Willow Cove

Located in the city of Avalon, Willow Cove is a small and rarely crowded beach on the north side of Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island.

Willow Cove features a paid boat-in campground and offers many fun activities including kayaking, boating, hiking, sailing, and paddle-boarding.

Getting to Willow Cove requires a little bit of work – visitors can take a one-hour Catalina Express ferry ride to reach Avalon Harbor in Catalina Island from Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Dana Point, and once they arrive, they can rent a boat from the Avalon Harbor dock.

If you are looking for attractions near Willow Cove, you can take a boat back to Avalon Harbor and then drive two minutes using a golf cart to Catalina Island Museum, a 67-year-old museum that is home to more than 8,000-year-old artifacts of human settlement on Catalina Island that include pottery and tile collections, photographs and negatives from the early 1880s, boat models, sport fishing items, and the largest collections of Tongva and Gabrielino artifacts. Spread across 38 acres, the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden feature California island endemic plants that grow only here in the world. If you like escape rooms, the pirate-themed Catalina Room Escape is a fun and challenging tourist attraction site where you have to escape a pirate ship in under an hour. Another great attraction on Catalina Island is Machine Gun Park, a small historical park that has a German machine gun from World War I.

If you get hungry, you can take a five-minute golf cart drive to many restaurants near Avalon Harbor after you return from Willow Cove. The always-crowded Descanso Beach Club features appetizers, entrees, salads, live music, DJ, and is the base camp for exciting activities like Zip Line Eco Tour, Catalina Aerial Adventures, Catalina Falconry Experience, and a 32-feet climbing wall. If you like Asian food, Katie's Kitchen features fried rice, tofu, Peking duck, Chinese hamburgers, and an incredible patio setting. Another great restaurant on Catalina Island is the pet-friendly Mexican and American restaurant The Sandtrap that serves breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and dinner items.

If you are looking for a hotel near Willow Cove, you can take a boat back to Avalon Harbor and then drive five minutes using a golf cart to the luxurious Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel, a historical oceanfront hotel with newly renovated 17 rooms, suites, and penthouses. The Avalon Hotel is a 3-Star hotel with a game room and golf course. If you are looking for a budget-friendly hotel on Catalina Island, the 2-Star Hotel Mac Rae was awarded the Travellers’ Choice Award by Tripadvisor.