We’ve been to plenty of places, seen more breathtaking views than we can remember, but we found paradise in Catalina. Ever since I moved to LA, people have told me about Catalina Island, and how it’s a little gem that I need to explore. They were right. The island is everything you can expect of a pacific island and more.

We booked 11am boat tickets from Catalina Express the night before and drove down to Long Beach the morning after to catch our ride. Boat tickets are expensive ($70 roundtrip), but it’s not bad for a trip to paradise. After 40 minutes on a pretty steady cruise, we arrived at Avalon — the largest port on the island.

First impression of Catalina: palm trees, blue skies, clear waters.

After we stopped by a fish and chips stand at the end of the busy main street of Avalon (which served bomb fish & chips), we continued north towards the opposite direction of the port, along the side of the ocean.

After around a mile, we reached Descanso Beach and found this little stand named “Descanso Beach Ocean Sports.” They provide all sorts of water sports gear for hourly or daily rental. It was around 2pm already so we opted for just the half-day kayak rental which costs $40. Dry bags are offered too for an extra $2, and you’ll be given a map to navigate yourself around the island.

DO NOT WORRY IF YOU HAVE NO EXPERIENCE KAYAKING. It’s not rocket science to learn to paddle on a kayak. Give it a try and you’ll get the hang of it in less than 10 minutes.

Off we went, further into the ocean, and there’s really no words to describe the ungodly beauty that surrounded us. The photos don’t even do it justice.

After an hour or so, we reached a private beach (well, we didn’t know it was a private beach) and dragged our kayaks onto the coast. The owners were nice enough to let us stay for a while and take some photos before we continued our journey.

We paddled a little further afterwards, but spend most of our time just floating on the ocean, watching the waves and soaking in the sunshine. All I could think about at the time was how great life is.

We were all happy until we realized it was 4:30 and that it was time to start heading back. We paddled with everything we had but it turned out we were much further away from the beach than we thought we were. We’ve gone about 3.5 miles around the island, and the sun was about to set. Thankfully, we reached our starting point only 15 minutes late.

On our walk back to Avalon’s main port, the sky turned into a deep blue and began to showcase a variety of magical colors.

We boarded our ride back just as the sun dropped below the horizon, when everything melted into a surrealist painting. If this isn’t paradise, I don’t know what is.

Here are some tips for when you travel to Catalina:

• Book tickets ahead of time!! They sell out pretty quickly!
• Try to carpool and commute to Long Beach in one car, because parking is $17 a day which is pretty damn expensive.
• Give yourself a full day on the island. There are plenty of restaurants on the island. While they are pricey, there are certainly affordable eats; e.g., the fish and chips stand we went to.
• There are quite a few places to kayak on the island. I would recommend the store we opted for rather than the ones closer to the port because there are much less boats floating around.
• Keep track of where you’re going — unless you want to paddle the life out of you when you realize you’ve gone much further away than you had expected.
• Go snorkeling too if you have time. The water’s so clear we could count the fish in the ocean from afar.
• Stay for the sunset. It’s phenomenal.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I would be more than happy to help. Happy exploring!

 

xx

– Vivian