Meandering Through Maine

For fans of rugged vistas, fresh-from-the-sea cuisine and quirky small towns, the Maine coast has it all. From cozy waterfront cafés to historic homes to the picture-perfect streets of Bar Harbor near Acadia National Park, coastal Maine offers a laid-back vacation for those who like to take it slow and maybe take the backroads. This is how my husband, Rob, and I like to travel.

This past October, we planned a short getaway from our home in Boston to revisit some of our favorite spots in Maine and discover some new ones. While many people head straight to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park (300 miles, or a five-and-a-half-hour drive from Boston if you take the main highways), we weren’t in a hurry and wanted to check out some attractions along the coast. So, we took it slow.

Searsport

For short road trips, having a central base to return to after a day of exploring is key. Ours was in Searsport on Penobscot Bay, located about midway between Portland and Bar Harbor. The Homeport Inn and Tavern, built in 1861 by a sea captain, has an authentic English-style pub where classics like fish-and-chips are often accompanied by entertainment by local musicians, such as the Celtic group of almost a dozen performers we heard one night. Inn guests can enjoy other cozy places to hang out, too, including a billiards room where Rob and I would play a game or two after full days of exploring the region.

Ogunquit

Our trip included a stop in Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, where artisan shops, galleries and restaurants vied for our attention. We ate clam chowder and lobster at Barnacle Billy’s, which has an expansive waterside deck providing a view of boats bobbing in the water. After lunch, we window-shopped and then strolled over to Perkins Cove Drawbridge, said to be one of Maine’s most-photographed bridges. Of course, we stopped there for a selfie before strolling along Marginal Way, a scenic path that winds for just over a mile along the rugged shoreline.

We stopped a couple of times to relax and enjoy the waves. At the end, we were rewarded with another photo opportunity at the comically small (just 23 feet tall!) Lobster Point Lighthouse, built as a tourist attraction in 1948 by a local family.

Freeport

Road trippers often find it hard to resist a roadside attraction or a miniature golf course, and the Desert of Maine, about an hour north of Ogunquit in Freeport, offers both (open early May through October). This “desert” has its roots in the last Ice Age and the glacial sand that was left behind when the glaciers melted, eventually to be covered by soil, then forest. Fast-forward to the 1800s when a farming family cleared the forest that had grown up over millennia and exposed the sand, and still later to an entrepreneur who bought the land and turned it into one of Maine’s earliest roadside attractions in 1926.

Visitors can still walk on 20 acres of dunes (so unexpected in a forest) as well as enjoy interpretive exhibits and a museum that details the lives of Maine farmers in the 1800s. And, naturally, you can play mini-golf on the themed course, complete with camel décor.

Camden

Located about 30 minutes south of Searsport, this lively port town offers a picturesque harbor where you may see some of Maine’s famous windjammers. These traditional sailing vessels, some of which are National Historic Landmarks dating back as far as 1871, take passengers out for multi-night excursions. I’ve sailed on several Maine windjammers, as recently as this past July when I took a weeklong murder-mystery-themed trip on the schooner Heritage. That’s how I’d come to know and love the town of Camden, with its historic district of 19th-century homes, its charming public library and its landscaped amphitheater perched right by the harbor.

A wealth of independent shops, cafés and restaurants await within sight of the bay. Some of my favorites include the delightful Owl & Turtle Bookshop Café and the wonderfully original and environmentally conscious Symmetree store, which promises to plant eight trees for every T-shirt and hat it sells. I like to pick up stationery at Topo: Paper & Post, which also features works by Maine artists and sells gorgeous maps and prints.

Boothbay

While I had visited Boothbay in the past, I had never been to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens before this trip. I had really been missing something! The gardens, covering some 300 acres, feature a dahlia and iris collection that includes five dozen varieties of the dramatic blooms, rhododendrons, a butterfly house, a sensory garden, a meditation garden, a three-mile shoreline trail, and a children’s garden with areas themed to famous children’s authors from Maine, including Robert McCloskey (Blueberries for Sal).

The Fairy House Village, where adults and kids can make impermanent dwellings with items found on the forest floor, is too irresistible to pass up. The whimsical permanent exhibit “Guardians of the Seeds” consists of five giant trolls created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo from recycled wood; the sculptures are dotted throughout the garden’s forests. A free hop-on-and-off electric cart shuttle runs regularly through the gardens—perfect if time is short or if you have mobility restrictions.

Just 10 minutes from the botanical gardens in tiny Boothbay Harbor, the rooftop deck of the Tugboat Inn (a complex of five buildings clustered around an old tugboat) serves up fresh seafood and harbor views. Down below, the town is chockablock with independent shops, and not one, but two general stores. The flavors at Coastal Maine Popcorn Co.—like Maine blueberry pancake, maple and New England berries—beckon you to grab a bag or two to take home. Or pop into Orne’s Candy Store, which opened in 1885, for a treat.

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When traveling Maine’s coast, I’ve always found that the best strategy is to veer off the tourist-trodden road, listen to the locals and their recommendations, and slow down to discover your own personal favorites. It’s a philosophy that makes for a road trip to remember. 

The Spot for Lobster

You are never far from being able to get lobster in any form in coastal Maine, but if you are headed to or from Bar Harbor or Acadia, stop at the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound in Trenton (open for dine-in seasonally from mid-June to mid-October).

In business since 1956, this family-owned spot allows you to choose your lobster from a tank, which is then cooked in an outdoor wood-fired, seawater tank. Eat your Maine lobster steaming hot with butter at a picnic table. Blueberry pie for dessert is a must.