Catalina close-up

Santa Catalina Island — THE assignment: Check out the hotel and restaurant scene on Catalina. I hadn't visited the island in perhaps 20 years and my recollections were a bit fuzzy -- fish and chips on Green Pleasure Pier, a glass-bottom boat, a night at an awful hotel. Luxury boutique hotels? Fine dining? Those weren't concepts I associated with Catalina, but I learned on a recent spring visit that some of my impressions were wrong.

Neither restaurants nor hotels are in short supply in Avalon. (There are 28 lodgings and about the same number of restaurants.) Family-friendly hotels with kitchen facilities are also available. Location is a major consideration. Are peace and quiet more important than being beachside? Avalon can get so noisy that some hotels supply earplugs. Hotel shuttles don't run 24/7, and taxis are expensive, so a central location may be important for those not wanting to do a lot of walking.

I saw almost every one of Avalon's lodgings on my spring visit. (The Atwater and Buena Vista hotels hadn't opened for the season, and no one answered the bell at Catalina Beach House.) On my reacquaintance trip, I stayed in four hotels and ate as many meals as I could.

I found some surprises.

The first was the high price of Catalina hotels, especially in season and on weekends. As one hotel manager told me, "You're not only paying for that night but for the nights in winter when nobody's here." And many hotels have a two-night minimum on weekends.

I also learned that, on Catalina, "old" doesn't necessarily mean "charming." Several turn-of-the-century hotels I visited were more musty than marvelous.

Not all hotels are air-conditioned either, so it pays to ask. Many have stairs, but few have elevators, and only two (Zane Grey Pueblo and Best Western Catalina Canyon Resort & Spa) have swimming pools. If hotel prices induce sticker shock, the good news is that package deals abound. They may include boat fare from the mainland, taxi fare to the hotel and/or island activities.

Eating on the cheap is easier than sleeping on the cheap. There's no shortage of fast-food places, mostly local, or ice cream and sweets shops.

Cruise to the island

MY Catalina adventure began with the one-hour, 22-mile Catalina Express boat trip from downtown Long Beach to Avalon, pleasant and smooth.

In Avalon, I boarded the Safari Bus, a van that took me across the island to sleepy Two Harbors, where I had reserved a night at Banning House Lodge, the hamlet's only hotel.