I received great tips for our Oregon drive. Next up, a coastal Maine drive to include Kennebunkport, Portland, Boothbay, Bar Harbor and Bangor. Should I plan a couple of nights hotel in each place or one(or two) central hotels? Hotel suggestions?
Thanks, never been to Maine.
We love the West Street Hotel in Bar Harbor. From there you can do Acadia and all of Mt Desert Island. Definitely worth a 3 night stay.
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When we drove up the coast years ago we stayed in Portland, Kennebunk, and lion share in Bar Harbor. I wouldn’t try to be central.
Balance Rock Inn Bar Harbor, Maine
I have never stayed at this hotel. A google search offers a lot of photos. While the rooms & decor are not my preference, the setting, facilities, and food look great.
Camden, Maine is a really nice place to visit. Also, one of the best places to live in Maine.
Google: 9 best coastal towns in Maine: A route 1 road trip.
Lived in NH seacoast area and could see ME over the Portsmouth bridge. Spent a ton of time in ME. Depends on how much driving you want to do. Bar Harbor is awesome and Acadia is beautiful (hiking, sunrise, etc).
If you’re in to quaint towns, Boothbay Harbor is outstanding and much closer than Bar Harbor. Real slice of Americana.
Realize that a good chunk of ME boards up (literally) after Labor Day. Certainly by 10/1. So depending on when you travel, there may be fewer options on where to eat, things to do. During the season, it’s magical!
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I personally find anywhere south of Portland not very interesting. Portland is great, wonderful restaurants and shops, worth a night or two, especially if you want great food. I love Boothbay Harbor. Cute town, many interesting places to see locally. We did a fun lighthouse boat tour from there. We also loved Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert. More affordable and less touristy than Bar Harbor. There were a lot of nice coastal walks and it felt very authentic. We did rent bikes in Bar Harbor and rode all over Acadia. That was worth doing.
A highlight of our trip to Maine was white water rafting inland. It took us about 2.5 hours to drive through lovely countryside to get out to Acadia, but it was worth it. The company we used served a full hot freshly grilled lunch on an island in the river. https://www.moxierafting.com/
Many people enjoy Freeport for the shopping. It’s a cute town but if the goal is to see Maine, I wouldn’t necessarily include Freeport as a must do. Several chain hotels operate there, but stay away during peak college times because people associated with the Maine NESCAC’s will be there in force and the prices shoot up.
Maine is an odd place all around when it comes to accommodation, not including Portland. Most places seemed to be super old school basic cabins, or ridiculously overpriced old fashioned resort hotels, or motels. Maybe a lot of people have family vacation homes there.
I agree that having one base in Maine will limit your options. If I was doing a Maine vacation again, I’d do the same thing. Boothbay Harbor and Southwest Harbor, with a night in between to go white water rafting (if that appeals.)
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When we went to Acadia we stayed in Bar Harbor for a full week, and Portland for 2 nights. We stayed right on the “main” street by the water in Bar Harbor. (West St?), by the Harbor. It was a great location. We had a little balcony and could watch the water from there, while we had our own little happy hours. Plus we could easily walk to all the shops and restaurants.
I second the biking recommendation. If you go biking on the carriage trails in Acadia, you need bikes with fatter tires. One of my favorite bike rides was around the Schoodic Peninsula - it’s the quiet part of Acadia Nat’l Park, but quite a drive from Bar Harbor.
When is this trip? It’s rather late in the summer to be planning a trip to ME unless the goal is to leaf peep, but that wouldn’t be on the coast.
Thank you for the suggestions. We mapped out a nice, cool, northern Idaho and Montana trip when my wife started dreading multiple flights with masks and changed her mind to escape the end-of-summer heat to the closest non-stop destination. So, we just booked a ME, NH, VT trip via Boston Logan and this coastal Maine thread will come in handy.
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@bloomfield88: Can I borrow your Northern Idaho & Montana plan ? Can I PM/DM you for hotel suggestions so as to avoid derailing this thread ?
The water in Maine is cold year round. Swimming during the hottest part of the summer consists of a quick dive in & get out.
Now now. We stayed in the ocean long enough to get prune fingers. We were cold, but the air temp was, for us, hot enough to overcome that.
On our white water trip, they gave us wetsuits. It was a lot of fun.
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@Publisher Absolutely. Idaho and Montana are a wonderful part of the world too.
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Having spent lots of time in ME, VT, and NH and many trips to the parks out west, this country has so many great places to see. One of my favorite places on earth is Glacier National Park. Something about those glacial (don’t call them mountains) lakes is mesmerizing. White water rafting in Montana (have done it twice in different parts of the state) is marvelous. Rafting within a massive gorge with bald eagles soaring and crystal clear water below is something I’ll never forget.
Just hard to get to from the east. Great thing about New England is you can get most places within a few hours drive. We’ll be flying in to Logan, then off to a great lobster in Dover, NH and up to Woodstock, VT for a foliage getaway in early October. That’s all within 2.5 hours of Boston.
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We love Ogunquit. The town is very cute with great shopping and restaurants, and the beach is massive and beautiful. Hiking the Marginal Way from Perkins Cove is one of my favorite things to do anywhere. Worth a day trip at least.
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I must be the place I recommended the West Street Hotel. Love sitting on the balcony and watching the world below.
My first trip to Bar Harbor was late September (probably 30 years ago). Lots of stuff was already closed for the season. Labor day is the cut off point for that part of Maine.
Thank you for the tips. We are planning two weeks just after Labor Day.
My daughter had a nice visit to Orr Island and Harpswell. In Portland, she recommends these eateries:
Chaval
Duckfat Frites Shack
Ramona’s
Terlingua
Eventide Oyster Co.
Scales
Blyth & Burrows
Oxbow Brewing Co.
For Portland dining generally, here: https://www.portlandfoodmap.com
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No - we stayed in a little “condo” we found through VRBO or something like that. It was right above a place called the Naked Blueberry and owned by the people who had an art store very near by.
Ok, first nights will be Ogunquit at a lower priced hotel, Seacastles Inn. It’s convenient to the walkway.
How about Portland hotel suggestions? Sounds like lots of great restaurants.