Mount Desert Island
Bar Harbor
The gateway to Acadia — busy in summer, genuinely excellent in May and September. More than a staging point for the park if you give it a day.
Acadia National ParkCadillac MountainWhale watching
Town GuideDowneast Maine
Coastal Towns
Downeast Maine isn't one place — it's a dozen small towns strung along peninsulas and islands. Each one different. Each one worth knowing.
The Towns
Castine guide in progress.
Deer Isle
Stonington
A working lobster port at the tip of Deer Isle, and the only way to reach Isle au Haut — the remote, rarely visited section of Acadia.
Isle au Haut ferrySea kayakingWorking harborTown Guide
Blue Hill Peninsula
Blue Hill
A mountain you can hike in an hour, chamber music since 1902, a pottery tradition, and a serious independent bookshop. The cultural heart of the peninsula.
Blue Hill MountainKneisel HallPottery studiosTown Guide
Blue Hill Peninsula
Castine
A quiet harbor town with a remarkable colonial history — Fort George, the Maine Maritime Academy, and elm-lined streets that have changed very little.
Fort GeorgeMaine Maritime AcademyHistoric districtGuide in progress
Bold Coast
Lubec
The easternmost town in the contiguous US. West Quoddy Head lighthouse, Campobello Island across the channel, and a working waterfront that hasn't been tidied up for visitors.
West Quoddy HeadCampobello IslandBold CoastTown Guide
Bold Coast
Eastport
An island city of 1,300 people with the highest tides in the US, the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere, and a Fourth of July the whole region drives in for.
Old Sow whirlpoolRaye's MustardFourth of JulyTown Guide
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