Just two full days not counting travel. The wife wants to see some New England towns so I was thinking flying to Portland and staying in Bar Harbor. The next day seeing Acadia NP (how long should I plan to stay?) then West Quoddy Head and climb out on the rocks to be at the easternmost point in the US. What other towns should I drive through to get that New England feel? The wife loves lobster so are there restaurants there that are THE place for lobster? Or is the trick to go to any lobstering town and get it boiled right off the boat? I love oysters and clams so will I be happy while she is chowing down on her crustacean?
Where are you arriving/departing from? Maine is really big and two days isn’t much time. You’d probably want to find places close to your departure point. Bar Harbor is wonderful but there are other lovely towns elsewhere on the coast.
My thought was Portland but Bangor would be doable except the flights are a lot more limited. I picked Bar Harbor because my plan was: fly into Portland, pick up a car and drive to Bar Harbor. That way we his Acadia first thing. But the reason I started this thread was for the SD to tell me a better way to do it.
The mosquitos there are the size of house cats.
I don’t know when I’m spring you are planning this by right until the end of May, coastal Maine is COOL if not downright cold. Most seasonal businesses will not have opened yet.
For two days, I would just hit Boothbay Harbor, Rockport and Camden at most. And really only if you are going in June.
Credibility: We live in the Boston area and have been for weekend up to two week trips to Maine almost every year for about 30 years.
I know YMMV but isn’t that a plus? No crowded spots? Or do you mean the coastal towns have nothing going on?
We went to Camden in mid April ten years ago. On the main drag where there might be 50 stores and restaurants in July, maybe three or four were open. It was bloody freezing too, highs mostly in the 40s/50s, oceanfront was windy and very uncomfortable.
We are folks who take walks on the beach all through the winter (unless it’s snowing or below 20F) , but this is not what we were looking for on vacation.
After Memorial Day the weather is likely to be at least okay and a few more businesses will be open.
The season in Maine is just shorter than Cape Cod and Eastern Long Island. And the drop off from high season to off-season is more abrupt.
When I was on the east coast for a work thing years ago, I ordered lobster in the restaurant of the hotel where I was staying because hey, I’m on the east coast, gotta get the lobster. What I got was a lobster with an oiled-up shell so it was shiny, on a china plate with fancy garnishes. It was perfectly delicious- and every bit as expensive as a lobster dinner in a nice restaurant in my home state of Michigan. It occurred to me that the lobster I was eating could have ironically come from some industrial distributor that supplies many states.
After that I wised up and found a little shack with fresh lobster just off the boat, prices of the day written on a chalk board, and the lobster served in a wax-paper-lined basket with a baked potato and an ear of corn. It was much less expensive and a much more down to Earth experience. So I’d look for a little neighborhood lobster shack.
IMO, two days isn’t enough to do justice to Acadia, let alone to include a bunch of other stuff.
Definitely be ready for cool weather.
Almost all of them are the place for lobster. You can buy lobster rolls from trucks and shacks everywhere. Restaurants offer dishes from plain steamed lobsters to ornate baked stuffed lobsters. If you don’t like cracking shells the Lazy Man’s Lobster is available. Go for the ambience, the lobsters all come from the same place and they don’t get any fresher.
And the house cats come back from the dead!
I soooo prefer Boothbay and these other towns to Bar Harbor, which is basically a mega tourist town, especially if the cruise ships are in (they reduced the number of those ships recently, so maybe you’ll get lucky).
To be fair they’re all tourist towns in the summer, but some are more crowded than others.
Lobsters are simple food, best had simply. Just a lobster, with steamers, corn, and a beer. The full experience should be had at a roadside shack with picnic tables. Fortunately, it’s pretty hard to mess it up.
Two days means you don’t want to spend all your time in the car. Nothing is close by in Maine, roads don’t go in straight line. Heading up to Bar Harbor is a long ride and time would be better spent outside the car. Boothbay Harbor, Wiscasset, Damariscotta, all closer to Portland and nice. Freeport can be fun for the pilgrimidge to LL Bean.
Also, as mentioned above, bugs are REALLY bad in spring. Not mosquitos yet but black flies. Be prepared.
So I’ve decided we’re going to go in Summer instead. Here’s the backstory:
The next Cesar Chavez holiday weekend will be the 30th anniversary of when I met my wife (she has no idea that that is an anniversary) and her #1 place to visit in the US (where she’s never been before) is Maine. However I just found out the #2 is the drive from Miami to Key West so my planned surprise is still to have her pack a bag for a weekend to the Springs, drive to the airport instead and fly this time to Miami and not Portland, ME. Book a room at a nice resort hotel and have the full Sunday to spend on the Key.
BUT we will still pick a week in summer 2025 to go to Maine.
Enjoy your trip to the Keys! It will serve to give you a taste of the bumper-to-bumper traffic jam that US Route 1, which runs from Key West to Fort Kent in northern Maine, can turn into during the summer. Just imagine more antique “shoppes” and less margaritas.
Portland is a lovely town, and there are truly excellent restaurants, but I agree with others that trying to fit a trip to Acadia as well might be a bit much, even with a week at your disposal. You could definitely extend up to the Rockland/Camden area, though.
If your wife has Acadia - which is lovely - absolutely on her bucket list, and you don’t have much time, think about taking a Cape Air flight from Boston to dodge the worst of the traffic. The views from the flight on a clear day are supposed to be amazing. And then you could rent some bikes in Bar Harbor to ride around the park’s carriage roads, and avoid the vehicle reservation system that they’ve instituted recently.
If you want a better sense of what Maine actually looks like, consider those flights into Bangor. See Acadia, but avoid a night in Bar Harbor, and look for a hotel in Castine or Belfast instead, both beautiful coastal towns, the former more secluded. Dennett’s Wharf in Castine and Young’s Lobster Pound in Belfast are both reliable. Hit up the maritime museum in Searsport, which is close to Belfast. Marshall’s Wharf in Belfast brews some tasty beers. Then leave the madness of Route 1 behind, and take Route 3 from Belfast to Augusta (the capitol), stopping in St. George for the brewery (which is OK) and ice cream at John’s (which is fantastic). Push past Augusta and on to Skowhegan, and then take Route 2 back to Bangor. It’s a pretty drive, and you’ll see a part of the state that few tourists do.
If you have even more time, the drive to Lubec is beautiful. I can’t really recommend heading up to Fort Kent, though; it’s nice enough, but it’s an awful lot of driving just to say you’re one of the few to have been to both ends of Route 1.
I’ve heard it’s a nice place to start a walk though.
Iswydt! 
Southwest Harbor is a world away from Bar Harbor, and has the best lobster pound in the area. We’ve stayed out there and enjoyed the village. It’s still a touristy area, but much less than Bah Habah. IMO, Acadia is worth a few days. Lots of great hikes, kayaking, biking on the carriage roads, sunrise from Cadillac Mountain, popovers at the Jordon House, ferry out to the Cranberry Islands.
Due to medical issues, we have to plan on very little physical exertion.
If you want the Maine lobster pound/shack experience, then McLoones is the epitome. 20 minutes off Route 1 and a different world. They’ll pull the lobster out of the pound for you, although I recommend the rolls.