She's been visiting Catalina Island since she was a child, so she knows which attractions are must-dos. Follow her insider ...

AVALON — I searched for the perfect, family-friendly rental house on Santa Catalina Island, scrutinizing one grainy Internet photo after another. I clicked past homes with high balconies and railings.

It may only be about an hour’s sailing on the Catalina Express, but the experience of staying on Catalina Island seems like a voyage to a far-off, storybook world. That’s how I’d summarize our recent ...

Play on a warm beach. Dive into the Pacific without a wetsuit. Explore an exotic and mostly uninhabited island without flying to Hawaii. My husband and I did all that and more on a Southern California ...

One is a desert oasis. The other is an "island of romance." Both Palm Springs and Avalon, Catalina, are Southern California hideaways distinguished by their distinctiveness. But they also share so ...