From Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
It’s been nearly twenty years since I first moved to San Diego and yet I still continue to travel around SoCal as a tourist, discovering new beach towns and communities to explore with friends and family.
My husband and I decided to take a quick trip over my birthday weekend since his parents were coming to town – two of the best babysitters we have who live way too far away. I booked a trip to Catalina Island which started with a quick search in the Groupon GetawaysImage may be NSFW.
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app that I love to browse through. Almost daily, I check out the gorgeous landscape photography shared on their app under the travel category and fantasize about being able to pick any destination in the world for our next getaway.
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Catalina Island seemed like the perfect place to go for an overnight staycation. It’s not too far, yet it’s a small beach town that doesn’t require you to rent a car or spend too much on transportation, although I was a bit surprised at the cost of the ferry ride to and from the island.
My son suggested we take a helicopter over to Catalina, which only confirms the drastically different lifestyle he leads when he travels with his father. Anyways, if your budget allows for a 15-minute helicopter ride, I’d definitely look into that one since you will get a spectacular experience flying over the island and seeing the aerial view you can’t really get otherwise.
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Since we drove up from San Diego, we booked the Catalina Flyer from Newport Beach and it was super chill and easy to get in and out of there, even on the weekend. There are a few other locations you can hop on the ferry, depending on where in Orange County or LA County you’re closest to. The fact that there were barf bags on each table on the main floor of the cabin made me a little nervous, but I took a few Dramamine before we left and it was fine.
As soon as we got close to the island on the ferry, which took a little over an hour to get us there, I stood up to take some pictures and to see the entire (no, really) city from a distance. It was easy to see how one could walk the entire city of Avalon in one day since it’s probably one mile long and the residential areas were built up on the hills so you might not ever want or need to explore there, although I definitely loved walking the side streets and getting a glimpse at the local, island life of the neighborhoods.
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What surprised me the most was how clean the city was. No litter on the ground and the water was super clear. It was obvious that those on the island took great pride in keeping it that way.
We walked up the main street until we found the signs that pointed to where our hotel was. The great thing about the small city is that you each side street had directional signs that called out the hotels and restaurants on the street so we could easily find where we needed to go.
We stayed at this pink palace (my nickname for the Hotel St. Lauren) up on the hill. It was a large house (small boutique hotel) built along the steep road and probably one of the hotels farthest away from the main drag. It meant a bit of a hike uphill to get there, but it also had the most amazing view from the sixth-floor balcony.
From the balcony, we caught a glimpse of the Golf Gardens mini golf course smack dab in the middle of the city, just across the street from the local library. We went there and enjoyed a fun and slightly competitive mini golf experience in a unique and somewhat challenging course. We also got to pet some of the stray cats that live on the island, and apparently, at the golf course itself. A few cats walked across the greens to get to us while we were playing and even fell asleep on the sidewalk next to us.
There were, of course, way too many restaurants to choose from on the island, most right along the water, or at least with an ocean view. We found a few great places tucked along the side streets, including Original Jack’s Country Kitchen for breakfast and Ning’s Chinese Garden for a great late night dinner after a few too many drinks at Catalina Cantina.
Actually, it was one big drink that I ordered at Catalina Cantina. I ordered the Margarita Bowl, which was served in a 23-ounce soup bowl. We also ordered the boneless, skinless chicken wings which were super tasty and reminded me of my Grandmother’s marinated chicken since it had some Mexican spices which enhanced the flavor.
The bartender there was great and gave us the scoop on the local hangouts and what camping was like on the other side of the island in Two Harbors. We definitely want to make another trip to experience that side of Catalina someday.
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If it’s beach life you’re interested in, you’ll want to check out the Descanso Beach Club located at the very North end of Avalon. You will feel far away from the busy, touristy parts of the island if you stay over there. As soon as I saw the beach cabanas on the sand, I wanted to take a nap in the sun the rest of the day. It’s so quiet and peaceful down there, and you may even catch a glimpse of a seal or dolphin splashing in the distance.
We spent only one night there but planned our travel to enjoy almost two full days on the island. I think it was just long enough for us to experience everything without having to rent a golf cart or bike. I took a morning walk up the steep set of stairs along the cliff and to the top of the mountain and back down along the backside past the Zipline area. It was amazing to see the view from the top and to see the tiny little city that had such a fun vibe and friendly locals who we got to mingle with for a day.
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If you ever get a chance to get to Catalina Island, I highly recommend you get there early and enjoy the quiet mornings before the first tourist ferry gets dropped off for the day. It’s a fun place to people watch, that’s for sure.
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