tents, the coastal options are the state beaches. Manresa Uplands is walk-in and tent-only, mid-May through October, on the bluff. Sunset takes tents across its roughly 90 sites, none of which have hookups, and it also lists group and hike-and-bike sites. New Brighton's 100-plus developed sites take tents as well, on the bluff in Capitola. All three go through ReserveCalifornia on the same six-month window.

For cabins, the options are the KOA and two parks inland in Felton, compared alongside the pools and playgrounds in our family campgrounds guide. The KOA on San Andreas Road has camping cabins, deluxe cabins with a full kitchen and private bathroom, Airstreams, glamping cabins and yurts, along with tent sites that have water and electric. Cotillion Gardens RV Park in Felton has five cabins, two of them facing the river, plus 80 RV sites, 55 with full hookups and 25 with electricity and water, four tent sites, and a heated pool and spa open May to October. Santa Cruz Redwoods RV Resort, also in Felton, has full-hookup RV sites plus tent sites and tent pavilions, and its tent area and pavilions are closed December through March.

Neither Felton park is near a beach. Both are inland in the redwoods. Santa Cruz Redwoods RV Resort warns on its own site that Highway 9 north out of Santa Cruz is not a recommended route for RVs and trailers, and points you to the directions on its site. Call either park about the route if you are unsure.

• Rig length limits which parks you can book. Sunset caps at 31 feet, New Brighton's park maximum is 36 feet with many individual sites shorter, the harbor allows 42 feet overall, and our sites fit up to 43 feet. Call the KOA and the Felton parks with your length.
• Full hookups on this coast come from private parks and the harbor. No coastal state beach campground in the county has a water or sewer hookup at the site.
• New Brighton's 11 hookup sites, numbers 46 to 56, are electricity only. Water and a sanitation station are in the park, and using the dump station costs $10 on top of the campsite price as of July 2026. Sunset's park page does not mention a dump station either way, so call (831) 763-7063. Manresa Uplands takes no RVs.
• ReserveCalifornia opens a given arrival date six months ahead at 8:00 a.m. Pacific. You can still book up to two days before arrival if anything is left.
• The cancellation terms changed on July 1, 2026. Seven or more days out, site fees are refunded minus the $8.25 cancellation fee. Two to six days out, you are charged the first night's site fee. Inside 48 hours or a no-show, you forfeit everything paid, and three no-shows in a calendar year is a one-year ban on placing reservations. The $8.25 reservation fee is not refunded.
• A stay without hookups means tanks, battery and propane. At New Brighton, generators may run only between 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., quiet hours are 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., check-in is 2:00 p.m. and check-out is noon, one RV with up to eight people is allowed per site plus a maximum of two extra vehicles, and the maximum consecutive stay is seven days. Ask Sunset for its generator hours.
• From April 1 to October 31, New Brighton says early arrivals may be charged $10 per parking space occupied, with early-arrival parking only at the Seacliff upper day-use lot or Manresa Main.
• State Parks does not publish nightly camping rates park by park. The rate for a specific site shows on ReserveCalifornia when you book, on top of the $8.25 reservation fee. The $10 vehicle day-use fee, $9 at 62 and over as of July 2026, is separate and applies to day visitors.
• Neither the New Brighton nor the Sunset park page states a camping season. For an off-season stay, call the park first: (831) 464-6329 for New Brighton, (831) 763-7063 for Sunset.
• Beach rules differ by beach and by agency along this coast, and so do the dog rules. Dog-friendly Santa Cruz covers which beaches allow dogs and where they can be off leash, and the best time to visit Santa Cruz covers the weather month by month. Summer mornings are usually gray and cool, and some days the fog lifts by afternoon and some days it holds. Pack a jacket even in July.

There are two kinds of coastal option here. A reservation-only bluff-top state beach with a length cap and no sewer, booked six months out, or a private full-hookup park a walk from the water.

Beach RV Pleasure Point has water, power and sewer at all sixteen sites and a nine-minute walk to the beach. Directions and arrival notes are on getting here, and the best beaches in Santa Cruz covers which stretch of sand to head for once you are here.