Maine has become a very popular tourist destination, especially in the summer…we did experience the crowds first-hand, but it was manageable. There’s a lot of area to cover in Maine and you could spend a full week there, but we had two other destinations during this trip (Montreal, Quebec and Halifax, Nova Scotia) so we just spent two days in Bar Harbor. We chose Bar Harbor due to its close proximity to Acadia National Park, which is definitely a must-do in Maine. It’s important to note that Bar Harbor is somewhat seasonal and only fully open May-October.
Note that you’ll need to fly in to Bangor (BGR) airport and drive a little over an hour to Bar Harbor. I recommend renting a car, as ride shares are sparse and it’s best to have a car to tour Acadia if you’re not planning to do a guided tour. Flights and rental cars are both limited, so book early for the best options. Grab your hiking shoes and let’s head to the East coast of Maine!
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Here is a sample itinerary based on our family trip with adult children in July:
DAY 1: LAND BRIDGE, LIGHTHOUSES, WILDLIFE, AND GHOSTS
As I mentioned above, flights and cars are limited and East coast weather in the summer can be stormy….very long story short, our plans were completely derailed due to thunderstorms, so we ended up having to drive to Bar Harbor from Washington, DC and basically lost a day. So a couple of the suggestions in this itinerary are what we planned to do, but missed out on…
As far as where to stay in Bar Harbor, the town itself has a few large hotels, but there are also a ton of small inns and bed and breakfasts that are well-suited for couples. We had three young adults with us, so we opted for a more family-friendly resort just outside of Bar Harbor and had a family suite. We stayed at the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel and I would highly recommend! We had a spacious suite with a balcony overlooking the ocean, there was a pool, hot tub, laundry, full buffet breakfast, and plenty of Adirondack chairs to sit and soak in the views.
We had breakfast at the hotel on our first day and then grabbed coffee from Coffee Hound at the Stadium. They have breakfast options here, as well as lots of pastries and fun gifts to take home as well. You’ll need to find a place to park your car for the day as everything is within walking distance. If you’re there on a weekend like we were, parking can be tricky to find!
One of the really unique things to do in Bar Harbor is to walk the Land Bridge or Bar Island Trail during the low tide. Low tide happens once in the morning and once again late in the day, and exposes a 1-mile gravel trail that you can walk from the harbor out to Bar Island. There’s lots of shells, stones, and even some sea creatures to spot along the way. It’s safe to cross 1.5 hours before and after the low tide, so be sure to check the timing for the low tide the day you are there. We spent maybe an hour total on this excursion.
For lunch check out either West Street Cafe for paninis and soup, or Atlantic Brewing for beer tasting and elevated bar food. We were planning to do this 3-hour lighthouse boat cruise in the afternoon of Day 1 through Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company, where you are also likely to see seals, porpoise, bald eagles and puffins! Unfortunately, due to our late arrival we weren’t able to do this…but you should!
For dinner we grabbed pizza at Rosalie’s (recommended as the best pizza in Bar Harbor)…it was very busy and crowded, but the pizza was definitely worth it! Plus they had a great selection of local beers as well. Note that they are closed on Mondays. As soon as we finished a quick dinner it was time to head to Agamont Park to meet up with our Walking Ghost Tour that we booked through Viator. This was a great way to learn about the history of Bar Harbor and some of its legendary spooky residents. The tour lasted about 90 minutes and takes you along the shore path and up into the city center.
For a late-night sweet treat I’d recommend grabbing some warm cookies from The Sweet Bite or if you’re really adventurous, try the lobster ice cream at Ben and Bills!
DAY 2: ACADIA NATIONAL PARK AND ALL THE BLUEBERRY THINGS
For Day 2, you’ll want to plan your day around your visit to Acadia. One of the highlights there is to drive up Cadillac Summit Road to the top of Cadillac Mountain, but you need to reserve your spot in advance (up to 90 days before) as they only allow so many people to drive up each day. You can choose to go super early for a sunrise view or sometime during the day (we chose early afternoon). Since Cadillac Mountain is near the park entrance, we decided to wait to go to the park until early afternoon and spend the morning exploring Bar Harbor.
As you might know, Maine is known for their smaller, more tart variety of wild blueberries (my favorite variety!). There are so many blueberry products available to eat, drink, and buy to take home. With this said, if you’re looking for the best blueberry pancakes for breakfast, try either Jeannie’s Great Maine Breakfast or Jordan’s Restaurant in downtown Bar Harbor. Take some time to explore the shops in town and pick up some blueberry jam and a cozy sweatshirt to take home.
For lunch, be sure to try a local lobster roll...there are several places that serve them, but Side Street Cafe was rated one of the best and it didn’t disappoint! All of the food (and local beer) was really good here. This was our favorite meal in Bar Harbor. Our family recommends having the lobster rolls served warm with butter by the way…
After lunch we made our way to the entrance to Acadia National Park, which is just a 10 minute drive from downtown Bar Harbor. The Park Loop Road is 27 miles in total and it’s recommended to reserve about 3-4 hours to see the entire park. We started at the Cadillac Mountain Summit since we had our reservation, and then before entering the park we downloaded the Action Tour Guide self-guided driving tour for Acadia. This is a free app and cost just $17 for the fully-guided tour for Acadia, which worked perfectly. There are a bunch of guided tours available through Viator and Trip Advisor as well depending on your preference, but I do highly recommend having a guide of some sort so that you know where to stop to see the highlights!
We hiked around the top of Cadillac Mountain a bit (and I got my first ever wasp stings!), but nothing too crazy. It’s great for views and photo opportunities for sure. There are several other stops along the way and you can take as much or as little time as you want at each stop. I will say that some of the stops were crawling with people and parking was limited, so we skipped a couple of the stops and probably made our way through the park in under 3 hours.
One of the must-do stops is at Jordan Pond and the Jordan Pond House restaurant. This was one of the most scenic spots in the park in my opinion. There’s a 3.3 mile hike around the pond called Jordan Pond Path that I would recommend if you have time. Or just stop in to Jordan House for a bite to eat. There’s also a walk-up popover and prosecco bar outside the restaurant to grab one on Maine’s famous popovers with butter and jam. You can take your snack and sit in the grass overlooking the pond. This is the option we took, but unfortunately due to the wasps (again with the wasps!) they weren’t serving jam with the popovers so they were very blah…
For dinner on Day 2, I don’t really have another recommendation…we went somewhere that was pretty awful (service and food), so I won’t mention it here! We did however thoroughly enjoy the local Atlantic Brewing Blueberry Ale (found everywhere!) and the blueberry soft serve ice cream from CJ’s Big Dipper downtown!
That wrapped up our very quick 2-day trip to Bar Harbor, Maine. Aside from missing the boat tour, we were able to everything on our list. I’d say 2-3 days is about all you need to see everything there. This would be a great stop as part of a full Maine vacation, a Northeast US vacation, or take our route and head to Eastern Canada!