New Brighton State Beach

Camped in a site with electric/​water hookups. The campground is beautiful. Lots of tall trees and access to the water. We walked about 3 miles round trip on the beach to the Sea Cliff pier. They have a nice visitors center and you can see a sunken cement ship at the end of the pier. Lots of fun. We will return.

First, 3 stars is NOT bad. It’s ‘A-​OK’, just so folks know as I think way too many people give either 5 stars or 1 star, no in-​between.
We camped ⁵⁄₁₃ and 14, leaving on the 15^th. We stayed in Site 31. There is late afternoon shade coming from the rear of the site. Camp ground was wonderfully green this time of year. Not too wet, not too dry. It was clean and not littered with peanut shells, cigarette butts or dog crap.
The campground was sold out for the weekend, FULL the sign out front said as we pulled on on Friday around 5pm. However, we discovered that only half the bathrooms were unlocked. Each bathroom building has 4 toilets. Only 2 are unlocked for use. I asked one of the staff cleaning a bathroom the next morning about it, they pretended they didn’t speak English. (Please Lord, Let Donald be our next president)
Full up campground and full price, should mean full facilities unless otherwise warned. I should have crapped in front of one of those locked doors and left a note for the management to express my displeasure, but, I didn’t. Grand kids were with me and gramma made me promise to behave.
The beach was nice. My grand kids built a fort out of drift wood and a ranger came by and tore it down. He said it encourages homeless to stay overnight at the beach. Fine, then come by after sunset when the beach is closed for the day and tear down their fort. There was no cause to do it at 11:30am.
Dead seal on the beach. What a stench. No postings about the water, kids unaware that there was a dead seal/​sea lion were swimming right there. I guess they figured the ocean always smelled that bad.
Lots of whales spotted down by the concrete ship and wharf. Pretty cool.
Neighbors were a problem. They would come over along the road with their dog and just stand there so our dogs would bark at theirs. I finally shouted to him to move along and quit harassing my dogs. What is wrong with some people?! He said he wanted to bring his dog to get acquainted with our dog.
But, to get back to the review, the campground was nice this time of year, camp spot most of them I observed were nice and large. Grounds were clean but they are tightwads, who only unlock have the toilets so they don’t have to pay to have all of them cleaned. Not cool on a sold out weekend.
I forgot to add;
Everything on line for the reservation and payment says 2 vehicles are allowed. However, when we arrived, they soaked us for another $ 10 per night for the second vehicle. WTF!!! If a spot is able to hold two vehicles, what’s it to them if I have one or two? To charge $ 10 a night after stating the site reservation is for two vehicles is down right deception.

Always love comin to this Campground! Been camping here since I was a kid! Due to recent damage from flooding some areas have been closed off for safety reasons. Didn’t see a lot about it on the website, was slightly shocked from the lack of language warning you before booking.

Another great trip to new Brighton. Some things to note about the beach. As of March 2016 they did not have any toilets at beach. I suppose the storm damaged them. Also half of day use parking lot is not in use. Huge sink hole. See photos.
The trail from campground is also closed right now.
Again I was reminded how close we are to rode so you can hear traffic noise. We really love this place since you can go to beach. Also find last minute cancellations.
We will be back.

I went camping here with my husband, 7yo and 9yo in September.
–Four stars for the lack of privacy at the camp sites. Also, (I’m assuming) because of the drought the sites were extremely dusty/​dirty. It was hard to keep the dirt out of the tent with kids running around on a super dry campsite.
–Bathrooms were well maintained with toilet paper, etc.
–We were able to have a fire which was nice since at Mt. Diablo we weren’t able to due to the drought.
–The only reason I’d come back is because of the amazing accessibility to the beach. Our site was in the 30s, maybe 38? If I come back I would definitely choose a site closer to the bluff overlooking the ocean. I think these were in the 60s and near the RV sites, but note that they are 10 – 20 $ more than normal sites.

Car camping is so fun! The beach is nice, but there are sand fleas, at least there were when I was there in late October 2015. Not too crowded but enough people around that you feel safe.

We really enjoyed our stay here… we were lucky to get a site across from one of the premium sites and had a gorgeous view of the Pacific. The host was such a nice man, and funny too. The bathrooms were clean and plenty of water.
Only weird thing that happened was… a critter unzipped our cooler bag and ate the contents, so be sure to put EVERYTHING in your vehicle.

I stayed here this past weekend and had a great time. I was in site right next to the hosts and had no problem at all. I was even up late one night with friends and expected a complaint but no one did. one downside is lack of shade, the trees are not as big as Big Sur or Tahoe (last 2 places i camped). The beach was okay, flat so good for paddle boarding. Fire pits on the beach was cool.
I brought my bike and i could bike anywhere and it was fun.
Cant wait to go back, it is just so hard to get reservations!

Dirty beach full of kelp. Not sure why they charge $ 10 to get in when there are no lifeguards and they don’t clean up the beach. Only good part is that they allow dogs. Skip it

Nice views but both times I’ve visited there’s been hundreds of sand fleas EVERYWHERE. Not very relaxing when you have to swat them off every two seconds. I would find another beach.

Beach review #2 (does not include any dog beach reviews. those are totally different)
Déjà vu … No beach visit is complete without feet in water. Managed to stay mostly dry when braving in the low surf. This beach has sand. Clean sand. I didn’t notice any trash or wind blown personal items scattered about. There were only a few people scattered about. This is a camping beach area, as well and perhaps many were packed and gone on this late morning Sunday. Very peaceful.
Pay for parking. We didn’t. Quick stop to see the water and grounds. Slightly more work to get to the water. You can rent a stand-​up paddle boards and kayaks here.
Dog Update: Dogs on leash are allowed on this beach. Since my pup grew up on off-​leash beaches 3 – 4 days a week, I don’t take her to on-​leash beaches. She was well taken care of at home.

Boy did I get lucky ! I needed a place to stay in the area and did a search for camping and beach and there was one only open campsite — #76 at the state campground. I grabbed it and thought that the 50 bucks was a bit pricey for camping but considering most of the hotels are 200 to 300. I said why not. Oh the view — oh my! See picture .We had a very nice spacious site –without anyone encroaching on space except for the raccoon going through my trash. As a matter of fact — it’s seemed like bit of our neighbors were a bit standoffish probably thinking we are some damn hippies! We decided to sleep in the van with the back of the van open to the sea – it was spectacular ! Maybe we are damn hippes. The restroom and shower and sink to wash dishes were across from us which was great. The shower that you can use .25 cents for two minutes or so. Dogs allowed — cool. Thanks to fellow neighbor who kept her lil yippee barker in the RV. There is as store there — didn’t need it. Beach accessible– can’t wait to take the paddle board out sometime. Please note — thieves hit this place up– check out pics. pardon the abrupt sentences– this is a little tiny keyboard.

My friends and I spent the night recently over at Monarch Cove Inn. While checking out the grounds at the Inn, we could see New Brighton State Beach so we decided to walk over to check it out in the late afternoon. Easy little jaunt– we took some little trails and walked along the railroad tracks… just had to watch out for poison oak in parts.
Once we arrived, the beach wasn’t busy or crowded at all. I brought my dog (leashed dogs are allowed) and she had a blast checking out/​smelling the seaweed and playing in the little waves. We didn’t stay very long, didn’t see or check out the campground, but spent enough time at the beach to know we’d all like to return sometime when we return to Capitola.

PRIVACY is a real issue here because first, I reserved campsite #77: People from other campsites sashay their fine selves onto my campsite with no regard and no respect heading towards the bathroom and showers. Secondly, someone actually had the NERVE opening the wooden food cabinet next to my campsite’s picnic table checking if anything is worth taking!
Grrrrr ~(‘* ~ *’)-Augh! I became completely exasperated so, I drove to the Park Ranger Kiosk requesting moving to campsite #27: This campsite wasn’t an improvement due to the incorrigible campers behind me kept trespassing onto my campsite so, they may use the bathrooms and showers! I had a complete melt down inside my gut but, calmly stated to the female campers, «Please don’t enter my campsite as an easement access to your campsite; thank you.»
To my utter dismay, the teenage, female camper retorted, «You don’t have to be SO RUDE!!» Why I outta!!! I reported the campers to the Campground Host and Park Ranger; let’s see who’s going to be rude now! Humpf!
So, overall, reserve campsite #76 which is a premium campsite or any premium campsite: No camper will have the nerve encroaching onto your campsite; however, there’s virtually little or no shade so, bring a 10×10 canopy tent with screen walls should you reserve any campsite from 60 to hike and bike campsites. The other campsites I recommend are the campsites AWAY from campsite #27 because these campsites location are amongst the tall trees where I might add, are larger campsites than the surrounding campsites anywhere via #77 and #27. Did you get that information down? Good!

Camp ground is covered in poison oak. You can hear the freeway from your campsite. The grill for the fire pit falling apart. Campsites are shared — you share the parking pad. You are on top of each other. Not at all what I thought camping would be like at the beach in Santa Cruz/​Capitola.
I can honestly say we wont be back.

As summertime rolls around, downtown Capitola can get SLAMMED! That’s when we found New Brighton Beach!
It’s only about 5 minutes away down Bay, but the atmosphere here is totally different. It’s a small local beach which is perfect for just relaxing without having to deal with a more «tourist» crowd.
$ 10 for parking (good at other state beaches for the day as well) and it’s has that secluded feel. Don’t expect many amentities besides a bathroom as it is a smaller beach.
But if you’re looking for a quiet spot to hang out with friends, NBS does the trick!

«Beggars can’t be choosers,» especially when driving around just outside of Santa Cruz, looking for a campsite on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. If you are planning ahead, go ahead and check out New Brighton State Beach’s campground, but I’d recommend being picky about your campsite.
The «Campground Full» sign was out when we drove up, but we were amazingly lucky and managed to snag a tent site of someone who had just cancelled their reservation. We suspect the previous folks had cancelled for a good reason. Site 8 is kind of the worst. This $ 35 site would probably get 2 or fewer stars.
The problem is primarily the location: it’s right between group camping and the bathrooms, close to the highway, and in a primarily open area with no trees. So zero privacy. Less than zero privacy.
The group campsite across the street was full of noisy tweens on the night we were there. At the nearby bathrooms, they also provided commentary on the state of the plumbing and the amount of toilet paper while we tried to fall asleep. I did have some fun being an anonymous shusher when they were talking loudly and walked too close to our tent.
Luckily, they were only noisy until an hour after quiet hours. After 11pm, we only heard the sound of the highway and a drunk guy quietly trying to play guitar.
Despite the uncool experience, I’d consider coming back. The campground is in a great location. When we drove around the park, many of the other campsites we saw looked amazing. The ones on the outside of the loops had more privacy. But mostly, we’d come back for those premium sites on the bluff overlooking the sea. I’d definitely consider coming back here if I had a pick of one of those campsites!

I just got back from a lovely three day, two night stay at this campsite.
First the pros;
–incredibly cheap! We paid 35 dollars a night which is great
–bathrooms have showers (coin operated) and hot water.
–very clean and family friendly
Cons:
–conflicting information then what is on the website. On the website it says each campsite is allowed to have two cars but when we got there they charged us for every other car minus the first one.
–not much privacy at some of the campsites. It wasn’t a problem during our stay since the campsite wasn’t too full, but I could see it feeling crowded around a holiday or summer months
–big hike down to the beach! That was a workout!
I would 100 percent come here again. It’s super close to town in case you forget anything or want to get dinner at a restaurant etc :)

We loved the campground and Beach at New Brighton State Park. The staff was super friendly, the campsites were clean, and the views were breathtaking. We will definitely be back.

Pay the $ 10 bucks and avoid the chaos at Capitola Beach… seriously.
Spent 4 wonderful hours on Mother’s Day with *beach front property* …yes, we move in! Chairs, Umbrella, Cooler… it was heaven.
Sandcastles were built, kelp was harvested, squeals of delight were heard from the DGD’s as they ran in the surf. I did not get sunburned.
I would go back in a heartbeat… best beach in the Santa Cruz Area!