Between an afternoon in Del Mar and and afternoon on Catalina, which would you choose (and why?).

I love Catalina -- but I MUCH prefer staying overnight. Once the day trippers leave it is a whole different place.

If you only have an afternoon -- I'd stick to the mainland . . . Del Mar or elsewhere.

Catalina.

That is a coin flip for me.

For me, it would depend on the time of year and what you plan to do in each place. With only a few hours, your options in both are fairly limited.

But wouldn't an afternoon on Catalina more or less involve an entire day? It's an hour each way, and your time on Catalina would be determined by the Express timetable.

We ended up taking the Express to Catalina, which, by the way, I find ridiculously expensive. Catalina was very nice, though, we had a very pleasant day with great weather. We strolled around town, had a very good lunch, rented a golf cart and toured the island, and went back. Glad we did it - once.

Thank you for giving us the follow-up.
Catalina is a special place for me because we scuba and snorkel in those clear waters.
As Janis said it is a good overnight destination.
If you go on your birthday the ferry is free.

I was just going to share the birthday tip. I think mglb started a thread a few months back to share that tip.

Glad it was a great day!

They have extend the free birthday trip until the end of this year, so plan ahead!

http://www.catalinachamber.com/specials/birthdaycatexp

Yes, I noticed that about the birthdays (we were a couple of weeks early for DH's birthday).

By the way, we had lunch at the Avalon Grill and it was excellent - big fat juicy hamburgers for two, and a very fresh chopped salad for one. Nice service too.

If you are choosing between Del Mar and Catalina (depending on where you are coming from) and plan to spend the night, I might go for Catalina. Neither place has a whole lot to do in the way of sightseeing, but you can relax on the beach and truly relax.

I'm curious what the weather was like. I want to go to california but my husband wants warm and sandy. Is Catalina such a place?

Agapanthus, we weren't on Catalina today, but we were looking at it while eating our lunch. Today was exceptionally clear and warm, and the water was like glass. 78F at Avalon. Del Mar hit the upper 60s. But there's a chance of showers across Southern California tomorrow.

No guarantee for warm, sunny weather. It is winter and hopefully, it starts raining soon.

SF - we are learning to sail...and the big sail once we get experienced enough will be over to Catalina and spending the night That said? I would have picked Del Mar.