Catalina Island Hotels
Banning House Lodge
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1 Banning House Road, Two Harbors
Avalon, CA 90704
Tel. (800) 322-3434, (310) 510-2800
www.visitcatalinaisland.com/twoHarbors/lodg_banningHouse.php
My Catalina adventure began with the one-hour, 22-mile Catalina Express boat trip from downtown Long Beach to Avalon, pleasant and smooth.
In Avalon, I boarded the Safari Bus, a van that took me across the island to sleepy Two Harbors, where I had reserved a night at Banning House Lodge, the hamlet's only hotel.
It was a white-knuckle ride on a narrow, winding mountain road above cliffs plunging 2,000 feet to the sea. It rained steadily, and fog started rolling in. Inland, we passed an oasis of palm trees, planted for filming the 1935 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty." And we had two bison sightings. (The island has about 300 head, most descendants of 14 animals imported in 1924 for a western in which the bison were edited out.)
It was still raining and the dirt roads had turned to red muck when the hotel shuttle came to take me down the hill to Two Harbors' only restaurant, the South Seas-themed Harbor Reef. Despite its captive clientele, its food is surprisingly good; I had a well-prepared halibut dinner.
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