How far is Santa Cruz from San Jose? Here's the quick answer if you make this quick drive without any stops. Of course, traffic is going to make a big difference so make sure you check that before leaving.
Nonstop drive: 32 miles or 51 km
Driving time: 38 minutes
Even on a short drive, it might be more interesting to stop along the way and explore the local area. You can scroll down to see the calculation if you drive with stops.
Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between San Jose, California and Santa Cruz, California. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.
Flight distance: 26 miles or 42 km
Flight time: 8 minutes
The straight line flight distance is 6 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.2x of the flight distance.
Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/3th of the time it would take to drive.
This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination.
Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Santa Cruz, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.
Road trip: 1 day of driving
With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.
Travel time: 59 minutes on the road
Itinerary
Start in San Jose.
Drive for about 12 minutes, then stop in Campbell and stay for about 1 hour.
Next, drive for another 9 minutes then stop in Los Gatos and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 8 minutes then stop at Lexington Reservoir and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 19 minutes then stop in Scotts Valley and stay for 1 hour.
Finally, drive for about 11 minutes and arrive in Santa Cruz.
To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:
Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Santa Cruz, California. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Santa Cruz. A great place to eat might be Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Santa Cruz like Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Santa Cruz like Activities during reunion in santa cruz. Click the button below to explore Santa Cruz in detail.
The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Santa Cruz to San Jose, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.
If you happen to know San Jose, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about San Jose!