My wife and I will be spending about a week in Los Angeles in mid-June. I have always wanted to visit Santa Catalina Island. We don’t plan to spend the night, just a day trip. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has been there. How did you get there? How did you get around once you got there? What would you recommend that we see and do? What am I forgetting to ask? Thanks.
Been there twice. First time by ferry, second time it was a stop on a cruise ship.
Once there, you walk, or rent a bike or a Mook (cheap-ass overgrown golfcart).
Really not much to do if you don’t like shopping in tacky tourist trap crap stores or overpriced art galleries.
Not a big fan of Catalina.
I’ve been to Catalina once, about ten years ago. I went because I wanted to go camping alone for a few days and it seemed like the most remote place I could easily get to from San Diego. (As it was, it took me about 10 hours to get from my home in Chula Vista to the campground outside Avalon, just under 100 miles away.)
Unless you want to take a prohibitively expensive flight on a tiny-ass plane to its airport so tiny it would make people used to landing on aircraft carriers cringe, you’ll be catching a boat. The boats depart, as I recall, from Dana Point and Long Beach a couple times a day, and it’s about an hour’s sail to get there. You’ll probably be landing in Avalon, the bigger of the two towns on the island, with about 3,000 people and about a square mile in area. (The other is Two Harbors, on the other side of the island and about 200 strong; I didn’t go there and thus have no firsthand knowledge of it.) Within Avalon, you’ll be getting around on foot; there’s no public transit or taxi service within the city, and very few cars whatsoever aside from those owned by the government (many of the locals drive golf carts.) There’s a Ralph’s on one end of town and a Ralph’s-branded convenience store on the other end, a KFC, a single-screen movie theater, a couple hotels, some boutiques, and not a whole lot else. The beach is a really nice place to lay back and relax. I’d recommend buying anything you think you might need before you head to the island; goods are prohibitively expensive there, presumably for the same reasons that everything is expensive in Alaska and Hawaii.
If you do want to venture into the countryside, you’ll have to book a reservation on a bus that goes back and forth between Avalon and Two Harbors a couple times a day (the dirt roads connecting them aren’t open to the public) and makes stops near the airport and some of the public campgrounds. Be advised that Catalina is home to one of the herds of wild buffalo left in America (descended from animals left on the island after a film shoot in the '20s) and it is best to stay as far away from those animals as possible, as there are no emergency medical services on the island and there probably isn’t any cell phone coverage in the wilderness either. An interesting side note I discovered during my visit; if you have a portable radio on you, you’ll only be able to get LA stations while in Avalon, but once you make it into the highlands you’ll only be able to get San Diego stations.
I enjoyed my stay there, although I cut it a few days short because I was going stir-crazy hanging out in the woods with no company but myself and the LA County Sheriff’s Deputy driving by the campground every couple hours. It’s a nice place to visit if what you’re looking for is quiet and relaxation, but I wouldn’t recommend living there unless you’re hideously wealthy and/or a shut-in.
Good advice and tips so far!
Years ago, for my SO’s birthday, I thought it would be fun to book a room in a B&B on the island.
Took the fast shuttle (costs a bit more, but gets you there in about half the time as the regular shuttle boat) and we rented the golf cart and rode around, took a submarine (sort of) trip to see the fish, and walked the (very) touristy crap shops. We even played a round of mini-golf.
Then the day trippers left on the last boat.
I thought it would be fun then, considering we were staying the night on the island!
Wrong.
They might as well have rolled up the sidewalks.
Everything closed at about 10:00pm, and I do mean EVERYTHING.
This was a Friday night!
Geez - the Amish have a wilder nightlife than the people on Catalina Island.
All in all, a so-so trip…just like any other tourit trap on the coast facing Catalina, exept now you were in a tourist trap facing the California coast and you couldn’t get in a car and escape.
Go with low expectations and you won’t be disappointed.
Been there once, by seaplane. The ride was fun and the island was interesting. We bumped into Burl Ives and chatted with him. This was 44 years ago, so I am not sure if he’ll still be there. Actually I’m not even sure if he’s alive.
Just in care you’re interested in reading stories about Catalina, see if you can find the book The Porpoise Watcher by Kenneth Norris in your library. He tells of all his life-long adventures as a studier of marine mammals.
One of his adventures was being directly involved in the development of Marineland of the Pacific in Palos Verdes, Ca., including his expedition to Catalina to collect fish, marine mammals, and perhaps other wildlife for the new venture.
Nothing to do with your up-coming visit, but it’s a fun read, along with the rest of the book too.
26 miles across the sea,
Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me…
About eight years ago, I got to go to Fox Station on Santa Catalina as the teacher chaperone for my school’s entire eighth grade class (all 35 of them). We were there for five days and four nights.
You want nature? You want peace and quiet? You want the chance to see seals basking, the opportunity to swim in the cold, clear California current? How about time to draw/paint/journal/bird watch/star gaze/hike/any other old thing? This is your place. You want entertainment? Not so much. You’ll probably die of boredom.
I loved it, even with the vicious sunburn I picked up on Day Three.
Catalina Express leaves out of Long Beach, cruises at 25 knots thereabouts, you will be there in an hour or so, plan accordingly for your exit.
There are some good eateries along the marina, you have access to the public beach on the other side of the Casino. You can rent a mook or a bike for moving about or walk it, lots of ups and downs.
Its has been a few years since I have been on the Island but Luau Larry’s for a couple Buffalo Milk drinks will get you started.
check the web for the touristy stuff. Good word on the submarine that visits the preserve and feeds the local fish, some big Calico and our state fish, the Garibaldi.
If you like to fish you could probably charter a small rig to take you out for yellowtail, sea bass or bass.
CIMI, Catalina Island Marine Int. is on the Island but not sure if you can gain access, be worth it if you can get there.
Kayak rentals are available where you can skirt around Avalon and pull into a vacant shoreline for some relaxation.
Although it is a large Island, Avalon is the hub and all activities start and end there.
I’ve been there several times although the last time was about 20 years ago.
There is a nice museum in the Casino and the glass bottom boat excursion
is interesting. Avalon is small enough that you don’t need a car to get
around town. It’s a nice place to relax for a day or two.
Thanks to all for the info and opinions.
Isn’t Catalina Island the home or destination for literally hundreds of Great White sharks? I’d be terrified to immerse much more than my big toe in those waters.
Great whites are found all along the California coast, but I don’t think Catalina is known to be a hot spot for them. The one place that I have read about that is a hangout for a large group of great whites is the Farallon Islands near San Francisco.
I’ve been to Catalina twice, probably 20-25 years ago. It seems like the sort of place that wouldn’t change a whole lot over time. We had a great time but the focus of our trip was camping, scuba diving off of Casino Point, and hiking in the hills. I remember also thinking that the Wrigley Botanical Garden was cool. It was just a little further up the road from the campground.
Oddly enough I stumbled upon the last third or so of a documentary about Catalina over this past weekend on PBS. The part of the documentary I saw was mostly about the music scene back in the day at the casino. All the big names used to play out there and tons of folks would go out to party. The documentary seemed dated to the 90’s and there was some talk about an attempt to revive shows out there to some extent.
I went to Catalina once-we dove off the Avalon Harbor-water was crystal clear-colors almost tropical. No wet suit though-kind of chilly. Great seafood, but i agree, very little to do at night. Its basically an “old money” place-nothing for the middle class there.
Wasn’t there a proposal to allow gambling in the casino again?
I just read something that said several of the other Channel Islands are open for day trips and camping. I’m anxious to try that, since I remember all those islands being off limits, and I’ve spent most of my life within sight of them.
I haven’t been to Catalina in a really long time, but I used to enjoy the flying fish tour, the glass-bottomed boat tour, the inland tour, and just walking around Avalon to see the taffy machine, the Casino, and the big marlins that sports fishers would display on the pier. I don’t know how much of that exists nowadays.
@lieu – the threat of any kind of shark attack around Catalina, especially in Avalon Harbor, is essentially nil. A quick Google search only turned up a couple of incidents in the past decade, not in the harbor, and neither resulting in injuries.
Yes, as a non-Californian I was mistaking it for programming I’ve seen about the Farallons. I googled too and see that “White sharks are known to frequent the remote backside of the island (Catalina), but sightings on the populated front side are extremely rare.”
Heal the Bay says Avalon Harbor Beach is the most polluted beach in California in 2013, topping that list for the fourth time in the past 5 years. A leaky sewer system is to blame. Might not want to bother packing your swimsuits.