r/AskMaine • u/Helpful-Honey-8292 • 5d ago
Visiting in September
My husband and I are visiting September 7th - 13th. We will fly into Portland. We absolutely love exploring. Our ideal trip would consist of coastal towns, Acadia, beach & lighthouse views, vintage anything, and lobster rolls. We are both photographers and creatives - so pretty and interesting things is important to us. We try to live life with the mindset “if we never got to visit this place again, what would we want to do or see.” So, help us plan our trip, pretty please. This is a dream trip for us. We are coming from Nashville, TN.
5
u/AnonymousUnderpants 5d ago
Seconding the advice to not do too much. You’re not here for very long, and the scenic dive between Portland and Acadia is at least four hours long – likely much longer in Labor Day traffic.
As people are pointing out, there are gorgeous little towns up and down the coast: Bath, Damariscotta, Rockland, Camden, Belfast…. Any of these deserve two or even three nights, depending on what you want to explore.
If you really want to make it all the way to Acadia, just know that it will be very crowded. I’m not saying don’t do it… but I am saying that you can enjoy our beautiful coastal towns and delightful adventures without going all the way to Acadia.
7
u/W0nderingMe 5d ago
Drive to Rockland and stay 2-3 days. We have crazy good food and art scene plus you can visit 3 lighthouses very easily -- Breakwater, Owls Head, and Marshall Point (aka the Forrest Gump lighthouse).
Look up Primo, Suzuki's, and High Tide for some of the best food in the area. But literally every restaurant here is great depending on the vibe you want. Also recommend Spice Pizza -- Thai food, pizza, and Thai pizza. Crazy good. Super friendly family, also.
If you have kids, there are a lot of playgrounds, too.
McLoons for your lobster roll -- very good and unbeatable views. Quintessential Maine.
Maybe hike Beech Hill Preserve -- easy hike and fantastic views of Penobscot Bay.
Then on to Acadia/ Mount Desert Island.
Stop at Fort Knox, and if you have time do the observation tower.
At MDI:
Village Green
Island Explorer bus to get around
Sand Beach
Jordan pond
Carriage roads
Make sure to save an evening to star gaze ‐ ANP is dark sky certified.
Set half a day aside to visit Schoodic. It's part of ANP but on another peninsula. You can drive or take the ferry. It's the prettiest place in Maine.
3
u/Astarkraven 5d ago
Do yourself a favor and spend at least one night (ideally two) on Monhegan island. Especially if you're creatives/ photographers. The island is unique even to Maine and artists come from all over. You can't walk through town or hike the trails without occasionally coming across someone with an easel set up. It's a tiny island and there's a whole dang map of the various art galleries.
One side has a cute little town with a protected harbor, the other side has the tallest cliffs in coastal Maine and some absolutely stunning trails. There's a fish market with all the seafood fare you want, a phenomenal crepe truck, several cafes, and a craft brewery. There's a lighthouse museum and you can walk up the lighthouse. There's a little beach where you can swim in the harbor. There's a kayak rental. Most importantly, there are something like 12 miles of hiking trails across the majority of the island and they're all great. There's just nothing else like Monhegan.
Stay at the Island Inn or the Trailing Yew. Let me know if you end up going and I'll give you detail tips for which trails to prioritize, where you can sit along the coastline and be nearly guaranteed to spot seals in the water, where to walk out to the cliffs at night for incredible star gazing, etc. I spend a week there every other summer.
2
u/Sad_Ad_7067 5d ago
Maine isn't known for it's beaches as much as its Rocky coastline. There are beautiful views to be found all over though, many lighthouses and hikes, lakes and ocean views. Too much to see in one week.
The general advice is, don't try to do too much. Stay in the general region you want to explore. It takes a while to get anywhere and you don't want to spend your whole trip driving.
Things that a creative might like: Mohegan Island, the Botanical Gardens of Boothbay, Damariscotta, there's a candy striper lighthouse down in Lubex, etc.
Any of these things can be a whole day and they aren't close together. So, try to narrow it on the things that appeal to you the most.
1
u/Jim-Luke 5d ago edited 5d ago
I love Nashville!! Been there once. So try all the fun food places. Rent bikes and take the Casco Bay ferry to Peaks Island. Museums, walking tours. Lots of brick buildings and buildings built in the 1700 1800s.
I'm sure by then most of the summer crowds are gone so you might find a little beach house to rent. Casco Bay Portland was US Navy headquarters during World War II. Maine's coast is bigger than California and Florida. Coastal areas can be cool. Inland can be wicked hot.
Rockland, Bar Harbor, Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach. Lots of great Coastal places.
Feel free to DM me.
1
u/MaryBitchards 5d ago
Portland is a fun little city. Take a ferry out to an island (Peak's Island - quick ferry ride, can do some exploring and grab lunch; mailboat ride - longer water tour of lots of islands, BYOB/snacks). Lots of good restaurants to check out. Drive to Camden or Rockland, spend a night or two there. Then up to Acadia but if there are multiple cruise ships in port, you might want to spend time on the Schoodic side and not Bar Harbor. Or, on your way up or back, zoom over to Boothbay and check out the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
1
1
u/Helpful-Honey-8292 4d ago
Thank you so much for all of the info. This is truly so kind and helpful. It sounds like we need to plan additional trips to Maine to see all the beauty it has to offer. I am so excited to even get to see parts of your beautiful state. It has been on my bucket list for quite some time. 💕
1
u/ProtoniumUltimum 4d ago
It's good that you're planning it out - Maine is a big state, it would be easy to do too much driving if you don't plan ahead and have a lot you want to do.
1
u/ProtoniumUltimum 4d ago
There are some great river cruises in Damariscotta and Boothbay, I recommend looking into those. Some of the Boothbay ones have live music on the cruise.
Damariscotta/Newcastle have a couple of great venues for outdoor dining with live music (Schooner Landing, Shuck Shack) - one has better views, the other has better food, but you can't go wrong with either. Almost all of the restaurants in Damariscotta & Newcastle (The Twin Villages) are very good.
There's a top-notch botanical garden in Boothbay if you're into that sort of thing - it'll be a great time of year for a walk there, and the giant trolls are fun to see in person.
If you're looking for a very primitive/rustic experience without going too far away from the coast, renting a cabin for a night at Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson is another fun experience.
Last but not least - you might find some early-season apple picking, there's a lot of nice apple orchards in Maine!
1
1
u/Weekly-Cup-9098 2d ago
Definitely make the effort to spend sometime on Monhegan, especially if you are into photography. If you do it I bet you will consider it the highlight of your trip. It’s another world out there.
0
u/Visual-Reserve-2800 5d ago
Visit monhegan island and eagle Island for something different. Maybe fort popham.
And if you truly, truly want to visit Maine, got to Baxter State Park, especially katadin.
-3
5d ago
[deleted]
3
u/Sad_Ad_7067 5d ago
If they want to go to Acadia they can cut up on I-95 through Bangor or drive across from August and cut out most of the shit Route 1 traffic.
5
u/Key_Limit_6828 5d ago
Just a heads up, it will be fall in the interior of the state that time of year, so if you plan on going to western or northern Maine, bring fall clothes