Walks Around Avalon, Catalina Island

This town was made for walking. Stroll the waterfront if you like, but the best way to feel Avalon's heritage is to head inland, up its quiet residential streets, and move at a local's pace. Two self-guided walks below will take you past historic cottages, early hotels, and views of the bay.

On this page: Walk 1 (The Flats of Avalon), Walk 2 (The Heights of Avalon), and A Short History of Avalon.

Walks at a Glance

Prefer a guide? Download the Catalina Compass app for guided walking tours you can follow at your own pace, or book a guided walking tour through Catalina Tours.

Walk 1: Discover the Flats of Avalon

A leisurely loop through the residential flats. The route is mostly level, with one very short climb near the end.

1. Start at Cabrillo Fountain. From Crescent Avenue and the fountain at Wrigley Plaza, walk up Sumner Avenue.
2. Look for the tile. On your right is the Catalina Crafters storefront, decorated with historic Catalina tile. On your left is the four-story Glenmore Plaza Hotel, built in 1892 and the oldest hotel in Avalon. It survived the Great Fire of 1915. Back on your right, the Hotel Atwater opened in 1920.
3. Pass the County complex. Further along on the right are the Avalon Public Library, the Justice Court, and the Sheriff's Department. Avalon is part of Los Angeles County, and the city contracts for these services. The complex stands on the former homesite of William Banning, one of the Banning brothers. His niece, Beatrice Ayer, later married General George S. Patton Jr., who met her on Catalina in the early 1900s.
4. Stop at Island Tour Plaza. Across from the library, tour buses and open-air vehicles load up for trips into Catalina's interior. Restrooms are here (ask at the Mini Golf kiosk for the passcode). Between the two restroom entrances is a colorful Catalina tile fountain that was once part of Bird Park, the aviary William Wrigley built.
5. Keep climbing Sumner. Just past the plaza are the Mini Golf Gardens, an 18-hole course that opened in 1973. Next is Vons, the island's grocery store.
6. Turn onto Eucalyptus. At the corner of Sumner and Beacon, just past Vons, turn left, then take the first right onto Eucalyptus. This quiet street is closed to cars and lined with small historic cottages, many of them remodeled. It is the only street in Avalon with two trees growing down the middle.
7. Head up to the Country Club. At the end of Eucalyptus, cross Tremont Street and go up Avalon Canyon Street to Country Club Drive. The road steepens here, but it is only about a half block to the Catalina Country Club. It was once the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs and sits beside the Catalina Golf Course, the oldest operating golf course west of the Mississippi. The Bobby Jones Tournament was played here from 1931 to 1955. The clubhouse is a fine example of Early California Revival architecture, with cream walls, deep green trim, and a Spanish tile roof.
8. Return to Five Corners. Walk back down to the traffic circle locals call "5 Corners." The cream and red-roofed Avalon City Hall complex is on your left, near Avalon Canyon and Tremont.
9. Follow Tremont. Cross the circle and turn right onto Tremont, passing a cluster of garden cottages on your right.
10. Turn down Descanso Avenue. Turn left onto Descanso and continue for two blocks. Many of these homes were among the first pre-cut tract houses built by the Santa Catalina Island Company in the 1920s, and some still have the original single-story peaked roofs. Notice the small driveways, just wide enough for a golf cart.
11. Find the tugboat house. At the corner of Descanso and Third, look for the two-story white house on the right. It was built from the cabins of two Banning family steamer tugs, the SS Warrior and SS Falcon, which carried visitors to Avalon around the turn of the 20th century.
12. Head back to the water. Turn left on Third Street, then right on Catalina Avenue, and follow it to Crescent Avenue, where you began.

Want the stories behind the streets? Take a guided walking tour with the Catalina Compass app, or book one through Catalina Tours.

Walk 2: Explore the Heights of Avalon

A steeper loop through residential streets and up into the hills, with some of the best views in town.

1. Start at Crescent and Marilla. Begin at the corner by the Bellanca Hotel, the former site of El Encanto Plaza, the historic marketplace that opened in 1933 as an arts and crafts showplace.
2. Go up Marilla Avenue. Head up Marilla, to the right of the hotel, and take the first street on your right, Vieudelou Avenue (French for "view of the water").
3. Spot the oldest house. The house on the left corner as you turn onto Vieudelou is the oldest in Avalon, one of the few structures to survive the 1915 fire.
4. Find the former church. About two-thirds of the way up Vieudelou, on the left, is the former Catholic church, now a private residence.
5. Climb Vinegar Hill. Continue uphill. Local lore says the area earned its nickname during Prohibition, when moonshine operations were raided and the mash was dumped in the street, leaving the neighborhood smelling of vinegar.
6. Rest at the garden bench. Where the street curves right, you will find a shady garden spot with a bench. The street climbs a bit further after this.
7. Turn onto Stage Road. Take the next road on your left and follow it up the hill. At the fork, where there is another garden and bench, keep left.
8. Enjoy the view. Follow the road along the heights of Avalon. You will look across the sunny western side of town to the bay, the channel, and the mainland beyond.
9. Continue to upper Whittley Avenue. Keep going straight until you reach upper Whittley, where Spanish-style homes from the 1920s sit across the street and to your right.
10. Walk down Whittley. Turn left and head downhill, past homes from nearly every decade.
11. Look for Catalina tile. On your left is the Pacific Bell Telephone building, decorated in historic Catalina tile. The last manual switchboard in the Bell system operated here until 1978.
12. Pass Hotel Catalina. Just beyond the telephone building is the historic Hotel Catalina. The first hotel burned in the 1915 fire and was quickly rebuilt.
13. Return to Crescent. Continue down Whittley to Crescent Avenue, a half block from where you started.

Prefer to take the hill with a guide? Try the Catalina Compass app, or book a guided walking tour with Catalina Tours.

A Short History of Avalon

Avalon was laid out in the late 1880s by George Shatto, who hoped to turn a tent camp for visiting anglers into a permanent resort and make a quick profit on real estate. He built the Hotel Metropole and a wharf, and in 1887 hired surveyors to plot streets on the flat land behind the crescent bay. Most lots followed the old tent sites, just 20 feet wide. His sister-in-law, Etta Marilla Whitney, named the town after a phrase in Tennyson's Idylls of the King.

The real estate market never took off, and after four years Shatto went into foreclosure. The island passed to the three Banning brothers, sons of Phineas Banning, a pioneer of stagecoach and steamship transportation and founder of Wilmington and the Port of Los Angeles. Their Santa Catalina Island Company marketed Avalon as a resort. It became known for big game fishing, clear-water swimming, one of Southern California's first golf courses (1892), big band dancing, and glass-bottom boat rides, an Avalon invention of the 1890s. Avalon incorporated as a city in June 1913 with about 500 residents. In 1915, the Great Fire destroyed much of the town and many of its hotels.

In 1919, William Wrigley Jr. bought controlling interest in the company and spent the next decade building the Catalina Country Club, Bird Park, and the legendary Catalina Casino. He brought visitors across on the steamships S.S. Avalon and S.S. Catalina, and many of the homes you will pass on these walks date from this era. His son, Philip K. Wrigley, continued the work, bringing the Big Band era to the Casino, redesigning beachfront Crescent Avenue with an early California feel, and building the Airport in the Sky.