Hi, My wife and i are planning a trip to Maine in early August (we are flexible in whent to take our trip). The duration of the trip will be about 10 to 14 days. We are in our late 40%26#39;s and enjoy sightseeing, shopping and good restaurants.
Right now in the early stages of planning our trip we are thinking of driving from cleveland to boston staying in boston area for a couple of days and then to bar harbor for a 5 to 7 day stay.
I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have in making our trip as enjoyable as possible.
Would like to know where to stay what to do where to eat in bar harbor or surrounding areas. We would prefer to stay in a cabin or cottage.
Also if anyone could recommend a nice route with maybe an overnight stay from boston to bar harbor.
Also if anyone has made the trip from cleveland to boston we are looking for an overnight stay on that route also.
We plan on eating a lot of lobster
Planning a trip to Maine
Boston to the island is about 4-6.5 hours driving depending on where you are in ';boston';. (many of us mainers call anything within 100 miles of the city ';Boston';). So don%26#39;t waste your time staying over in between. Get to the Island.
If you want to stay in a cabin type setting, I would suggest googling campgrounds or private set ups on the island. I find that they are prefferable setting and quality to the ';cabins'; along the main roads. As you are staying for a week, most of them rent for a week at a time so that would work for you. Although there are some that does nightly, and that happens to be my cup-o-tea (but is more rustic than some of the others which are REALLY nice set ups). Some off the top of my head would be
Acadia cabins- in SW Harbor
Smugglers- close to SW Harbor
Bass Harbor campground( which is my cup-o tea but admittledly low maintenance).
But there is a website set up called something like ';acadia magic'; that will give you lots of options that run the scale of $ and accomodation.
Lobster- No problem. You can eat it everyday here. And it doesn%26#39;t matter where. It%26#39;s pretty much the same everywhere. But for some cultural differences: Thurstons%26#39; in Bernard (working harbor/ eating out on the deck) and the parkside resteraunt in town Bar Harbor. There is another great place I used to like to go close to the water in town, but I for get the name.
Planning a trip to Maine
he website that baxterME referred to is:
%26lt;www.acadiamagic.com%26gt;
It has links to various forms of lodging, plus activities in the park, etc. Also check the Overview link at the top of this page for some descriptions of hikes, walks, restaurants, reading materials.
The Island Explorer shuttle bus (free) will be operating then (%26lt;www.exploreacadia.com%26gt;) Also, Olliie%26#39;s Trolley provides tours of Bar Harbor and the park.
I second baxterME: with any kind of a decent start in the morning from Boston you can be here in the middle of the afternoon.
And if you get tired of lobster (which you can get almost anywhere except for the post office and police station), try Mache Bistro in Bar Harbor and/or Red Sky in Southwest Harbor. Geddy%26#39;s in Bar Harbor has killer burgers.
Since most cottage/summer home rentals are Sayurday to Saturday, you may want to plan accordingly. There is plenty to do on the island - Mt Desert Island, home of Acadia Nat. Park. Bar Harbor is the largest town on the island, but there are many others, smaller, less crowded, and delightful. For weekly rentals try:
http://www.downeastguide.com/
Also Vacation rentals By Owner: www.vrbo.com and
Vacation Home Rentals: http://www.vacationhomerentals.com/index.html
The most direct drive from Boston to Acadia is up Rte I-95 to Bangor and then over to Ellsworth and Acadia. As you might expect, I-95 on Saturday morning and into the afternoon can be quite congested, I would say form the Boston area all the way up past Portland, ME. This will make your drive longer and less pleasant. So, while the drive is doable in a day, getting somewhere by Friday morning, enjoying the day, and then striking out Saturday morning from there, may be a worthwhile consideration. You might want to consider a night or 2 in Portland. The downtown Old Port area is a lot of fun, with great restaurants, shops, nightlife, and daytime ferries to outlying islands. If you leave by even 11 AM Saturday, you%26#39;ll avoid a lot of traffic and arrive in Acadia with a smile on your face.
If you and your wife are into cycling, you may want to consider bringing along your bicycles. There are great cycling trails, all levels of difficulty, through much of the park. There are also many rentals places if you don%26#39;t have or don%26#39;t bring them.
As for the drive from Cleveland to Boston, I think it can be done in a day, if you don%26#39;t want to stop overnight. My atlas says the distance is about 650 miles - say 10 hours of driving time. If you want to stop along the way, there are a variety of options, depending on the route. But some of the attractions enroute to choose from include - Croning, NY and the glassworks - the tour is great and there are many terrific art and craft shops in towen. Also the Soaring Museum in neighboring Elmira. Ithaca, NY is a lovely town on the tip of Cayuga Lake. Elmira is high on the cliff, and there are many beautiful gorges with waterfalls and some with swimmable pools at the bottom. As they say in Ithaca - Ithaca is Gorges. You can also plan a stop at Cooperstown, NY if you are baseball fans. Those would be some of my suggestions, particularly if you take Rte 17 across soouthern NYS. There are probably many other beautiful places. But, other than that, pick a halway point and call your favorite chain hotel for reservations.
Do you know where you plan to stay in Boston? If you are planning to stay within the city, you may want to consider planning your drive out to reach the outer limits of the Boston area, and find a hotel somewhere along I-90 or Rte 9 between the I-495 and I-95/Rte 128 loops. That way, you can drive hard one night, but be able to check in to your Boston hotel early the next day and have a full day in the city.
If you%26#39;re flexible go in September, the crowds are gone, the prices are down, the weather is better.
Thank you for all your responses. We have decided to do our trip in late august or early september to take advantage of the lower prices and less crowds. I am going crazy trying to find a nice place to stay in bar harbor or close by.
We are looking for a suite or a cottage (would like to do some cooking while there) that overlooks the water and has great scenery. We will have our vehicle so driving is not a problem
any recommendations?
have you tried cyberrentals.com? I have used them for several vacations. There are a bunch of houses in the area.
Also, if you consider staying somewhere off the island, try vacationcottages.com, a Downeast rental company. They may have some houses on the island, but we stay in Brooklin and I know one of the houses (the little red house) is next door to the house we rent. It might be easier to rent a house on the water off of Mount Desert.
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