SANTA CRUZ, CA HOTELS - MOTELS - GREEN SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA LODGING

Santa Cruz is the largest city of Santa Cruz County. Santa Cruz is known for its moderate climate, natural beauty, brilliant educational institutions, and socially liberal leanings. Santa Cruz has become widely popular for its peaceful beaches and coastal redwood forests. According to the 2006 census, there is a total population of 54,778 living in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz has mild weather throughout the year. The city is characterized by a Mediterranean climate. Winters are cool and wet while summers are mostly warm and dry. Fog and low overcast is a common feature during the night and morning hours. Santa Cruz is the ideal beach town. Surfing is a common recreation in the city. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is filled with laughter and music and consists of the last remaining seaside amusement park of the West Coast.

A few blocks from the beach fun is Santa Cruz's newly renovated downtown. Downtown Santa Cruz is filled with shops and galleries, outdoor bistros, and sidewalk musicians. Santa Cruz's downtown area consists of a segment of Pacific Avenue. This area is known for shopping in locally-owned businesses and is the city's cultural center and main attraction. Within downtown there are also several book stores and independent movie theaters. The atmosphere is generally peaceful and relaxed.

The Lighthouse Field State Beach, Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park, Twin Lakes State Beach, and Seabright State Beach are several of the state parks and beaches that call Santa Cruz “home”. Pogonip is a city-run park which includes second-growth redwoods and meadows as well as several streams, and is crossed by several hiking trails. The park was named after the Shoshone Native American word pogonip meaning "cloud”.

Santa Cruz has 38 hotels listed in the iStayGreen directory of which 4 are listed as environmentally friendly lodging. Currently 2 hotels have completed the online Environmental Audit and earned the Green Eco-Leaf Rating while the other 2 properties are purported to be "Green" but have not yet shared their eco-initiatives with iStayGreen.org.

In Santa Cruz there are 34 properties where the environmentally friendliness is unknown and they have not yet verified their sustainability efforts with iStayGreen.org. In the state of California there is a total of 3965 lodging properties listed in the iStayGreen.org directory of which 425 are represented as eco-friendly. Currently there are 177 lodging properties that have earned the Green Eco-Leaf Rating. Included in the properties working toward a more sustainable travel future are Santa Cruz hotels, Santa Cruz resorts, Santa Cruz bed & breakfasts, and Santa Cruz extended stay accommodations.

When planning your Santa Cruz vacation, or travel to Santa Cruz we encourage you, before you book, to check rates and availability of "Green" rated hotels and lodging. In most cases we have found eco-friendly Santa Cruz CA accommodations to be price competitive with the unrated Santa Cruz hotel room rates.You may even save money and at the same time be doing something good for our environment!

Click here to view all environmentally friendly lodging in Santa Cruz