Weekend Trips from LA
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A white six-passenger open-air golf cart with a canopy and chrome details, painted with celebrity-home-tour graphics, parked at the curb
Avalon, Santa Catalina Island

Catalina Island Weekend Trip

The island that feels farther than it is.

A ferry crossing away sits a town where the streets run on golf carts, the casino glows deco at the harbor's edge, and bison — actually bison — roam an interior you reach by safari road. A Catalina Island weekend trip from Los Angeles starts with a boat: a ferry across from Newport Beach, then two days on foot in Avalon with the water below and the hills above. The crossings and the island experiences worth booking fit into a shape that still leaves time to do nothing at all.

  • Ferry from $47 each way
  • Car-free, walkable Avalon
  • Bison country by safari road
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A suggested weekend shape — and what you book inside it

The shape that works: catch a morning ferry and let the first Avalon hour be the golf cart — the loop orients you to the harbor, the Casino and the hills in one sweep, and ends at your hotel door. Give the afternoon to the water, dry (the semi-submarine, the glass-bottom cruise) or emphatically not (parasailing 800 feet over the bay). Midday is the food tour — book it for after your arrival has settled in — and Descanso Beach's bar hour carries the late afternoon, with the town after dark the part day-trippers never see. Sunday morning goes inland — the bison safari or the summit tour — with the afternoon ferry home. Whatever you do not book is the holiday: swim at Lover's Cove, walk the Casino loop, eat ice cream on the front street.

The golf cart is the orientation. The safari owns the interior. The submarine-adjacent options cover the kelp forest without a wetsuit, and the food tour takes care of a midday meal properly. Getting there is its own booking — the ferry from Newport Beach, or the helicopter from Santa Monica when the schedule matters — listed in their own group below so the logistics stay visible.

One geography note that saves weekends: the island experiences all assume you are already in Avalon, and several listings say outright that the ferry is not included. Book the crossing as its own line item, remember the drive to the Newport terminal is yours, and if the ocean swell is a factor for anyone in your group, the ferry's own guidance recommends seasickness remedies — the crossing runs open water.

Catalina Island experiences compared

Five island anchors first — then the crossings, listed separately so transport never hides inside a tour card.

Catalina Summit and Bison Safari — Catalina Adventure Tours

Catalina Summit and Bison Safari

Catalina Adventure Tours

Avalon · Cabrillo Mole

4.6 out of 5

Two hours into the island's interior by open-air safari vehicle — Airport-in-the-Sky, the Nature Center and the canyon views, with bison, eagles and the island fox watched for. Departs the Cabrillo Mole, and if no bison appear, your next tour is free.

  • Bison watched for, free repeat if none
  • Departs the Cabrillo Mole
  • Bumpy unpaved roads — hold on

From $90 per person

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before

Duration: 2 hours

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Catalina Semi-Submarine Undersea Cruise — Catalina Adventure Tours

Catalina Semi-Submarine Undersea Cruise

Catalina Adventure Tours

Avalon · departs from the waterfront

4.7 out of 5

Forty-five minutes through Lover's Cove's marine sanctuary in a yellow semi-submersible — kelp forest, garibaldi and feeding frenzies at your own porthole, dry the whole way. Fish-food torpedoes cost extra aboard.

  • Below-the-waterline portholes
  • State marine sanctuary route
  • Ferry to Avalon not included

From $58 per person

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before

Duration: 45 minutes

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Catalina Island Parasailing — Island Water Charters

Catalina Island Parasailing

Island Water Charters

Avalon · Green Pleasure Pier

5.0 out of 5

Seven to eight minutes of flight, up to 800 feet over Avalon Bay, taking in the town, the cliffs and the coastline — solo or tandem, dry or with a dip on the way down. Boats run hourly from Green Pleasure Pier.

  • Up to 800 feet over the bay
  • Optional water dip on descent
  • Hourly boats from Green Pleasure Pier

From $95 per person

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before

Duration: Flight 7-8 minutes

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Avalon Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour — Catalina Food Tours

Avalon Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour

Catalina Food Tours

Avalon · walking tour

5.0 out of 5

Three hours of Avalon's family-run kitchens on foot — specialty stores and mom-and-pop counters with the town's history and architecture between stops. The tastings add up to a hearty lunch, the operator says, so bring the appetite.

  • Three-hour walking food tour
  • Independently owned kitchens
  • History and architecture en route

From $186 per person

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before

Duration: 3 hours

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Catalina Underwater and Coastal Adventure Cruise — Catalina Adventure Tours

Catalina Underwater and Coastal Adventure Cruise

Catalina Adventure Tours

Avalon · departs from the waterfront

5.0 out of 5

Fifty-five minutes combining a glass-bottom cruise past the Casino with an undersea-view cabin through the kelp — fish feeding included, coastal cliffs on the way out.

  • Glass-bottom and underwater views
  • Fish feeding from the boat
  • Coastal cruise past the Casino

From $50 per person

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before

Duration: 55 minutes

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More ways to fill the island hours

A driver-guide cart with eleven pickup points, a sunset run to the summit, and Avalon's ghost walk after dark.

  • Avalon Private Golf Cart Tour with Driver-Guide Avalon · 11 pickup points in town · Avalon Local Tours · From $138 per person · 4.8 out of 5
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  • Catalina Sunset Summit Tour Avalon · Catalina Ave & 3rd St · Catalina Adventure Tours · From $56 per person · 4.5 out of 5
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  • Haunted Catalina Walking Ghost Tour Avalon · evening walking tour · Haunted Catalina Island Ghost Tour · From $40 per person · 5.0 out of 5
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Getting to the island

The two bookable crossings. The ferry runs from Newport Beach, with the drive to the terminal yours. The helicopter runs from Santa Monica Airport. Neither is included in any island tour's price.

  • Catalina Island Ferry from Newport Beach Newport Beach ↔ Avalon · ferry terminal · Catalina Flyer · From $47 per person · 4.5 out of 5
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  • Catalina Helicopter Transfer from Santa Monica Santa Monica Airport → Catalina · Maverick Helicopters - California · From $501 per person · No ratings yet
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The cart tour's route, stop by stop

This is the featured activity's own itinerary — the customizable loop the cart drives, not the weekend plan. Stops bend to your group's preferences.

  1. Pickup where you are

    The guide collects you curbside at your arranged Avalon location — hotel, ferry dock or wherever suits — in the logo'd golf cart.

  2. Wrigley Memorial and Botanic Garden

    The island's landmark monument in its garden setting, with the guide's history of the family that shaped Catalina.

  3. Casino Point and the dive park

    The art-deco Casino from the land side, and the dive park below it where the island's underwater life congregates.

  4. Viewpoints above Avalon

    Photo stops on the hillsides with the harbor, the bay and the channel back to the mainland laid out below.

  5. Drop-off where you choose

    The tour ends at your hotel or any point in town you prefer — the guide's recommendations for the rest of the day usually come free with the ride.

The island, close up

Photographs from the operators' own trips: the harbor from the hills, the interior's bison country, the kelp forest's residents and the bay from above.

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An older couple sits in a white "Catalina Golf Cart Tours" golf cart with red seats, parked among other golf carts and vehicles in a lot at the base of a dry, brushy hillside with palm and eucalyptus trees.A smiling man in a black polo shirt, cap, and sunglasses holds a white sign reading "TOUR" while standing on a street in front of a mid-century modern house with a carport containing a vintage car, surrounded by palm trees under a clear blue sky.An adult man and two young girls in matching pink-flower dresses sit inside a blue submarine-style vessel, smiling and pointing through a round porthole window at orange and other fish swimming in the blue-green water outside.An orange boat labeled "PARASAIL" carries passengers across calm blue water while towing a large red, yellow, and pink parasail, with green hills, a white casino building, and a coastal town visible in the background.Five people, two men and three women, are laughing and chatting together while holding iced drinks under white arched walkways beside a harbor with boats and a green hillside in the background.

What the island feels like

Catalina operates on a time signature the mainland has lost. The ferry's wake is still behind you when the quiet registers — no freeways, no flight path, just cart tires on pavement and the harbor's clangor of rigging. Avalon fits inside a walkable crescent, and everything beyond it climbs quickly: chaparral hills, canyon roads, and an interior where the sky goes enormous. The two-day version of the island is less about seeing more and more about letting the tempo take.

The water defines the hours. Below the surface at Lover's Cove, the kelp forest does its slow swaying with bright fish threading through it — the semi-submarine and the glass-bottom cruise put non-swimmers in the middle of it, parasailing puts the whole bay underfoot, and the swimmers handle the cove themselves. On land, the safari roads run into country that genuinely surprises first-timers: bison, of all things, descendants of a film shoot's leftovers, browsing canyons that drop to the sea.

Evenings belong to the town. The Casino holds the harbor's evening light, Descanso Beach sits a stroll from the ferry, and the food tour turns a midday meal into a walking introduction to Avalon's family kitchens. When the last day-boat leaves, the town settles into its overnight pace — the argument for staying the night, made without words.

What the cart tour includes

The cart, the guide and the loop are in the price — food, drink and the ferry across are not.

Included

  • Private golf cart tour of Avalon
  • Personalized pickup anywhere in town
  • Local guide and customized stops
  • Drop-off at your chosen point in Avalon

Not included

  • Food and drinks
  • Tips
  • Ferry to Catalina Island

Where the tour starts

Wherever in Avalon you are — this is a pickup-based private tour rather than a fixed meeting point.

Curbside pickup, arranged in Avalon

Pickup location arranged with the operator for your booking

Please wait curbside for the golf cart carrying the activity provider's logo. The tour ends with drop-off at your hotel or any location you choose in town.

Confirm your pickup point when booking — the operator arranges it personally. Ferry passengers can be met near the dock.

Operated by Catalina Tour Guide

What to know before you go

Shaping the weekend
Cart orientation on arrival, water hours each afternoon, the interior safari on Sunday morning, food tour for one midday — with the unbooked hours left deliberately empty. The island earns its keep in the gaps.
The crossing
The ferry runs about 75 minutes each way from the Newport Beach terminal on open water — the drive to Newport is yours. Ferry tickets are booked one direction at a time — a round trip means two one-way bookings. The Santa Monica helicopter is the 25-minute alternative.
Ferry exclusions
Most island listings state plainly that the ferry is not included: the safari, the semi-submarine and the food tour all name it. Book the crossing as its own item and buffer your tour start against the boat's arrival.
Bison and the interior
The safari's listing is candid: bison are not guaranteed, with a free repeat tour if none appear, roads are unpaved and bumpy, and routing bends to weather and road conditions. A guide gratuity of $10-15 is suggested by the operator.
On the water
The semi-submarine asks passengers able to manage twelve steep steps down and up. Parasailing flights run 7-8 minutes with hourly boats, minimum age six, and weight minimums and maximums per the listing.
Money shape
The cart tour prices per group up to five, not per person — divide before judging. The semi-submarine and underwater cruise are the budget water hours. Everything compared here cancels free up to 24 hours before, the ferry's own terms excepted.

What travelers say about these Catalina experiences

Guides who know the island by name, and a foggy morning that became a story anyway.

Traveller feedback, summarized by our editors.

  • United States · November 22, 2025 · golf cart tour

    A wonderful guide, deeply knowledgeable about the island's history and culture, turned the cart into a great first activity in Avalon.

  • United States · November 26, 2025 · golf cart tour

    Morning fog swallowed the views, so the guide improvised — books and photographs of what the harbor should have looked like, fun facts throughout, and food recommendations that rescued the day for a repeat visitor.

  • United States · September 13, 2025 · bison safari

    A funny, informative guide, a bald eagle and bison in the same two hours, and a tour length this traveler called exactly right.

Questions before you book Catalina

How do you get to Catalina Island from Los Angeles?

The bookable crossing compared here is the ferry from Newport Beach — about 75 minutes each way on the open ocean, with the drive to the Newport terminal yours to make. A helicopter transfer from Santa Monica Airport is the fast alternative at about 25 minutes. Several on-island tours state plainly that the ferry is not included in their price, so book the crossing as its own item and leave buffer time around it.

Is one day enough for Catalina?

It is possible — the ferry runs early enough for a long day in Avalon — but the island rewards the overnight version, and that is the shape this page plans. A day trip compresses the golf cart, the coves and lunch into a schedule watched against the last ferry. A weekend adds the things that make the island the island: the Casino lit after dark, a slow morning before the day-trippers land, and the interior roads when the tours are quiet.

Will we see bison on the safari?

Not guaranteed — the safari's own listing says so plainly, and it backs the promise with a policy: if no bison are sighted, your next tour is free. The two-hour run also watches for bald eagles, deer and the island fox, on unpaved roads that the listing warns are bumpy. The golf cart tours stay in town and do not enter bison country.

Do I need a car on Catalina?

No, and in Avalon you mostly cannot have one. The town is walkable end to end, golf carts are the local vehicle of consequence, and the tours compared here handle the interior. Arrive on foot off the ferry and stay that way — it is half the point of the place.

What is there to do beyond the tours?

Descanso Beach for its cove a stroll from town, the Casino's art-deco walk-around, Lover's Cove's fish through the water, and a slow front-street stroll with an ice cream. The semi-submarine and the glass-bottom cruise cover the underwater part dry, and snorkelers do it themselves at the cove.

What should we book before the ferry?

The crossing itself first — confirm a sailing that lands early enough, then schedule the island activities around its arrival. Anchor the days from there: the golf cart or bison safari for one, the food tour for a midday — the operator frames the combined tastings as a hearty lunch — and the semi-submarine or parasailing for the water hours. Most experiences compared here cancel free up to 24 hours before, but terms sit on each booking page, so read your own listing's rules.

Confirm the crossing, then book the cart

A private golf cart tour of Avalon with pickup where you are — up to five people from $275 for the group, 4.9 out of 5, free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Book a ferry sailing that lands early enough first, then schedule the cart with real arrival time to spare.

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