It’s a week from now that my family and I returned from our trip to Santa Cruz and our stay at Santa Cruz Hostel was the highlight of our trip! Tom was super helpful and accommodating. We arrived at 9:30am, hours before the check-in time, and we were greeted with a warm welcome. We had some snacks that we brought (cheese, deli turkey, etc) and Tom kindly offered us to store our snacks in the communal kitchen fridge and any other luggages we wanted to unload including our wagon with beach toys while we headed out to the pier/main beach/boardwalk. Our private room was comfortable and super clean. It was an easy walk (2 blocks) to the pier, beach, and boardwalk. Street parking was easy to find but would imagine summer months would be harder when residential permits are effective. The cottages are just as described. What a hidden gem! We can’t thank enough Tom for making our stay so warm and wonderful! We are already looking at multiple dates to come back and even as soon as next month too!