Around Aromas

A field guide to the tri-county corner

Aromas is a small town tucked between the Pajaro Valley and the Gabilan Range, right where Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties meet. Watsonville is about fifteen minutes away, San Juan Bautista twenty, and Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Jose all sit under an hour out. That corner location is the whole point of this site. One tank of gas reaches three counties' worth of concerts, county fairs, trails, tide pools, date-night restaurants and volunteer crews.

The guides are written for people who live around here, in Aromas, Watsonville, San Juan Bautista, Hollister and Prunedale, and for anyone passing through who wants a better answer than a generic top-ten list. Each one takes on a Saturday-sized question: which concert is worth the drive tonight, which fair is on this weekend, where to take someone for a date that feels like more than dinner, what to do with a free afternoon, and where an extra pair of hands is needed.

Every event here links to its venue or organizer and carries the date it was last checked against that source. If something can't be verified, it doesn't get listed. The site rebuilds itself nightly, so expired events drop off on their own instead of lingering for months. There are no ads, no sponsors, and no pay-for-placement, so nothing is recommended because somebody paid for it. The guides are researched and kept up by Ryan Sidor in Aromas. Read more about how the guides stay honest.

Each guide shows the date every listing was last checked, and photo sources are listed on the credits page. Spot something wrong, a closed venue or a moved date? Email hello@aroundaromas.com and it gets fixed.