One Day in Catalina Island

During my summer in California, one of the top places I knew I had to visit was Catalina Island. When my friend Avery planned a weekend to come to visit me, everything immediately fell into place, and we booked our trip to the island. Since she was only here for the weekend, we knew we only had time for a one-day trip, so we planned for Sunday.

If you are only planning to spend one day on Catalina, you need to decide on what type of activities you plan on doing. Since you will not have a hotel to drop your things off, you are stuck carrying all of your items. If you want to do water activities like snorkeling, you need to plan for carrying around extra clothing.

We booked our boat ride through Catalina Express out of the San Pedro port. This port was not the closest to us, but since we booked so last minute, it was our only option. It is recommended that you arrive an hour before your departure time, so this is something to keep in mind when planning around traffic. Of course, we did not make it an hour early and got there for about 30 minutes to spare. We still made it, and it only affected where we sat on the boat (no window seat).

After about an hour's ride to the island, we hopped off and walked to the center of the city. Every corner of this town is picture-perfect, and it can be a little overwhelming with everyone around you.

We took a walk down the pier where there are mainly tourist companies and restaurants. We didn't plan any water activities for our trip since we only had one day and didn't want to pack and carry all of the extras. Next time though, we are definitely hitting the water!

After that, we took a walk to the casino (which is a theater). The only way to get into the building is to book a tour, which averages about $20. We decided it would be best to save our money for something else, but I bet the views are amazing from up there!

For lunch, we ate the cute Café Metropole! They are trendy, health cafe and serve sandwiches, salads, smoothies, and cold-pressed juice. Everything we tried tasted delicious, and I absolutely recommend them.

After lunch, we took pictures at the highly instagramable hotel, Catalina Hotel St Lauren. We both agreed we have to stay here next time! Take the elevator up to the 6th-floor patio for some of the best close-up views of the city.

To get around Catalina, everyone uses golf carts, and unfortunately, you must be 25 or older to rent one. We were on our way to rest some bikes when we discovered you only had to be 18 or older to rent a motorbike. This was a game-changer for us as it allowed us to get around the entire city of Avalon!

Once we were on the bikes, we could see all of the spectacular views Catalina offers. We had a blast on the bikes and laughed the whole time we were on them (cue us struggling to get them started).

We road for about two hours then stopped to get ice cream. There are two popular ice cream shops near the city center, Scoops and Lloyd's. We tried scoops, and neither of us was that impressed (we didn't even get a picture for the 'gram). Next time we'll try Lloyd's!

After our ice cream, we walked around all the shops and enjoyed our time before we boarded our boat. Again, they recommend you arrive an hour early to board, which we did this time (and scored a window seat)!

And that is our day on Catalina Island! The whole time we were completely taken away by all of the beauty Avalon has to offer. Whether you live in California or are visiting, make it a top priority to visit the island! You will not be disappointed!

Lily