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Drive for about 44 minutes. Do: Boston is a dream for. If you’re a newcomer to Boston, this hotel will put you near everything you might want to see on a quick stint, from the Commons and Chinatown to the Harbor and Harvard Yard. Stay: We stayed at The Godfrey near Downtown Crossing. The Itinerary: Boston, Massachusetts, to Bar Harbor, Maine Day 1: Boston, Massachusetts.
You'll find some of the most creative and delicious food in the country right now in Portland, and that restless urge for invention has begun working its way up the coast. These days, they go way beyond conventional Downeast charm. But the trio of cities here—Portland, Camden, and Bar Harbor—form what I think of as the heart of the state's allure, those top three tracks on the greatest hits compilation you can't stop humming. That juxtaposition of quaint and cozy against the ruggedly elemental has been the region's primary draw for nearly two centuries. Drive this trip in 1 day 2 days 3 days 4 days.Maine's coast hardly needs a sales pitch.
Protect Your Trip: Search, compare and buy the best travel insurance for the lowest price.June through September are when the weather's best, and when the flora are at their most enthusiastic. The best time to visit Bar Harbor is from June to August. When to goWeather conditions: Check road conditions from Boston to Bar Harbor, or you can get reverse directions from Bar Harbor to Boston.If youre trying to avoid mountains or steep grade roads, check the elevation profile from Boston to Bar Harbor.Or if you are hungry, look for places to eat between Boston and Bar Harbor.If you want to plan a road trip with stops along the way, you can view a full.
What to driveThere are two routes you could take for a Boston to Bar Harbor trip, but if you have time, travel along the coast the entire way. You can certainly do this trip in October—the leaves are likely to have peaked by then, but they'll still be spectacular. Nights are almost invariably cool.
Grab your breakfast at the Standard Baking Company on Commercial Street, where the smells alone will warm your spirits. It's cleverly styled with typewriter and printing-press motifs, and well appointed with locally crafted leathers and textiles—best of all, it’s close to everything you'll want to see. It’s about 5-10 minutes from Rt 295 N and close to LLBean if you want to visit there too.Park yourself at the Press Hotel, a boutique spot that opened in 2015 in the building that used to be home to the Press Herald. Just remember to put the top up when you park: Summer thunderstorms aren't unheard of.The Haraseeket Lunch & Lobster in South Freeport is a good pit stop between Boston and Bar Harbor it’s a quintessential Maine lobster shack on the town wharf (in scenic Freeport Harbor). If you do feel like indulging, and you're going in the height of summer, a convertible will pay off nicely, especially on the mid-coast and in Acadia National Park. The trip along the coast is one everyone should do at least once.You'll be spending some time on scenic coastal roads, but this isn't northern California Maine's not an ideal testing testing ground for performance-driver chops—no cliff-hugging curves here—so save the Porsche 911 splurge for another trip.
Boston To Bar Harbor Road Trip Plus A Strong
The cabins are small (it really is a refurbed motel), but they're loaded with charm and whimsy, from the comic poolside blow-up floats to the Crosley turntables—and actual vinyl collections!—in the rooms, which are resolutely devoid of television and Wi-Fi. This is woodsy Maine coast at its best park in the lot and get your phone’s camera ready for the brief but lovely hike to Owls Head Light, a functioning 19th-century lighthouse that's as severely gorgeous as the landscape over which it presides.Stay just north of Camden at the Lincolnville Motel, exactly the brand of hipster retro you'd expect to find in Maine: laid back, warm, and friendly in an quiet way. The building alone's worth the visit, with its soaring modern atrium, minimalist lines, and surprise spatial cutouts but the small, intense collection is what truly impresses, running the gamut from early moderns like Renoir, Cassat, and homeboy Winslow Homer (whose studio at Prout's Neck is actually part of the museum) to a charmingly idiosyncratic midcentury selection including Hopper and Alex Katz, plus a strong selection of contemporary work.After lunch, make your way back to 73 toward Rockland—but tack east on North Shore Drive before you arrive, to get out to Owls Head State Park. Then head up Congress Street to the Portland Museum of Art.
They may seem like dishes you know, but they’re done here with a level of care and imagination that’ll render them fresh again.If location's your priority, the Bar Harbor Inn's tough to beat, slung as it is along the waterfront's ridge just below the town's center. Yep, that's right: Skip the lobster (this time), and order their Pad Seuw, whose noodles are hand-made daily, and the Maine crab fried rice. Get off the streets for a walk through well-manicured Harbor Park, which gracefully notches the top of postcard-pretty Camden Harbor, on your way to grab a drink with a water view at the Rhumb Line (bar seats are best), then do dinner at Long Grain, a no-frills-in-the-dining-room, high-class-in-the-kitchen Thai joint on Elm Street. (It won't take long.) Stroll Main Street, aka Route 1, for the shops and scenery, and be sure to stop at Sea Bags to pick up one of their funky-chic tote bags made from recycled sails (the combo of design charm, water resistance, and ruggedness makes them the best all-purpose personal-item carry-ons I've ever found).
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There's a strong list of beers, including several local options like Atlantic Real Ale on draft, and cocktails. A lobster roll's the order here it's generous and well regarded with plenty of tender claw and body meat dressed simply in butter. (If you're feeling landlocked, book a sunset sail on the schooner Margaret Todd or Bailey Louise Todd, both from Downeast Windjammer Cruises, on the pier just in front of the Bar Harbor Inn.)For lunch, head to Side Street Cafe in the center of town. If you finish on the north end, you're already there, with the Terrace Grille's yellow umbrellas and the fountains of Agamont Park at your left and the town landing on your right. If you finish on the south end, the path drops you right onto Wayman Lane, which in turn connects to Main Street just turn left to head to the center.
Other stops should be Fair Trade Winds for handmade crafts and Cool As A Moose for amusingly kitschy (and sure, sometimes serious) Maine and Acadia gear. The Village Green has a charm worthy of its name, and is worth a (brief) pause. If you're visiting in summer, there'll be crowds drawn by nearby Acadia but as a rule they're genial, and nothing compared to what you'll find in park towns out West. Take Main Street as your artery.
Brad Rickman Day 4: Acadia National ParkNext day, you’re off on your grand one-day tour of Acadia. Don't be surprised if you find a line.Sand Beach, living up to its name in Acadia National Park. Every flavor has its fans, but I'm partial to the blueberry soft serve, because there's nothing quite so summer and there's nothing quite so Maine.
Bring a towel, or even a chair, because it's exactly what the name implies: a wide expanse of yellow sand with crystal-clear water that, depending on the time of year, just might be warm enough (low 60s on a good day) for the brave to swim in. (Grab a map at the Visitors' Center.) Drive the Park Loop Road, which is as direct and efficient as its name suggests, roughly tracing the park's circumference to give access to all major attractions. The park’s quite close to the center of town: Just follow Paradise Hill Road to the Hulls Cove entrance. Still, there’s no great case for delay. But I’ll assume that, like me, you’re only of modest ambition and so I'll suggest that, like me, you do Cadillac at the end of the day rather than the beginning.
It’s the highest point on the North Atlantic seaboard and, with its sweeping views of the harbor, one of the park’s most impressive features. Save some time (and energy), though, for that trip up Cadillac Mountain. (Shoes recommended.)Other Loop features include Thunder Hole, a rock crevice that booms spectacularly when the tides rush in (it would be worth visiting for the surrounding geoformations alone) the precipitous Otter Cliff and pristine Echo Lake.
Reservations are a good idea unless you plan to show up after 4 p.m. You'll believe the hype.Finish your long weekend off with an evening snack at Jordan Pond House. Finishing the hike around sundown puts you at the summit at magic hour. Do one or two of the half-milers that lead you through stunning summit views, and then, if you’re still feeling it, take the South Ridge trail (7.1 miles round trip) down from the summit across shifting landscapes—pine forest, bald volcanic rock, scrub meadow—to the Blackwoods campground and back.
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