Ninety-five rooms a block off the Avalon waterfront, opened by William Wrigley Jr. in 1920 and lifted out of its long mid-century dowdiness by the Catalina Island Company in 2019. The cleanest contemporary boutique on the island, if not the most lavish.
"The 2019 redo gave Avalon a hotel that finally photographs as well as the harbor it sits a block from. Pale terracotta, oak floors, tiled showers, and a centennial confidence that the rest of the island stock simply does not have yet."
Hotel Atwater was the first major hospitality project William Wrigley Jr. commissioned after acquiring the Catalina Island Company in 1919, a 95-room property built into a single masonry block on Sumner Avenue and named for Helen Atwater, the wife of Wrigley's son Philip. It opened in 1920, weathered nearly a century of competent but unremarkable use, then closed for a full centennial renovation that brought it back as a quietly modern boutique in 2019. The result is the most coherently designed hotel on Catalina, and the only one of the island's heritage properties that has been rethought rather than refreshed.
The rooms are arranged on the second and third floors (there is no elevator, a point worth noting for guests with mobility constraints) and range from compact 250-square-foot kings to one-and-a-half-bath suites with a small living area, a sleeper sofa, a bar, and a desk. The palette is pale oak, white tile, soft terracotta, and a restrained brass; bathrooms are full-tiled walk-in showers with rainfall heads. Every room has a digital concierge tablet, smart television, and high-speed Wi-Fi, which sounds banal until you realise the rest of the Avalon market mostly does not. Views split into three categories: ocean (the strongest, with a slice of harbor between the rooftops), town (the historic Casino visible to the north), and mountain (the canyon walls behind Avalon).
The hotel does not run a restaurant. Breakfast is a continental buffet in the lobby and lounge area, and the property's location places guests within three minutes of the main spine of Avalon dining (Bluewater Grill on the waterfront, Steve's Steakhouse, Lobster Trap, Avalon Grille). The front desk handles activity bookings (Casino tours, glass-bottom boat, zip line) with practiced efficiency, and the digital tablet in each room covers most requests without a phone call. There is no pool on property, though guests have access to amenities at the sister Catalina Island Company hotels, and the public beach is two blocks away.
Service runs warm and capable rather than choreographed; the property style is closer to a polished California boutique than a resort. A $40 nightly destination fee covers Wi-Fi, premium streaming, beach towels, and Casino tour entry, and the 12% Avalon hotel tax is added on top of the room rate. Most stays book two to three nights, which the location and scale suit perfectly. For longer holds, the larger one-and-a-half-bath suites are the value sweet spot on the island.
For an anniversary weekend on Catalina, the Atwater is the right answer for couples who want a modern, photogenic room without paying Mt. Ada's price band. Book an Ocean View King for the harbor slice and the upper terrace, walk the boardwalk at sunset, and put dinner at Bluewater Grill across the road. The hotel arranges turndown wine pairings and in-room flowers with two days notice; ask the digital concierge.
For families, the Atwater's one-and-a-half-bath suites with sleeper sofas are the most usable family room on the island. The Casino, the boardwalk, the public beach, and the glass-bottom boat dock are all within a five-minute walk; the hotel's activity desk packages the Casino tour and the zip line into a single morning. Stair-access only across the upper floors, so factor stroller logistics; first-floor access is via the lobby.
120 Sumner Avenue
Avalon, CA 90704
United States
One block off the Avalon waterfront, opposite the Tour Plaza; Catalina Express terminal 6 minutes on foot
95 rooms and suites
Standard Kings from $173/night
Ocean View Kings from $260/night
One-and-a-half-bath suites from $420/night
Plus $40 nightly destination fee and 12% Avalon hotel tax
Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Opened 1920; reopened 2019 after centennial renovation by Catalina Island Company
Digital concierge tablets in every room
Continental breakfast in lobby lounge
Stair access only above ground floor (no elevator)
Pool access at sister Catalina Island Company properties
Complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi
From $173/night. Ocean View Kings and the suite categories book three to four weeks ahead for summer weekends and Buccaneer Days; standard kings remain widely available outside July and August.
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