Avalon

There are no rental cars on Catalina (the island has a hard cap on private vehicles, roughly 1,500 total, with a waitlist of decades) and no Uber, Lyft, or DiDi service. The local taxi alternative is Avalon Transportation Services, which runs electric cart-taxis from a stand at the Cabrillo Mole and the harbor — short rides within Avalon are flat-rate $5 per person to most stops in town, $15–20 to the Wrigley Memorial or the Catalina Country Club, and posted on a board at the stand. Cash and card both accepted. The Avalon Trolley is a separate one-route circuit that loops the harbor and the Casino for $2 per ride, cash only, with stops at Crescent Avenue, the Pleasure Pier, the Tuna Club, and the Casino. For independent travel, Island Rentals on Crescent Avenue rents 4- and 6-seater golf carts for about $50 per hour (1-hour minimum, valid driver's license required) — carts can drive Avalon's public roads but are barred from the conservancy's interior dirt roads. Cabrillo Mole to most of town is a flat walk; no taxi needed for the main waterfront.

Currency is the US dollar (USD). Almost every business in Avalon — restaurants, bars, dive shops, golf-cart rentals, the Catalina Island Museum, the Casino Discovery Tour ticket office, the Pleasure Pier tour kiosks, the Crescent Avenue souvenir shops, and Descanso Beach Club — accepts contactless tap, chip-and-PIN, and Apple/Google Pay. Cash is rarely required except for the $2 Avalon Trolley fare (cash only) and a few small kiosks. Los Angeles County sales tax is 9.5% and is added at the register, not included in the displayed price — what you see on the menu is not what you pay. Tipping is customary at US service levels: 18–20% at sit-down restaurants, $1–2 per drink at bars, 15% on cart-taxi fares, $2–5 for the snorkel-gear desk if the staff helped you fit. ATMs are at the Bank of America branch on Sumner Avenue and the Chase ATM at the Vons supermarket on Metropole; both dispense USD only with $3–5 foreign-card fees plus your home bank's foreign-transaction charge. Carry $40–60 in small bills if you plan to use the trolley, tip cart-taxi drivers, or grab a beach kiosk snack.

The realistic cruise-day combinations are stitched out of three short pieces: one boat trip, one walk, one cultural stop. Boat trip options leave from the Pleasure Pier — the Catalina Adventure Tours glass-bottom boat ($22, 40 min) or the Discovery Tours Nautilus semi-submarine ($39, 45 min), both running over the Casino Point reef. Walks are the Cabrillo Mole–to–Casino harbor walk (15 min flat, the postcard view) or the Cabrillo Mole–to–Wrigley Memorial canyon walk (1.7 mi, 45 min uphill, 380 ft gain, $10 garden admission) for a sit-and-look at the top. Cultural stop is the Casino Discovery Tour ($26, 50 min) for the ballroom, theater, and history, or the Catalina Island Museum on Metropole Avenue ($17, 90 min self-guided). Add snorkeling at Casino Point (gear rental $40 half-day) if water time is the priority. Two Harbors at the isthmus is not realistic on a single cruise day — the Catalina Express shuttle is 90 minutes each way and runs once or twice daily; the schedule does not return in time for most all-aboard calls. Save Two Harbors for a separate trip from Long Beach or San Pedro.

Catalina Island has no cruise berth. Ships anchor in Avalon Bay, the open roadstead in front of the town, and tender passengers in by ship's boats to the Cabrillo Mole — a stubby concrete pier at the south end of Avalon Harbor. Tenders run roughly every 15 minutes during port hours and the ride from anchorage to the Mole is about 10 minutes in flat water. From the Mole, the green Pleasure Pier (the small wooden visitor pier in the middle of the harbor) is a 5-minute walk along Crescent Avenue, the Avalon Casino building at the north end of the harbor is about 15 minutes flat, and Lover's Cove for snorkeling is 5 minutes south. Avalon is a small town — under 1 square mile — and almost every cruise-day target is on foot from the Mole. Tender operations are weather-sensitive: a strong southerly swell can curtail tender service or, a handful of times per year, force the captain to convert the call to a sea day. There is no fallback berth anywhere on the island.

Casino Point Dive Park, on the north side of Avalon Harbor immediately past the Casino building, is the most-dived shore-entry site in California — a designated marine reserve with stair-and-railing entry from the lawn above the breakwater, a roped-off swimming area for snorkelers, depths of 20–80 feet over a kelp forest and broken-rock reef, and reliable populations of orange Garibaldi (the California state marine fish, protected), kelp bass, sheephead, moray eels, leopard sharks, and seasonal bat rays. Catalina Divers Supply is the resident dive operator at Casino Point with a shop on the lawn above the entry, gear rental ($40 half-day snorkel package, $90 half-day scuba), guided shore dives, and certification courses. Lover's Cove on the south side of the harbor — a 5-minute walk from the Cabrillo Mole — is the snorkel-only side, a protected no-take reserve with cobble entry, abundant Garibaldi, and gear rental at Lover's Cove Diving on the path above. Water temperatures run 64–72°F (18–22°C) in summer and 55–60°F (13–16°C) in winter; most snorkelers and divers wear a 3 mm shorty year-round. Visibility 20–40 feet June through October, 10–20 feet in winter.

Descanso Beach Club is the one full-service beach club on the island, immediately past the Casino building on the north side of Avalon Harbor — a 20-minute flat walk from the Cabrillo Mole along Crescent Avenue and around the Casino breakwater. It is a small protected cove with imported sand, day-use chairs and umbrellas, a poolside-style bar (the Buffalo Milk cocktail is the local signature), and full lunch service from a casual grill. Day-pass entry is around $15 and includes beach access; cabanas, chair sets, and the private beachfront sections run $50–250 depending on size and proximity to the water. Descanso also runs the Catalina Aerial Adventure (a ropes-and-zipline course in the eucalyptus grove above the beach) and a kayak/SUP rental kiosk. The harbor swimming beach in front of Crescent Avenue is free, with public lifeguards in summer, no chairs, no facilities — fine for a quick dip but not a beach-day setup. Both are protected from open ocean swell by the harbor breakwater.