Bill BakhoGrowing up in Southern California, Catalina Island was a great little getaway off the coast. It usually took a few hours to get there via the Catalina Ferry. When you got to Catalina there was a small beach surrounded by Avalon, a quaint town with little shops and restaurants with golf carts as the main means of travel to get you around. Nowadays, Catalina has so much more to offer visitors to make your trip exciting.
As everything starts to open up slowly and people are beginning to travel and are doing more activists, my friends and I wanted to take a quick local luxury getaway but mix some adventure in with it. We wanted to have a day full of fun so we raced around town to get the perfect outfits to play dress-up while documenting our experiences.
Photo by Bill Bakho
To start we decided that we were going to take a helicopter to Catalina since we had a limited amount of time to maximize all the activities we wanted to do. Since I have never experienced flying to Catalina I wanted to see the island and water from above. We contacted IEX Helicopters for some planning and help in scheduling our day of adventure and they were incredible. IEX came up with an amazing detailed itinerary that was customized for us.
After we picked our date of travel, booked our flights with IEX and finalized our excursions we wanted to prepare for our day of adventure. We jumped into the new 2021 Aston Martin DBx from Aston Martin Beverly Hills. This Satin Xenon Gray beast would make Batman jealous. The sounds of the engine made the hair on the back of our necks stand up as we raced down to North Menswear in San Clemente to pick our perfect outfits for our trip. North Menswear is a cool store that has garments from local designers that give back to their communities and make conscious decisions to bring positivity into the world. We were fortunate to have the owner Martin Majano pick out our clothes to start our trip right.
Bill Bakho, Merry Tungka, Stephen Ruiz, Dakota Rader
The morning of our trip we were so excited that we felt like kids again. Waiting for us on the helicopter launch pad was IEX’s beautiful sleek black chariot. Of course, we couldn’t pass on the photo op for our social media and the guys at IEX were the best in letting us position the DBx next the helicopter. As soon as we were done we jumped on board and in a flash we were in the sky and on our way to Catalina. The trip took less than 15 minutes and the views of the ocean along with the Catalina coastline and the boats in harbor were breathtaking. Flying in a helicopter is an awesome experience as you are coasting over the water and seeing things that you couldn’t see from a boat or car.
Photo by Stephen Ruiz
After we landed we headed to Catalina E-Bike to pick up our electric bikes. This is the best way to see the island and get around. They are so much fun to ride. We jumped on our bikes and headed to the Catalina Zip Line Eco Tour. This zip line experience is a little different than others I have done before. There are 5 different zip lines soaring over the trees going from the top of the mountain all the way down to the beach. The guides teach you about the history of Catalina plus the different animals and plants on the island. So, if you are not screaming while zipping down the mountain, then relax and enjoy the views on the way down.
After we reached the bottom we went to the beach club for some lunch and sun but we made sure BB Lifestyle sunscreen was used because the sun was very hot that day and we didn’t want to ruin our perfect day with sunburns. Our day was coming to an end so we took our e-bikes for a quick tour through town and headed back to the launch pad where the IEX helicopter was waiting for us. On our way back our pilot gave us a bit of an aerial tour and it was beautiful. We had an incredible day and after not able to travel and putting a pause on our lives for such a long time we felt so happy and thankful to be able to have these experiences again.
Photo by Stephen Ruiz
Photo by Stephen Ruiz
Grab your friends or family and go out and create some amazing memories. Show people your Catalina!
Click the link below to watch and see “How we did Catalina!”
In partnership with BB Lifestyle
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