J1 to Santa cruz or other slightly alternative places in California/west coast

nomurmur

Hi guys,

Myself and a few friends are planning going on doing a J1 this summer.were quite set on the West coast however we feel it may be best to avoid the more well known J1 spots such as San Fran, San Diego, Huntington beach,Santa Monica etc. as we heard many horror stories about finding a job which is somthing we need to avoid.

In our brief search we have stumbled across Santa Cruz. Place has nice weather, is touristy and has a board walk (should make finding a job easier) and it just seems like a cool hip place! However its quite a small place compare to the j1 hotspots and we are worried it may be too laid back for a j1 and lacking in night-life. Whilst were not looking for a place flooded with Irish it would be nice to have a bit of a crew also!

Has anyone been Santa Cruz before on a J1 who might have a bit of advice/info on the place?

Also would anyone have any other places to recommended that fit the description above?!

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!!

iusedtoknow

Santa Cruz is a college town, and is the beach town for San Francisco/Silicon Valley. There is a lot going on, even in the summer.

I have a few friends down there that are "year round" residents so have seen it at various different points. In summer the mornings can be foggy, but it usually burns off.

There are a lot of festivals (music/theater etc) in the summer. So you're bound to be able to pick up some work.

It's an great drive up highway 1 to San Francisco, or if you feel like a few trips Monterey is just 40 minutes away, and LA is around 6 hours away via the coast road (Which is A LOT of fun)

Couple of words of caution though.
1. It is a bit out on the limb if you don't have a car. There is no easy way to get san francisco (40 miniute/1 hour bus to san jose dideron station then 1.5 hour train ride to San Francisco). That road can get jammed by the nightly accidents during rush hour as it is over a mountain

2. It's equally expensive as SF for rents etc. It's a small town that has no room to expand, so rents etc can be a bit of shock

Dave1442397

If I were looking for an amazingly scenic spot with plenty of summer jobs and nightlife, I'd head to Lake Tahoe (easy drive from Reno, longer drive from San Fran).

There are busy spots like South Lake Tahoe, where the casinos are, with plenty of nightlife. There are all sorts of outdoor places where you can work, such as horse ranches, boating companies, the ski resorts (open for mountain biking in the summer) etc.

The only drawback is that you might like to have a car to get around. If you stick to South Lake Tahoe and get a job at a casino or maybe the Heavenly ski resort you could get around on foot, or bicycle.

Here's what Heavenly has right now (mostly winter stuff, of course) https://career8.successfactors.com/career?company=Vail&career_ns=job_listing_summary&navBarLevel=JOB_SEARCH&_s.crb=7KzsGN8msv3TwuY%2b7C3Hlld6xng%3d

iusedtoknow

[QUOTE=Dave1442397;93388360
The only drawback is that you might like to have a car to get around. If you stick to South Lake Tahoe and get a job at a casino or maybe the Heavenly ski resort you could get around on foot, or bicycle.

Here's what Heavenly has right now (mostly winter stuff, of course) https://career8.successfactors.com/career?company=Vail&career_ns=job_listing_summary&navBarLevel=JOB_SEARCH&_s.crb=7KzsGN8msv3TwuY%2b7C3Hlld6xng%3d[/QUOTE]

The other drawback is that South Lake Tahoe is pretty quiet when it comes to nightlife in the summer, a couple of bars here and there but nothing "savage".

It is beautiful though - i love it at any time of year (was supposed to be going tomorrow for the weekend, but there is a massive storm front coming through california that is going to give 4 inches of rain in SF and cause blizzards in the Sierras.

InTheTrees

I lived in Santa Cruz for 10+ years.

If you can get a job there I'd say its a perfect spot to spend the summer, its a really fun place. It has a reputation for being laid back and beachy. In the summer, its full of tourists driving highway one bwtween SF and LA, and also students, surfers and high tech workers from the valley. Its an interesting place. There's also a major Marine institute. Also a huge surfing community. It's one of the stops on the world surfing circuit.

The only possible downside could be the accommodation expenses, and possibly having to compete with students from SCSC (University of California Santa Cruz) for summer jobs.

As Iusedtoknow said, its a college town and also the main beach town for silicon valley. Its on the north side of Monterey Bay, facing south with the mountains behind and so has a much more southern california climate because its so sheltered. The only thing that keeps it from being over developed is the Santa Cruz Mountains which means a lengthy mountain drive (highway 17) to commute to the urban sprawl of Silicon Valley (although I drove it daily for many years).

There is fog in the summer but its very predictable and also very localized. Santa Cruz is a town and also a County and so you'll hear about parts of southern SC County (La Selva Beach, Aptos) that get fog almost every day all summer but the City Of Santa Cruz usually only gets it in the morning.

Natures Air conditioning, its pretty nice. You rarely get those stiffling hot nights.

InTheTrees

Tahoe is amazing. Beautiful scenery. South Lake Tahoe is an unusual town though, ,one half of it is in California and its all low rise hotels and ski resorts and the other half of the town is in Nevada with high rise casinos.

For a summer job though i'd rather be beside the beach than in the mountains, beautiful though they are. You should certainly rent a car and drive up there while you're in Santa Cruz!

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9591897,-119.9420643,3a,75y,107.31h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sTcwck2U-xXrmHOGzmUGTTw!2e0?hl=en

InTheTrees

Another west cost alternative could be Seattle?

More of a city though and no beaches. Beautiful summer climate though. Incredible scenery and surroundings and a short way to Canada.

nomurmur

hi guys thanks for all the replies, lake Tahoe and Seatle seem like great places but were really set on being located by the beach!

from what I'm hearing the general consensus is that Santa Cruz is a great place for young people which is perfect for us-were all around 22 but from what were hearing the price of living is be quite expensive, particularly regarding accommodation. is it doable?! ( note were quite happy to live on the cheap, eat in and have a few people extra sleeping in a room, were not fussy!)

also just wondering what the level of surfing is like, if consider myself somewhere between beginner and intermediate and nothing more! does it cater for that level?

C.D.

nomurmur wrote: »

hi guys thanks for all the replies, lake Tahoe and Seatle seem like great places but were really set on being located by the beach!

Tahoe has sand beaches. The lake is enormous, the water clear and the weather good enough that I'd take it over a Pacific ocean beach. If you do a google search for Tahoe beaches you'll see there are plenty of them.

InTheTrees

nomurmur wrote: »

also just wondering what the level of surfing is like, if consider myself somewhere between beginner and intermediate and nothing more! does it cater for that level?

Oh yes. There's many surf schools so I expect certain spots are easy. Its really famous for its surfing so I'm sure every level is catered for. They have special school schedules so kids can go surfing in the early morning before school.

Go to you tube and google "surfing santa cruz".

Dave1442397

They even had surfing in Tahoe today

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=815838928485676&video_source=pages_finch_main_video

nomurmur

Haha I hearv Thebes weather has been quite stormy alright, tshoe sounds great but we are all but set on santa Cruz for some reason! haha, how would you rate the nightlife there?

Dave1442397

I've only been there during daylight hours, but here are a couple of links with some info.

http://www.visitsantacruzcounty.com/nightlife/

http://www.santacruz.com/nightlife

http://www.yelp.com/c/santa-cruz-ca-us/nightlife

http://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=danceclubs&find_loc=Santa+Cruz%2C+CA

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g33048-s402/Santa-Cruz:California:Nightlife.html

iainconlon12

I was on a j1 in Santa Cruz there over the summer myself. Started the j1 in SF but jobs were hard to come by and rent was ridiculous. Got tipped to move down to Santa Cruz and we did so. The place is beautiful, jobs are easy to come by and rent wasn't nearly as expensive as SF. I was paying about $400/m for a room and shared with 2 other lads. SC is real hippy kind of town with very little Irish too. As for nightlife, there's not a huge one there but there are some great bars and one or 2 clubs.

The boardwalk seem to be hiring like feckers all the way through June and part of July. I worked with a non-profit org (Environment Cali) going from door to door raising money and it worked out great. So yeah, I think jobs there would be grand for ya!
There always seems to be accommodation going there too seeing as all the UCSC students are going home for summer.
There's a lot to do in the town too like going to the boardwalk, sports on the beach, hiking up the mountains and there seems to be little festivals and events on every weekend too. Oh yeah, if you go there, get a bloody bike. You could get one easy for 20-50 dollars and just makes it so much easier to get round the place for the summer.

Anyway, if you're into weird things, hippies and beaches, I'd definitely reccomend this place to you. I had an absolute blast!

nomurmur

iainconlon12 wrote: »

I was on a j1 in Santa Cruz there over the summer myself. Started the j1 in SF but jobs were hard to come by and rent was ridiculous. Got tipped to move down to Santa Cruz and we did so. The place is beautiful, jobs are easy to come by and rent wasn't nearly as expensive as SF. I was paying about $400/m for a room and shared with 2 other lads. SC is real hippy kind of town with very little Irish too. As for nightlife, there's not a huge one there but there are some great bars and one or 2 clubs.

The boardwalk seem to be hiring like feckers all the way through June and part of July. I worked with a non-profit org (Environment Cali) going from door to door raising money and it worked out great. So yeah, I think jobs there would be grand for ya!
There always seems to be accommodation going there too seeing as all the UCSC students are going home for summer.
There's a lot to do in the town too like going to the boardwalk, sports on the beach, hiking up the mountains and there seems to be little festivals and events on every weekend too. Oh yeah, if you go there, get a bloody bike. You could get one easy for 20-50 dollars and just makes it so much easier to get round the place for the summer.

Anyway, if you're into weird things, hippies and beaches, I'd definitely reccomend this place to you. I had an absolute blast!

Hi, thanks for the reply, really helpful! i know im replying late but hopefully you will see this!
can i ask how and where you got accommodation?
We went Chicago a few years ago and found the biggest mistake we made was not trying to get accommodation in advanced with the result being we blew a shed load of cash in the first few weeks.
I see on other treads people recommend staying on West Cliff..wherever that is! as well as that others are recommending sub letting of students in the university for the summer. would you say this might be our best bet or would we be better off looking for accomadation elsewhere-we wanna try get it sorted before we leave!

delighted to hear that about jobs on the boardwalk, main reason were going santa cruz is so we will have a better chance of getting a job, actually iv read there are a few Irish bars in Santa Cruz, would you say we would have a good chance of getting work there considering the lack of Irish compare to other places? thinking it might be worth sending out an email asking if they are hiring for the summer.
thanks again!

Wompa1

Monterey....

BUT I'd say don't go to California at all. If you want alternative on the West Coast, try Oregon. That's a bit of a weird place :pac:

Why not go all the way west and try out Hawaii...it's one of the most amazing places I've ever been to. Move over to O'ahu with a few friends. If you could get jobs in North Shore that would be great. If not, Wakiki is the main touristy part and there's plenty of jobs along there.

Honestly, young Irish people tend to talk about Huntington Beach, Venice Beach, Long Beach etc. like they are these incredible places. They are holes. Los Angeles is one of the crappiest cities in the United States. San Francisco and the outlying areas are nice but it's got a very European feel it, in my opinion. If it was me, I'd go for somewhere less ventured. Hawaii for me!

I haven't gone yet BUT I've heard Colorado is amazing. My next trip is to Utah and hopefully over the next couple of years, I'm going to head up to Montana. If you want to experience the country, don't go to California. That's like going to experience Ireland and never leaving Dublin...

Unfortunately, the other Islands don't have many jobs.

Enigma365

Los Angeles is one of the crappiest cities in the United States.

I actually like Los Angeles and have spent a lot of time there (a few months over the years) but I accept I am in the minority.

InTheTrees

Enigma365 wrote: »

I actually like Los Angeles and have spent a lot of time there (a few months over the years) but I accept I am in the minority.

Me too. Its an amazing city.

iainconlon12

nomurmur wrote: »

Hi, thanks for the reply, really helpful! i know im replying late but hopefully you will see this!
can i ask how and where you got accommodation?
We went Chicago a few years ago and found the biggest mistake we made was not trying to get accommodation in advanced with the result being we blew a shed load of cash in the first few weeks.
I see on other treads people recommend staying on West Cliff..wherever that is! as well as that others are recommending sub letting of students in the university for the summer. would you say this might be our best bet or would we be better off looking for accomadation elsewhere-we wanna try get it sorted before we leave!

delighted to hear that about jobs on the boardwalk, main reason were going santa cruz is so we will have a better chance of getting a job, actually iv read there are a few Irish bars in Santa Cruz, would you say we would have a good chance of getting work there considering the lack of Irish compare to other places? thinking it might be worth sending out an email asking if they are hiring for the summer.
thanks again!

There are only 2 Irish bars in the town and they're not really all that irish haha. The Irish bar thing in the states just seems to be a bit of a gimmick. I'd just say you've got a good chance at a job there mainly due to it being a big tourist kinda town, so there'll be a lot of a seasonal jobs going.

iainconlon12

Wompa1 wrote: »

I'm going to head up to Montana. If you want to experience the country, don't go to California. That's like going to experience Ireland and never leaving Dublin...

Dunno if I'd agree with that at all to be honest. California is about 3 times bigger than Ireland and there's so much to do there and so much different culture to experience. Each to their own though.
I'd love to go to Hawaii all the same :pac:

ClaireC1212

Hi me and my friend are think of going on a J1 to Santa Cruz this summer, so hard to decide where to go? Can anyone recommend places to stay? also its just the 2 of us so will accommodation be very expensive?