Where to stay on Catalina Island

Catalina has about 25 hotels and inns with roughly 700 rooms between them, and nearly all of them are in Avalon. Most are small: the biggest has about a hundred rooms, many have fewer than twenty, and several are in buildings from the island’s early-1900s boom. That makes for character, and for rooms that sell out on summer weekends. Here is how to choose.

Where in Avalon

Avalon is small enough that nowhere is far, but the feel changes block by block.

• On the waterfront: hotels along Crescent Avenue, the beachfront street everyone calls Front Street, put you steps from the beach, the Green Pleasure Pier and dinner. Expect livelier evenings and the best people-watching.
• A block or two back: the streets behind the beach, around Sumner and Metropole Avenues, are a few minutes’ walk from everything and usually quieter at night.
• Up the hills: inns on the hillsides above the bay and the Casino have the views and the quiet, and a climb to get home. Many run shuttles, and the city’s COAST shuttle goes anywhere in town.
• Up the canyon: Avalon Canyon, heading inland toward the golf course, is greener and calmer, a short ride from the beach.

Hotels with a story

• Glenmore Plaza dates to 1891, one of the island’s oldest hotels, with suites named for famous guests.
• Hermosa Hotel & Cottages has been Avalon’s budget option since 1896, with family units and a pet-friendly policy.
• Hotel Atwater opened in 1920, William Wrigley Jr.’s first big project after he bought the island, and is the largest hotel in town, a block from the beach.
• Zane Grey Pueblo was the Western novelist’s own Hopi-style home above the Casino, built in the 1920s; its 17 rooms are named for his books, and the pool is shaped like an arrowhead.
• Mt. Ada, the Wrigley family’s 1921 mansion high above the bay, is now a six-room inn with meals and a golf cart included. Children must be 14 or older.
• Pavilion Hotel, a few steps from the beach on Crescent Avenue, reopened in March 2026 after a full renovation.

Waterfront favorites also include the Hotel Metropole in the Metropole Market Place and the oceanfront Bellanca; the Catalina Canyon Inn has a pool and restaurant; and the Hotel St. Lauren and Aurora are small, a block or two back. Avalon’s best-rated hotels →

Vacation rentals

For families, groups and longer stays, a condo or house is often better value. Catalina Island Vacation Rentals manages close to 200 properties, and Hamilton Cove, a gated villa community past Descanso Beach, rents one- to four-bedroom villas with a golf cart. Many rentals include a cart, which is a real perk when visitors otherwise rent them by the hour. Expect minimum stays of two nights, three in summer, and some homes rent only by the week in July and August. Vacation rentals →

Two Harbors and the backcountry

At the island’s west end, Banning House Lodge is a 1910 bed and breakfast above Two Harbors, with two villas next door. Everything else out here is camping. The Two Harbors guide →

Camping

• Hermit Gulch, about a mile up Avalon Canyon, is the only campground in Avalon: tent sites and tent cabins, coin showers, and the start of the Trans-Catalina Trail.
• Two Harbors: a year-round campground on a bluff above the village.
• Black Jack: high in the interior near Mt. Orizaba, at about 1,600 feet, with eleven sites and no campfires.
• Little Harbor and Parsons Landing: beach campgrounds for hikers, on the back side and at the end of the trail.

Every campground is booked through the Catalina Island Company, and reservations for the year open on January 5. Members of the Catalina Island Conservancy get half off at its campgrounds. All campgrounds →

When to book

Summer is the busiest season, especially weekends. Late summer through November is the island’s “secret season,” with warm water and fewer people, and winter is the quietest, when hotels offer midweek deals. Book early, and expect minimum stays, for these weekends:

• New Year’s Eve, when the Casino ballroom hosts its gala.
• The Fourth of July.
• The Catalina Island Marathon in March and the Catalina Wine Mixer in May.
• JazzTrax, over two weekends in October.
• Buccaneer Days in Two Harbors, in early October.

Good to know

• Tax: Avalon adds a 12% hotel tax to room rates.
• Check-in: usually 4pm, check-out 11am; some hotels require guests to be 18 or older to check in.
• Luggage: you carry your bags off the ferry. Avalon Blue Line Baggage at the ferry terminal stores bags and delivers them to hotels and rentals; some hotels have their own luggage service, and there are lockers at the terminal.
• No Uber or Lyft: walk, or book the city’s COAST shuttle from $2.
• Last-minute: the visitor center at the foot of the Green Pleasure Pier keeps a daily list of rooms still available.