{"id":174320,"date":"2026-02-12T01:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/174320\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T01:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:50:09","slug":"californias-first-seaside-resort-town-is-a-colorful-getaway-straight-out-of-a-postcard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/174320\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s First Seaside Resort Town Is A Colorful Getaway Straight Out Of A Postcard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Capitola-Village-CA-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid\" alt=\"Capitola Village in California at sunset.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tyhelfman \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p>    Save<\/p>\n<p>Capitola Village is the adorable beachfront heart of <a href=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/capitola-things-to-do\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/capitola-things-to-do\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_0\" data-category=\"click_internal\">Capitola<\/a>, California, a small community in Santa Cruz County.<\/p>\n<p>The historic town has been an iconic destination on the Monterey Bay for nearly 150 years, famous for its charming row of pastel-colored houses and more Mediterranean-inspired architecture.<\/p>\n<p>Keep reading for a closer look at Capitola Village\u2026<\/p>\n<p> <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-27694 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Capitola-1.jpg\" alt=\"Capitola Wharf\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\"  \/>Sean Barker \/ Unsplash A brief history of Capitola Village <\/p>\n<p>The area around today\u2019s Capitola Village was originally home to the Ohlone people for more than a thousand years before Spanish missions and Mexican land grants began taking over. In the 1800s it became a shipping point called Soquel Landing, but pioneers including Frederick Hihn and Samuel Hall developed the area into a resort town.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCamp Capitola\u201d opened in the 1870s as California\u2019s first seaside resort town, welcoming crowds of visitors thanks to the Santa Cruz-Watsonville railroad. It wasn\u2019t until the 1920s that the Venetian Court was erected, most of whose colorful buildings are still standing today.<\/p>\n<p>While other buildings have been demolished and rebuilt, the basic layout of Capitola Village remains much the same as it was in the 1800s.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19501\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/capitola-2.jpg\" alt=\"People cross a bridge at sunset in Capitola.\" width=\"800\" height=\"451\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Ben Guernsey \/ Unsplash<\/p>\n<p> Things to do in Capitola Village <\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re planning to drive down <a href=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/best-day-trips-sf\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/best-day-trips-sf\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_1\" data-category=\"click_internal\">from San Francisco<\/a>, you can reach Capitola Village in less than an hour and a half. The village itself a compact waterfront area with tons of boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants right on the sand. Some great eateries include Zelda\u2019s, with an all-day menu and great views; and Mr. Toots Coffeehouse, which is tucked up on a second floor with great views of the water.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the village, the Capitola area has plenty more to explore. You could grab a coffee from Verve and head down 41st Avenue to Pleasure Point to watch the surfers, or book a table at the swanky Shadowbrook restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf10 Learn more: <a href=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/capitola-things-to-do\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretsanfrancisco.com\/capitola-things-to-do\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_2\" data-category=\"click_internal\">Read our full guide to Capitola Village for more ideas.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"yhelfman \/ Shutterstock Save Capitola Village is the adorable beachfront heart of Capitola, California, a small community in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-174320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}