Hop a ferry for beaches and backcountry hiking in California’s Channel Islands.

An easy drive from Santa Barbara, Catalina is perfect for families looking for adventure and couples seeking a bit of romance for the day or a long weekend. Make sure to book golf carts, bikes, and excursions, such as dive boats and tours, in advance, even if you’re just day-tripping.

Catalina Island is easier for many to get to than some L.A. neighborhoods. Leave the city’s notoriously snarled freeways behind in favor of an hour-long ferry ride toward the horizon, and soon the honking horns “overtown” (island-speak for the mainland) give way to seagull squawks.

Yes, crowds swell during summers and on weekends, but plan to visit this Fall on a weekday and it’s hard to believe this beach town belongs to the nation’s most populous county. With fewer than 400 cars and trucks permitted on the entire island, Avalon is blissfully smog- and road-rage-free – there’s not even a stoplight. What you will find, however, is an inviting slice of old California shimmering as bright as the golden garibaldi fish that swim off its shoreline, plus hiking, biking, and four-wheel-drive fun just minutes outside the town limits.

Arriving visitors first spy Catalina Casino at the north end of palm-fringed Avalon Bay, but there’s nary a roulette wheel or neon light inside. Wrigley Jr. had the round, 12-story-tall building constructed in 1929 as a venue for big-band legends, who kept its 20,000-square-foot dance hall swinging. These days, guided tours take visitors into the casino’s nooks and the main level’s Avalon Theater, a 1,180-seat, acoustically perfect cinema that hosts the Catalina Film Festival each September.

Colorful tiles depicting birds and island life line the path from the casino to Crescent Avenue, Avalon’s waterfront walk – a nod to the now defunct Catalina Island Pottery. Its hand-glazed tiles are embedded in sidewalks and adorn public buildings, private homes, and fountains around town. About half are reproductions, says Robin Cassidy, a potter and the owner of Silver Canyon Tile, who works with the city to repair and replace damaged tiles. She also leads two-hour workshops for visitors to create their own.

Green Pleasure Pier, the hub for coastal adventures.  -Photo by Luis García

Most residents get around on golf carts; visitors can rent them by the hour at Catalina Island Golf Carts for easier access to views from the steep hills above the harbor and attractions farther afield, such as the Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden. But since Avalon is only four blocks long, it’s easiest to dip in and out of shops and restaurants on foot. Early arrivals can pop into Toyon Grill for a latte and avocado toast with a view. For lunch: shellfish and other seafood dishes at The Lobster Trap or the recently opened Naughty Fox, home to a patio ideal for people-watching over plates of ahi poke nachos and grilled fish tacos. The local happy hour call is a Buffalo Milk, the island’s boozy frozen cocktail of vodka, Kahlúa, crème de cacao, and banana liqueur.

But in order to discover the beaches and hidden spots that really make Catalina special, you have to get out of Avalon. Jutting from the main beach, the Green Pleasure Pier serves as the departure point for kayaking, diving and snorkeling trips in the surrounding kelp forests, and the Cyclone, an open-air speedboat that zips along Catalina’s impressive coastline to the small outpost of Two Harbors (population 300) for hiking, swimming, or chaise lounging at the beach club. Boaters can charter a yacht to sail the coast and anchor at deserted coves.

The island’s interior is where Catalina separates itself from your average California beach getaway, whether you’re in search of Catalina’s endemic gray fox and resident bison on a four-wheel-drive excursion, heli-hiking or heli-mountain-biking, or burning off a Buffalo Milk on moderate hikes on the island’s hundred-plus miles of trails. Trekkers can set out on a multiday tramp along the Trans-Catalina Trail, a 38-mile odyssey.

Zipping up to Two Harbors on the Cyclone.   -Photo by Luis Garcia

Catalina’s biggest surprise by far: the existence, so close to L.A., of an island where the buffalo literally roam, and where, in the course of a day, you can hike a mountain, snorkel in the sea, and be dressed (in flip-flops) for a locally caught lobster dinner just in time for a SoCal sunset.