# Anyone spent vacation time on Catalina Island?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-spent-vacation-time-on-catalina-island/721984>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 8, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-spent-vacation-time-on-catalina-island/721984 "2015-06-08T16:37:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-spent-vacation-time-on-catalina-island/721984/1 "2015-06-08T16:37:20Z")

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I’ve been thinking about a summer trip through southern California, to include stops at Sequoia/King’s Canyon, L.A., and maybe Catalina Island.

What would/did you do for a couple days on Catalina Island? Any good spots - especially hiking/kayaking/snorkeling spots?

Spent a few days on Santa Cruz Island several years ago, but that’s a very different place.

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**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-spent-vacation-time-on-catalina-island/721984/2 "2015-06-08T16:51:45Z")

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My wife and I spent a couple of days there last September. We took a guided bus tour. We rented a golf cart to explore the area surrounding the harbor at Avalon, which was a lot of fun and offered great views. We walked everywhere we could walk within and around Avalon. We took a boat trip to Two Harbors, where we had a great meal. There are guided snorkeling trips and bus tours of the interior mountains, which we did not try. I am not sure what the hking situation is in the interior.

The golf cart rentals were cash-only, which I found peculiar.

We enjoyed our visit.

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**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-spent-vacation-time-on-catalina-island/721984/3 "2015-06-08T18:29:23Z")

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The casino where there is no gambling, the aviary with no birds, the funerary monument where no one is buried…😃

Drink a Catalina Cooler. Go fishing/diving.

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**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-spent-vacation-time-on-catalina-island/721984/4 "2015-06-08T18:40:31Z")

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I went camping on Catalina about ten years ago. It was nice and relaxing, aside from the part where I almost got charged by a wild buffalo when I decided to take a shortcut to the campground.

Avalon is nice - it’s the kind of place where one could retire and live comfortably if they had a nice nest egg and weren’t too worried about being several hours’ commute away from anything exciting.

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**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-spent-vacation-time-on-catalina-island/721984/5 "2015-06-08T21:24:52Z")

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I can’t imagine spending any more than a couple hours there. The sidewalks roll up at sunset.