Our family recently returned from a week long trip to the coast of Maine, primarily spending our time in Acadia National Park. Several people have asked for suggestions and I thought I would share our itinerary, tips, and thoughts on Acadia National Park that I have been sharing with others.
We are a family of four with two sons that were 14 and almost 13 at the time of our trip. They both LOVED it, as did my husband and myself. It really was the perfect destination for our family – full of beauty, adventure, and rest. We were there from a Saturday-Saturday, so a full week.
Off Season at Acadia National Park
If you can help it at all I would go “off season”. There will be some things that will be closed (we noticed a few shops, some park ranger stations, a lumber Jack show, and a chain saw carving show) but they’re anticipating more crowds this year (2021) than any other since the border is closed (and they think all those who go up to Canadian coast will settle for Maine) and I think it would be pretty miserable if there were massive crowds.
Our Lodging | Hancock, Maine
We stayed in Hancock and it was LOVELY. It would totally depend on your priorities, but it was so perfect for us. There’s a little tidal falls area with tidal pools (we saw starfish!) and it has a “reversing falls” – we stopped in almost daily just to look at it since it was two minutes from the little cabin we rented. It was however a 45 minute drive to the park.
Acadia National Park
Acadia is GORGEOUS. You really can’t go wrong with what you do. It is divided into two different areas, about 1.5 hour drive from each other. Schoonic Peninsula is a part of the Acadia NP but is less populated than its counterpart nearer to Bar Harbor. It has a one way drive just like the main park, some hikes, rocks to play on, and AMAZING views – all with significantly less traffic.
The “main” park is located near Bar Harbor. There is a visitor center that isn’t really worth stopping at in my opinion. Things could have been closed off bc of Covid, but we were underwhelmed with it. We stopped to get our pass, but we could have gotten it at the ticket gate and saved the stop.
Military and National Parks
There are fees to get into Acadia National Park, but military can get an “America the Beautiful” pass for free. We had thought we needed to go to the visitor center, but we could have just driven up to the ticket gate and gotten it there. There are lots of places the America the Beautiful pass can get you into, so be sure to look into it!
Driving Acadia National Park
There’s a one way road you drive to get the views/access hiking trails and ocean access. To get on it you go through a ticket gate and they’ll give you a map. We drove it a few times. There are parking lots along the way that you can pull into, but the do allow you to park on the right lane, so you can do that anytime you want.
Our favorite things within that gated drive area was a climb called The Beehive, a swimming beach (these two things shared the same parking lot and had a nice bathroom), and thunder hole. If you have young kids you’ll want to do some serious research re The Beehive and if you think they can do it. It is REALLY amazing though if you can at all manage the climb.
The beach has large waves and apparently the water is cold year round. My boys had fun in it and playing in the sand.
Thunder hole is easy to access and super neat – a little cavern makes a thunderous sound as the tide comes in. You’ll want to line up your visit with the tide (we happened upon it our first time, I wouldn’t stress about timing it perfectly- you can always come back if it strikes your fancy!)
Outside of the gated drive the three things we most loved were the lighthouse, Echo lake (the parking lot gives you access to the lake and there is a climb very similar to the beehive one. AMAZING views if your crew can handle the climb!), and Cadillac mountain. All three locations had bathrooms. We drove to the top of Cadillac mountain. It’s said to be where you can first see the sunrise … but we didn’t make it over to see it. We were told to arrive 45 minutes before sunrise if we wanted a chance to get a parking spot. Evidently the mountain can get crowded and during busy seasons they take reservations to get up it. So just check ahead of your visit.
Bar Harbor, Maine
In Bar Harbor itself there is an ice cream shop on the main strip that sells lobster ice cream. It is good ice cream and while weird to have lobster in it, it was one of my kid’s highlights. It’s also expensive ($7 for a double scoop). But totally worth it in our opinion!
Lubec, Maine
One of our family’s favorite things was the trip to Lubec. It’s a bit of a drive from Acadia – maybe 2.5 hours? But it is GORGEOUS and if you go to Quoddy head state park there is a lovely trail to walk that we enjoyed SO much. It is the eastern most point of the USA.
In Lubec there was also a seafood restaurant that sold lobster platters (came with fries and corn and coleslaw) for $22 which was the cheapest we found. The restaurant was super casual, had lots of locals in it (good sign!) and overlooked the water. It was up in Lubec that we saw seals in the ocean, and on our drive back to Hancock we saw about a dozen seals in a little river! We pulled over and watched them play. We never saw any wildlife of note in Acadia.
Meals
We made the decision to keep things really simple and packed a jar of PB, loaf of bread, some fruit, and chips or cookies for lunch each day. It got a little old having the same lunch each day, but it also totally saved my sanity to have it so simple and straightforward.
Supper was a hot meal and usually cooked at the cabin, and breakfast was also a hot meal (eggs), also cooked at the cabin. There were three grocery stores to chose from and we would stop in as needed to pick up food.
Our Itinerary
Saturday – Arrive at cabin, explore Reversing Falls in Hancock, settle in to cabin
Sunday – Schoonic Peninsula (ANP)
Monday – drove to Lubec Maine for the day
Tuesday – Acadia National Park + Bar Harbor
Wednesday – Acadia National Park – climbed The Beehive
Thursday – Hancock Tidal Falls + Acadia National Park
Friday – Acadia National Park – lighthouse, Echo Lake, Beech Trail hike
Saturday – packed up and left cabin
