In Town & Around the Island

For better or worse, downtown Bar Harbor is populated with endless touristy little shops. Many are nice to browse through but certainly no different from the same you'd find in any similar town. Some are quite tacky and seem to be targeted solely towards the cruise ship denizens and tend to bring the downtown ambience down a few notches. Fortunately, this doesn't apply to many of the shops, and a few stand out:

• Sherman's Book Store at the foot of Main Street is a no-brainer. It is the oldest book store in Maine, and a wonderful gift and stationery shop as well. Having expanded substantially over the years, Sherman's is, as the sign above their shop states, "the place to browse."
• Eclipse on Mount Desert Street across from the village green sells astonishingly beautiful one-of-a-kind jewelry, sculptures, and furniture. Their inventory varies, but seems to get more beautiful every year.
• Alpenglow Adventure Sports on Main Street just south of Atlantic Avenue is an excellent source of equipment and clothing for serious hikers and climbers, and they also offer guided climbs and hikes at all skill levels.
• Island Artisans on Main Street represents a cooperative of several of the area's extremely skilled craftspersons and artists. Most of its jewelry, objets d'art and other offerings are unique, unusual and tasteful.
• Window Panes on Main Street at the corner of Mount Desert Street offers an excellent collection of home furnishings, gifts and crafts.
• Eden Rising on Cottage Street offers an eclectic collection of clothing, jewelry, music, crafts, books, and spiritual offerings. It's a warm and welcoming shop with much to offer.
• Cool as A Moose on Main Street has a great selection of tee and sweat shirts, and lots of dopey souvenir clothing that the kids will love. It's a tourist staple, but so what? It's fun.
• Cadillac Mountain Sports on Cottage Street is a good outdoor sports supply store, with a large selection of climbing, camping and hiking equipment, shoes, boots, raingear, etc.
• Jekyll and Hyde on Main Street at the corner of Cottage Street is a throwback to 8th and Macdougal in Greenwich Village, with racks of tie-dye clothes, jeans, hats, jewelry, electronics, knives, and other unexpected surprises.
• Bark Harbor on Main Street toward the south end of downtown is a pet-lover's paradise, with gifts and goodies personalized for just about every breed of dog and cat you could think of.
• Fiore Artisan Olive Oils at the north edge of the Village Green offers an extraordinary selection of olive oils and vinegars, all available for tasting. The range of flavors is staggering and they make excellent gifts for foodies.

The bottom line is that if you want to, you can spend a lot of time shopping; there are literally hundreds of stores in town. Most prices are quite reasonable.

Most restaurants on the island are informal (hiking boots, jeans, etc.), although you can find a few upscale spots if you want to. With the kids (and sometimes the dogs as well), we tend to stick with the informal or outdoor-seating places.

• Paddy's Irish Pub on West Street (part of the West Street Hotel) is a huge restaurant with a very extensive menu, excellent food and terrific service. The outdoor seating looks out over the harbor.
• Guinness & Porcelli's just down the block on Main Street has a reasonably-priced menu of well-prepared southern Italian fare as well as some good seafood dishes.
• The Bar Harbor Lobster Company on Main Street offers informal outdoor dining on picnic tables and is very accommodating for kids and large groups. There's lots more on their menu besides seafood.
• The Chart House on Route 3 in Hull's Cove is a very family-friendly place with good food and service and excellent views of Frenchman's Bay from its outdoor terrace.
• Rodick Street is a little "restaurant row" with several varieties of cuisine available, including Indian, Thai and a few very popular taverns, including the Side Street Cafe, one of our regular haunts for lunch.
• Blaze on Derby Lane offers good pizza, a raw bar and several wood-fired entrees. There's usually a festive atmosphere at the bar, and outdoor seating that will accommodate diners with dogs.
• The Lompoc Cafe & Brewpub on Rodick Street has an outdoor/indoor dining room, standard pub fare, extremely friendly service, and reasonable prices. The kids can play bocce while you have a few drinks. They brew their own ale, have live entertainment, and they're open very late.
• Jordan's Restaurant on Cottage Street is a good place for a late breakfast, since it's served all day. It has the ambience of a roadside diner, for better or worse. But there's nothing like authentic Maine maple syrup on your pancakes.
• For a goof, take the kids to Route 66 on Cottage Street — a tourist trap, yes, but they know it and so do you. It's silly and fun, and the food is good! Not the place for a romantic dinner, however.
• Geddy's on north Main Street across from Agamont Park is one of the few mainstays open year 'round. It's a friendly, boisterous combination of bar/roadhouse/restaurant with lively entertainment at night.
• McKay's Public House on Main Street offers a very accommodating selection including typical pub fare like hamburgers and fries, a wide range of salads, and seasonal entrées typical of more upscale restaurants Outdoor patio seating is very charming in the evening.
• Honeymooners and Others Looking for a Romantic Dinner: Although we lean toward the opinion that upscale dining is a bit antithetical to the Mount Desert Island experience, there are a few excellent restaurants offering elegance and romantic settings:
  • The Reading Room at the Bar Harbor Inn
  • Dahlia's at the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor
  • Red Sky in Southwest Harbor

Ben and Bill's is a sweet shop on Main Street at the end of Cottage Street. It is sweets-heaven (or hell, if you're dieting), with a large selection of homemade ice cream, as well as every imaginable (and unimaginable) confection you've ever dreamed of. Almost everything for sale that is edible is made on site, and you can watch the candies being made through the opening at the rear of the display cases.

Early evenings during the summer, there is usually a considerable line to get in to this shop. Most of the time, it moves fast, and is generally worth the wait. Try the lobster ice cream if you're feeling gastronomically adventurous. They also sell a Doggie special for your pup: two scoops of ice cream and a dog bone (seriously).

Explore and experiment — it's a fairly large town. There's too much to list here, but here's a sampling: Check out the Village Green (there are concerts on the bandstand during the summer as well as occasional craft fairs), the 1932 Criterion Theater on Cottage Street (proudly listed on the Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places), Agamont Park at the bottom of town, the Bar Harbor Ale micro-brewery, the Shore Path, and the "bar" — which at low tide allows you to walk (or drive) across the bay to Bar Island. Check the tide schedule closely or you'll get stranded.

An interesting diversion is Reel Pizza Cinema, a movie theater/pizzeria at the back of the Village Green. Instead of rows of stiff seats in the auditorium, there are large comfy chairs and couches, TV-tables, dinette-style tables and chairs, and movie seats with tables in front of them. Place your order for pizza and enjoy it while watching recently released films.

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On your way to Echo Lake, you'll pass through Somesville, the oldest town on the island. Other than a general store and a seasonal theater, most of Somesville is residential, but be sure to investigate the Somesville Library, outside of which is a reading area at the mouth of Somes Sound, one of the only natural fjords in the U.S.A. Across the street is an arched bridge that is quite picture perfect. Bring your camera to this spot.

If you continue south on Route 102 past Echo Lake, you'll come to Southwest Harbor, famous in sailing circles as the home of Hinckley Yachts. It's the second-largest town on the island but still retains its little fishing village persona. There are several nice shops, a terrific ice-cream parlor, and a few excellent restaurants.

Southwest Harbor is also the home of Beal's Lobster Pound. For many years we touted Beal's as the most down-East, purely Maine coast eating experience you could have, but alas, like so many other things, it's changed... and not for the better. High prices, unfriendly staff and inconsistent quality have marred this old gem. However, it's still worth a visit. The ambience is more or less the same, with very informal dining on wooden tables on the piers among fishermen, lobster boats and seagulls. Order your lobsters, steamers, corn on the cob and wine, and enjoy a harborside dinner as the sun goes down.

Northeast Harbor is a very small, upscale community with a 2-block downtown area that has some shops certainly worth a look. The harbor itself is beautiful and the launch point for some of the National Park Service's tours. The Asticou Gardens in Northeast Harbor are quite beautiful and worth a visit.

The Thuya Garden, atop a hillside overlooking Northeast Harbor, is a beautiful collection of well-maintained annuals and perennials amid a very bucolic setting. The trek up the terraced stairs and path to reach the garden from the road is itself an enjoyable short hike, with views of the harbor from various stations and gazebos along the way up.

This is a difficult topic for us to address. The island offers lots of guest houses, some resort-style hotels, several smaller hotels, many motels, a few private campgrounds, trailer parks, two unusually beautiful national park campgrounds and in every town on every corner of the island, houses for rent. Recently, there has been a flurry of large-scale hotels taking over major parts of the heart of Bar Harbor. In our opinion, this is not a good thing, although we understand that there is a market for it.

For the first few years, we camped out. Then we started renting houses in various towns on the island. For an extended stay of one week or more, rentals seem to be the most comfortable and economically practical, especially if you're traveling with a family or group of four or more, or with pets.

There are hundreds of well-maintained, privately owned homes available for rent on a weekly, monthly or seasonal basis. Rentals have a very broad range of prices, from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per week. Like real estate anywhere, location is a primary factor. Shore access is extremely rare. Expect a high premium for a rental where you can step out of the back door onto a beach. If you do intend to rent during the summer, get started in January!

We can not and will not recommend specific properties for you to rent. If you're interested in renting a house, we can steer you to some agents via email to Larry@acadiabarharbor.com — but only after you've contacted the agencies and have been offered one or more properties.

Following are some reputable agencies that handle rentals with whom we have experience:

• Acadia Cottage Rentals
  P.O. Box 949, Bar Harbor, ME 04609
  Phone: (207) 479-1189
  book@acadiarental.com · acadiarental.com
• Summer House Cottage Rentals
  P.O. Box 100, 112B Main Street, Northeast Harbor, ME 04662
  Phone: 207-276-5053
  summerhouseoffice@gmail.com
• L. S. Robinson Agency, Southwest Harbor — (207) 244-5563
  lsrobinson.com/rentals.html
• Knowles Agency, Northeast Harbor — (207) 276-3322
  knowlesco.com
• Hinckley Agency, Southwest Harbor — (207) 244-7011
• Davis Agency, Southwest Harbor — (207) 244-3891
  daagy.com/For_Rent

A few times within the past few years, we (or our children) broke our tradition of renting homes and stayed at The Bar Harbor Inn. This beautiful hotel is located at the foot of Main Street in downtown Bar Harbor, overlooking Frenchman's Bay, directly on the Shore Path. It is extremely well-maintained and well-staffed, and our stays have always been a pleasure.

• Naturalist Cruise — Try the Naturalist Cruise around the island. It leaves regularly from the town pier in Bar Harbor. It's a two-hour cruise, very refreshing, and you'll see porpoises, seals, possibly whales, bald eagles, and who knows what else.
• Baker Island — There's a cruise that leaves from Northeast Harbor to Baker Island. It's guided by the National Park Service, and includes a dinghy-ride from the ship to the island, then a guided hike inland with a fascinating oral history of the island's unusual inhabitants. Reservations are required.
• Star Show on Sand Beach — The National Park Service conducts a Star Show on Sand Beach on clear evenings during the summer. What better "planetarium" than the real thing, sitting on a blanket on a warm evening with the surf gently lapping the shore? Check the schedule at the ANP Visitor Center. Bring blankets, flashlights, some snacks and sweaters.
• Bartlett's Landing (Pretty Marsh) — On the west side of the island, Pretty Marsh is a quiet, rural residential area. When the tide is out, the harbor landing area there is one of the best places to go crabbing among the seaweed and tidal pools. We always find lots of sea life there: crabs, sea stars, jellyfish, clams, mussels, etc. Take Route 102 to Pretty Marsh and follow the signs to Bartlett's Harbor Landing.
• Glider Rides — Available at the airport just across the bridge on the mainland in the town of Trenton. We recommend the sunset ride — reservations well in advance are necessary for that time slot, but it's worth it. A ride consists of you and the glider pilot for about a half-hour in good conditions.
• Scenic Flights — Tours over the island are available for up to 3 people. Like the glider rides, they're expensive, but if your budget allows it, it's an unforgettable experience.
• Kayak Rentals and Tours — Available on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor. For a half or full day, groups go out and paddle around the shoreline.
• The Oceanarium — Actually three small museums, two in Bar Harbor and one across the street from Beal's in Southwest Harbor. Kids love it, and it's a nice diversion on rainy days.
• Western Shore — There are other towns on the island along the western shore. These are primarily residential, blue-collar areas which don't offer much in the way of tourism. However, you never know when you'll run into that quaint little tag sale.
• Seal Cove Auto Museum — Also on the western edge of the island, this privately-owned collection of almost 100 automobiles and trucks is open from 10AM to 5PM every day from June 1st through September 15th.

Unfortunately and unavoidably, many parts of Acadia National Park and its surrounding towns get hopelessly and often frustratingly crowded from May through September. Be aware of this, and be prepared. Parking lots everywhere are often full. Going early or late in the day may help, but not always. Using public transportation such as the Island Jitney is another solution whenever and wherever possible. Here are examples of places where you'll encounter some of the worst crowds:

• Jordan Pond House — The crowds here can be massive. Both the regular and overflow parking lots are often completely full and gridlocked. Make restaurant reservations in advance and try for an early brunch (before 11am) or late-day tea and popovers (between 4 and 5pm).
• Sand Beach Parking Lot — On a warm, sunny day, the regular and overflow lots will fill up by 10am. Additional parking is permitted along the Loop Road. The same parking areas service Gorham Mountain.
• Thunder Hole — This spot is always hopelessly crowded. It's really only worth visiting in the worst weather, so save it for a rainy, stormy day.
• Beehive and Precipice Trails — These two most challenging of trails attract a lot of people who probably should not be climbing them, causing ridiculous backups that can thoroughly ruin the experience. Their trailhead parking lots are also zoos during most days. Plan your hike for early morning. Don't take the toddlers, please!
• Cadillac Mountain Summit — Recent restrictions to access have ameliorated some of the worst crowding, but it still gets thick with cars in the summit lots and tourists, kids and dogs.
• Main Street, Bar Harbor — Early evenings (especially between Atlantic Avenue and West Street) are often so crowded that sidewalk strollers overflow into the streets. Traffic is equally insane at that time.
• Loop Road Entrance at Schooner Head — If you didn't purchase your Park Pass in advance, you may sit for 15 to 20 minutes in line behind everyone else who made the same mistake.
• Other Trailhead Parking Lots — Most trailhead parking lots inside the park are small and often unable to accommodate the throngs of hikers who arrive midday. Please plan accordingly, and if there's no room to park, don't "invent" spots that may impede others' access or damage natural resources.

Keep in mind that this is all very subjective. If you're looking to be entertained, or looking for glitz, or seeking a Disneyworld-type vacation, you may be disappointed. This is an island where you do your own thing, most of it outdoors. Even at the height of the season, when there are a zillion people on the island, you can always find a quiet and beautiful place somewhere.

If you just visit the tourist traps and hang out in town, you may miss all that's brought us back there for over fifty years. There's karma in this place, and you don't have to look hard to find it. Don't be disarmed by how friendly everyone is in Bar Harbor, or by how many people are wearing tie-dyed clothes, or by the folk music clubs in town, or all the dogs running around, or the children frolicking just about everywhere... It may seem like 1969, but it's just the way life is supposed to be!

The links listed here were all active as of March 2016. You may want to use a search tool to find others.

• The U.S. Park Service's Home Page for Acadia National Park — This site also includes information about the two U.S. National Park campgrounds in Acadia.
• The Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park Chamber of Commerce

→ Read letters from visitors to this website

→ See Bar Harbor as viewed from above