Catalina Hotel

[mrsswat]

Can anyone recommend a nice hotel on the Island? We'll probably stay 2 nights, getting there in the late afternoon/early evening on a Friday. Can anything decent be had for around $150/night?

 

[pixarmom]

Depends on your circumstances, but we liked Metropole for our family. I'm not sure if that's in price range, but it may be in the off season. And I know you didn't ask about restaurants, but I have to say Luau Larry's is GREAT! The booth by the front window is the best! (If you are traveling with kids, go early in the evening!) Have a great trip - Catalina is a wonderful and special place.

 

[gbatch]

I agree Metropole or any other right on the beach. Get yer wiki waked at larry's

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks all. I was just heading in here to ask the same question. I'll check out the Metropole.

 

[Sherry E]

The Metropole was always kind of on the costly side, even many, many years ago, so I can only imagine it has gone way up in price by now. Also check the Hotel Villa Portofino - that one used to be on par price-wise with the Metropole (don't know what it is now). Some friends stayed there and said it was nice. The thing about the hotels in Catalina is that looks can be deceiving. Because Avalon is a beachfront community, many of the houses, cottages and hotels have that kind of seaside/beach town/weather worn look about them. And some of them are hidden up in the hills. You will see that if you rent a golf cart (which I highly recommend!) and drive around the town and up in the hills. They have remodeled some existing hotels to be 'nicer' than they were and then renamed them (and therefore, they are more expensive), and there are already some nicer hotels there - there is one way up in the hills (it used to be called the Catalina Canyon Resort but I think the name changed), and there is one that is more right along the main drag (Crescent Ave.). The Zane Grey hotel is up in the hills too, but it has a pool and nice views.

Also, some of the ones that look like they wouldn't be that great from the outside - Hotel Catalina and the Seaport Village Inn - are pretty decent. They have that quaint/seaside feel to them.

Over my many stays on Catalina, I have been a guest of the Hotel Catalina (good), Seaport Village Inn (good), the Hermosa Hotel/Catalina Cottages (that one was not good) and I have stayed in various apartments or cottages that I rented for a week or a weekend. One of the best places I stayed was this adorable cottage up one of the hills off of Crescent. I loved that place! You can look into some cute cottage rentals through Hunt Realty. I think Ann and Clarence Hunt were the lovely couple I rented my apartments and cottages from. They were delightful people to deal with.

If you haven't already, make sure to go online and order the Catalina Island 2010 Visitors Guide - it is free and it is thick like a magazine.

I absolutely adore Catalina. It is small and quaint and it may look like there is not much to do (you kind of have to look into the activities there and find one you like), but it is addictive. Anyone I have ever brought there has wanted to go back again. It is alternately relaxing and fun at the same time. One of my favorite things in the world is to rent a golf cart and zoom around, and park in a spot overlooking the water, trying to spot sea life. It is so beautiful. It used to be a yearly trip for me, but with the economy and money issues setting in, I have had to skip it for a few years. However, it is calling to me and I fully intend to get back there this year. I have been there alone and also with groups of people; I have done busy one-day trips, laid back one-day trips, and also a full week stay, and everything in between, and I loved every minute of it! I have Catalina photos in my TR (link below). The links to those photos are in the Table of Contents on the first page of my TR.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks Sherry E.

I checked out the hotels you mentioned.

I am flying into LAX on the 30th April and will be flying out to Miami on the 2nd May. So, I was originally after a 1 night stay on Catalina, and then looking for another night around LAX.
Most of the places on Catalina are seeking 2 night minimum stay (although I haven't "officially" heard back from Hotel Catalina yet).

I was wondering if you knew of anywhere nice that we could stay around San Pedro, Long Beach or Redondo Beach as an alternative? We could do a day trip out to Catalina.

We will be hiring a car; so will be able to be fairly mobile.
Can we park the car at the Ferry port? Do you know how much this will cost?

Thanks!!
ps. Love your photos - took me 3 days to go through about 25 % of your thread.

 

[Sherry E]

Thanks Sherry E.

I checked out the hotels you mentioned.

I am flying into LAX on the 30th April and will be flying out to Miami on the 2nd May. So, I was originally after a 1 night stay on Catalina, and then looking for another night around LAX.
Most of the places on Catalina are seeking 2 night minimum stay (although I haven't "officially" heard back from Hotel Catalina yet).

I was wondering if you knew of anywhere nice that we could stay around San Pedro, Long Beach or Redondo Beach as an alternative? We could do a day trip out to Catalina.

We will be hiring a car; so will be able to be fairly mobile.
Can we park the car at the Ferry port? Do you know how much this will cost?

Thanks!!
ps. Love your photos - took me 3 days to go through about 25 % of your thread.

Oh no! Did it take you a long time to go through the first 25% of my TR because the pages were loading slowly? I know that happens to me sometimes when I am opening up my own TR or visiting someone else's Trip Report - it takes forever for the pages to load, even if the photos are small. I do have links to the Catalina photos on the very first page of my TR, in the Table of Contents, but I probably should have posted those links here, to save you the trouble of trying to get through the TR!!

Okay, so if I understand correctly, you originally wanted to stay in Catalina on the night of May 1st? Yes, I can see why you are getting the '2-night minimum' speech. They usually do want the 2-night minimum on weekends, and May 1st is a Saturday. Of course, that is technically a few weeks before the big 'summer' (peak) season begins on the island, so I would think there will still be quite a bit of availability at the various hotels. On weekdays, mid-week or so, they are not as strict. The thing is, they are telling you this now, because it is still early and quite a bit before you actually make the trip. They want to hold out and see if the rooms book up. I know that once you actually get closer to the date of arrival, the hotels will let you have one night if there is still availability. I have friends who have just popped over to Catalina for a day trip and ended up getting a hotel room for one night while they were there. So I am sure they will allow one-night only when it is closer to the actual date, if no one else has booked, but you may not want to wait that long to book something.

If you are getting into LAX on April 30, rather than staying at a hotel near there or in Redondo, you could just add on an extra night in Catalina, and make your stay April 30 - May 2. LAX in and of itself is a pretty boring area. I would suggest taking the Catalina Express to Catalina out of Long Beach rather than San Pedro, and definitely not Newport Beach. Newport Beach is a beautiful area, but it is quite a ways away from LAX and the Catalina Express departures and arrivals from Newport are much less frequent, so it makes it hard to have a full day trip. It is very limiting. San Pedro and Long Beach have the most Catalina Express departures and arrivals. I like to take the earliest boat out to the island and take the latest boat back at night if I am only doing a day trip. So if you only end up doing a day trip and don't stay one or two nights on Catalina, definitely go out of Long Beach or San Pedro. I prefer Long Beach because the Queen Mary is right there, the Aquarium of the Pacific is right there, and the lovely little Shoreline Village area is there. Also, Long Beach is the closest to LAX.

If I were you, what I would do is - and I am not sure what time your plane will arrive in L.A. on Friday, April 30 - take the Catalina Express out of Long Beach and stay overnight on Catalina on the evenings of April 30 and May 1, then hop the ferry back to Long Beach on May 2, drive, catch a shuttle or taxi or whatever to LAX and then head on to Miami. If you arrive at LAX early enough in the day on April 30, you can do other things in L.A. or wherever, or even in Catalina if you want to spend extra time there. You can just take an evening boat out to the Island. I would rather get a 2-night hotel on the Island than waste one of the hotel nights near LAX or in Long Beach! Plus, it will give you more time to sample some of the restaurants on the island (do you like seafood? Do you like Italian?).

However, if you don't want to have 2 nights on Catalina and you don't want to wait until closer to the arrival date to see if they will let you have a one-night (based on availability), and a one-day trip to Catalina is your only option, then take the Catalina Express from Long Beach (or San Pedro, if necessary), and try to get the earliest boat out and the latest boat back, so you can get the most done in that day. The golf cart rental place close to the boat dock/terminal on the island opens fairly early, and the golf carts get rented out rather fast (usually they have a 'get 3 hours for the price of 2 hours' deal, but not sure if they are still doing that). Then you have to wait for other people to start bringing their golf carts back before you can rent one.

Yes, you can park and leave the car in the Catalina Express parking lot. Lots of folks do that for weekend trips. I am not sure what they charge now, but it used to be something like $9 per day, and then the last time I read up on it I think someone was saying it had gone up to maybe $12 per day. Somewhere around in there!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Firstly - apologies to mrsswat for hijacking this thread.

Sherry E - I was thinking of staying the night of the 30 April only because we have an early flight out of LAX on the 2 May and I think with the ferry back plus driving, drop off rental etc, it's going to be super tight.

Accommodation around LAX is about $100 - $120 a night; so I'd be looking for around the same or a little bit more if parking was included and breakfast. I've been to LA a lot and don't like being in the LAX area but for the early flight, I'd stay the night to reduce stress. I might check out Long Beach accommodation.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Sherry E]

Firstly - apologies to mrsswat for hijacking this thread.

Sherry E - I was thinking of staying the night of the 30 April only because we have an early flight out of LAX on the 2 May and I think with the ferry back plus driving, drop off rental etc, it's going to be super tight.

Accommodation around LAX is about $100 - $120 a night; so I'd be looking for around the same or a little bit more if parking was included and breakfast. I've been to LA a lot and don't like being in the LAX area but for the early flight, I'd stay the night to reduce stress. I might check out Long Beach accommodation.

Thanks for your advice.

Yes, check around Long Beach for a hotel. It will be easy to get to the boat dock for an early ferry out to Catalina and the easy to get back to the hotel if you take a night boat back, and then when it's time to go to LAX, Long Beach is closer to LAX than San Pedro or Newport!

Good luck to you - and to mrsswat - in your Catalina planning! I can't wait to hear about both of your trips and what you thought!!

If you all have any other questions about restaurants on the island or other tours, etc., let me know!