Living in Aptos means living in diverse homes.
Aptos is a census-designated community (CDC) and unincorporated town that reaches from the mountains to the sea. Within its borders, there are opportunities to live almost any lifestyle you can imagine. In Aptos, you can live off the grid in a shack built by itinerant loggers a century ago. You can set up shop in a 1960s beach cottage a few blocks from the sand. You can raise horses on acreage. You can look out of your living room and see the ocean.
Aptos is many things, but there is one thing it is not: urban. The locals like it this way. They understand that, should they tire of live blues at the Aptos Street Barbecue or a low-key French dinner at Cafe Sparrow, all of the big city sophistication they need is a short drive away, in Capitola or Santa Cruz.
Aptos is not Capitola or Santa Cruz; it’s quieter and moves more slowly. Instead of gift shops and Michelin star restaurants, its tiny downtown is comprised of small-town businesses in repurposed 19th-century storefronts, historic buildings like the Bayview Hotel, and modest shopping centers where your risk of getting run down by a school-age child on a skateboard is much greater than that of being run down by a car. Aptos Village Park is the center of “the Village.” Its 10 shaded acres are a popular place for daily strolls, weekend picnics, weddings, and every Memorial Day weekend, the Santa Cruz American Music Festival.
Yes, Aptos wears many hats and its residents enjoy a dizzying number of lifestyle options. Head east from the village and you’ll find sprawling equestrian centers, hillside homes, and the natural glory of The Forst of Nisene Marks State Park, lush with second-and third-growth Redwood trees and over 30 miles of hiking trails. Head west and before long you’re descending into Rio Del Mar, an unincorporated beach town with an Aptos mailing address.
With all of this geographic diversity, it’s no surprise that outdoor recreational opportunities in Aptos: surfing at Dolphin/Sumner Beach (known to locals as “Beer Can Beach”), hiking among the Redwoods, horseback riding, golf at the Seascape Golf Club, bicycling, running on the beach, exploring local parks or simply strolling along Aptos Creek. What this town may lack in bright lights/big city perks it more than makes up for with its small town and natural amenities. Nowhere else along the Central Coast will you find a spot that so effortlessly and with such abundance combines beach, small town, and rural cultures.
There was a time when a place like this was not significant when California’s coast was dotted with small, rural towns where housing came in all shapes and sizes, neighbors stopped to chat and horses routinely clopped their way through downtown. Most of those towns are gone now, lost to growth and changing priorities. Somehow, Aptos has continued on, absorbing its share of modernity, subdivision growth, and wealthy newcomers but never sacrificing an ounce of its character. People come to Aptos for this, for the comfortable, slower-paced way of life, for the natural beauty, and for the outdoor opportunities. In Aptos, there’s room for everything.
