A Day Trip to Catalina Island

Just yesterday my friend and I took a long awaited trip to Catalina Island. I have been in a very Italian Spring/Summer kind of mood lately- binge watching Ripley and enjoying my neighborhood of Little Italy. After much deliberation, I decided to just bring my new Fujifilmx100VI with me instead of my DSLR. I am SO happy I did. It was much lighter and the photos turned out so well.

We took the ferry from Long Beach which only took an hour. The ferry was a lot of fun. We saw the Queen Mary ship and even some dolphins! We sat inside at first then went upstairs to enjoy the views coming into the island. It was a bit chilly and windy up there but not too bad. We were quick to get off the ferry and start exploring.

We walked straight to Descano Beach club to have some lunch. If you are looking to book beach chairs at the club I recommend doing it well in advance because they sell out. It was not that kind of trip for us though, we wanted to walk around. We enjoyed a gorgeous view of the beach during our lunch. After that we walked along the path back into town to check out the casino. Unfortunately it closed at 3pm that day! Oh well, we kept going and climbed up all the way to Chimes Tower. The tower was also closed but we marveled at the amazing views. It was still worth the trek up.

After that we explored the cute shops in town. Then we grabbed Aperol Spritzes at Topside rooftop. After that we ate dinner at Bluewater Grill. They have amazing sourdough bread! The food was also great and the waiter gave us very big pours of wine. We had to head back to the ferry though soon after dinner. The ferry ride back was beautiful, we got to enjoy the sunset as we were leaving.

I highly recommend Catalina Island for a day trip. However staying multiple days or even 1 night I do not think is necessary. Most of the hotels also did not look that nice. I only saw two that looked decent. We got to do pretty much everything we wanted in one day. I would love to go back an visit again though soon, especially to visit the casino!