Catalina!

[taffy19]

Catalina on a boat is heaven. You can sit there and see the world go by and be entertained by people coming by in their little dinghies with their kids and doggies too. The predicaments they get themselves into sometimes make you laugh. You should see them getting off the dinghy on the dock as they may have to step over five or six bobbling dinghies and they misstep sometimes and fall in the water especially when they have had too many beers. You get to know the same boat people, who stay here often, and visit each other too and have a good time. Catalina has no sunsets but the sunrise can be beautiful.

New Year's Eve ball is quite a spectacle too when people go ashore in their dinghies dressed up in their evening gala and high heels and the Jazz concerts are very nice too. You can even hear them from your boat. We love Catalina as much as we like Laguna Beach. If it is a clear night, you can even see the shoreline of the mainland too.

If you like water sports, there isn't enough time to do it all during a short week-end plus there is golf and they have many nice excursion trips but you need to make reservations in advance when you go during summer vacation. They have many combination tours so you can see quite a bit when you are there.

 

[JohnnyO]

Compared to the best snorkel/scuba places in Indonesia/Malaysia, Hawaii is absolutely too dirty and boring and we love Hawaii.....we can play this game all day.

Compared to the best snorkel/scuba places in Hawaii, Catalina is absolutely too dirty.

 

[ricoba]

Compared to the best snorkel/scuba places in Indonesia/Malaysia, Hawaii is absolutely too dirty and boring and we love Hawaii.....

I am sure you are probably right, but for Hawaii, I don't need a passport...and the plane trip is much much quicker!

 

[Jim Bryan]

Catalina would suit me fine............Anytime.

 

[Hoc]

Compared to the best snorkel/scuba places in Indonesia/Malaysia, Hawaii is absolutely too dirty and boring and we love Hawaii.....we can play this game all day.

No we can't. That's because you will notice that my initial post mentioned that Southern Cal. waters were too cold and dirty for me because I grew up in Hawaii. You said they weren't, and I emphasized that they were. If you want to contradict yourself now and say that you think that the waters in Catalina and Hawaii are too dirty, even though you earlier said that they were not, well, that's your personal preference.

 

[california-bighorn]

The waters of Catalina and the rest of the Channel Islands are sometimes not real clear due to nutrient rich plankton that starts the entire process of life in the sea. For this reason the visibility in areas like the Channel Islands and especially the Monterey Bay is often limited. However, if you are a diver, you will see more life and diversity of life in these areas than just about anywhere else.
Last month in Hawaii I did several dives and the vis was great and the water warm, but there was not nearly as much life under the water as I saw in Monterey a couple of weeks prior to going to Hawaii.
It's a matter of preference. It also takes a little dedication to put on all the 70 pounds of cold water gear, wetsuit and tolerate 50 degree water temps with 10 to 15 feet of vis. A great day of diving in Catalina or anywhere on the California coast would probably suck if you were snorkeling.