Take a self-guided GPS audio tour through the streets of Avalon with me. My name is Matthew and I am one of the 4000 residents of Avalon. Being a local I get asked a lot of questions. Do you live here full time? How expensive is it? What is that large house up on the hill? Why does everyone drive around in golf carts? How can you have a casino that doesn't allow gambling? Along with historians, authors, and other passionate locals, we will walk the streets of Avalon to answer these questions and more. You'll learn the stories behind our town and its famous landmarks from the people who live here. The tour is ready whenever you are and the audio plays automatically at exactly the right time and place using your smartphone's GPS and the VoiceMap mobile app, which also works offline.
Green Pleasure Pier is the geographical center of town and a main stop for many activities. Wanna jump on a glass bottom boat, see some flying fish, grab some bait, or even rent your own skiff? Then this is the place to begin.
The Catalina Express is ferry service between Santa Catalina Island and mainland California. Their fleet includes eight high speed vessels than can make the journey in under an hour. They offer up to 30 departures a day with boats leaving from ports in San Pedro, Long Beach and Dana Point.
Reviews collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Avalon City: A Self-Guided Audio Tour lasts about 1h 25min–2h 50min. The itinerary has 2 stops.
Prices start at $7 per person for this Catalina Island experience, booked through Viator with the price shown before checkout. There is 1 booking option, so the final price depends on the option you choose.
Yes. Cancel at least 1 day before the start for a full refund. Later cancellations are non-refundable.
The meeting point is Before arrival, please install the VoiceMap mobile app and use the code provided on your confirmation ticket. This is a self-guided audio tour that you can start, pause, or restart at any time and complete at your own pace. Detailed instructions to the starting point are in the app. Hotel pickup is not part of this experience.
The experience is available in EN.
It is a private experience: only your party takes part. Up to 15 travellers can book together.
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
Yes, bookings are confirmed instantly.
Travellers rate it 4.2 out of 5 across 39 reviews on Viator and Tripadvisor; it is run by VoiceMap Audio Tours.
Reviews collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
We read the description and expected a vampire tour focused on vampires and vampire movie sets. We arrived and the guide spoke for 20 minutes on ghosts and paranormal activity and let us know we would encounter paranormal activity or ghosts on the tour. We did not sign up for the ghost tour or even the ghost and vampire tour. We were very intentional in choosing a tour that was about vampire movies only. We left the tour before we even left the meeting point.
Great way to explore Catalina Island. Easy to follow and very informative. Would recommend to others.
This is a great, affordable way to experience Catalina at your own pace. Very informative and fun . Highly recommend.
This was an excellent audio tour! The guy was funny, told great stories, and helped. You learn about the place in a very atypical, but great way.
Did not work very well for the four of us. It is not user friendly. A waste of $28. Probably would not purchase in the future.
Hi Jimmy, I'm sorry that you were unhappy with your experience. When you were having technical difficulties, did you contact VoiceMap support via email or telephone? We are contactable by both telephone and email, so if you have technical difficulties, please reach out to us so we can identify what is going wrong. Again, I'm sorry about the poor experience you had. Best, Alicia
The app made for a good self-guided stroll around the bay shore. Purchase was a bit more complex than we initially expected -- you need to download the Voicemap guide app from your App Store, then use a code that's emailed to you -- but the setup was easy once I got my email connected. This is all easy if you set it up before your trip, but it's still quite workable if you do it on-the-spot while you're standing in Avalon! There are a few instances where the auto-play would trigger on the wrong point -- an artifact of overlapping paths -- but these are pretty easy to work around. All together a better experience than some other guide apps.
I do not recommend this product. It was a self guided tour using my mobile phone. I paid for the tour but when I got to Avalon and tried to access the guide, it gave me a message that it was downloading and I should not leave the page. After watching the circle spin for 30 minutes without ever connecting me to the tour, I turned it off. Even if this was user error, the instruction to stay on the page during the download was either completely incorrect or so misleading I could not access the tour. A total waste of money and time.
Hi there, I'm sorry that you were unhappy with your experience. We recommend downloading your tour using a WiFi connection, it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. When you were having technical difficulties, did you contact VoiceMap support via email or telephone? We are contactable by both telephone and email, so if you have technical difficulties, please reach out to us so we can identify what is going wrong. Can you email more information to support@voicemap.me? This way, we can troubleshoot the issue and process a refund if you email us your details. I'm sorry for your frustrating experience. Best, Helene
Very informative. Very easy to follow. Highly recommended. Can stop along the way to explore the Sights.
We enjoyed very much the way the narration guide told us where to go and knew when we arrived, so it could automatically start speaking. The content was just right, informative and light-hearted.
This was a great tour that was easy to follow and allowed for personal side trips as you took it. No pressure to keep up. I learned so much about Catalina Island I wouldn’t have known without its excellent narrative. I will undoubtedly take more VoiceMap audio tours. Perfect format for a solo traveler.
| Tour | Duration | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalon City: A Self-Guided Audio Tour | 1h 25min–2h 50min | 4.2 (39) | $7 | |
 Catalina Island Self-Guided Audio Walking Tour of Avalon | 3h–3h 30min | 4.5 (2) | $10 | View |
 Avalon Scenic Drive GPS Audio Tour | 1–2 hours | 4.4 (7) | $10 | View |
 Catalina Island Private Guided Golf Cart Tour of Avalon | 2 hours | 4.9 (646) | $303 | View |
 Yellow Semi-Submarine Tour of Catalina Island From Avalon | 45 min | 4.4 (616) | $64 | View |
 Discover Avalon: Catalina Scenic Tour | 50 min | 4.6 (365) | $31 | View |
 Catalina Island Private 2-Hour Tour of Avalon | 2 hours | 4.9 (186) | $295 | View |