The northeastern most state in the U.S., Maine is a great summer travel destination with a lot to offer. One way to experience the coast of Maine is to take a road trip to Acadia National Park. In this post I share many of the highlights covered in our road trip video below.
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Road Trip to Acadia National Park
See Maine’s rocky coastline, lighthouses, beautiful nature areas and sample all the delicious food including fresh Atlantic lobsters and potato donuts. This road trip guide starts in Kittery and ends in Lubec.
Kittery Trading Post – Kittery
The Kittery Trading Post has just about everything you could possibly want or need to enjoy the great outdoors. From hiking, fishing, kayaking gear to shoes, hats and backpacking gear, this place has it all. Even if you don’t need any gear, it’s a fun stop on your way to Acadia National Park.
Rocky Coast of Maine – Bald Head
From Kittery, Maine make your way to Bald Head Cliff via Coastal Route 1. Stop in at Cliff House Maine for breathtaking views of Maine’s rocky coastline. Make this a stop on the way to the popular beach town Ogunquit and go for a walk on Marginal Way, a paved path known for incredible views.
Maine’s Potato Donut – Scarborough
A road trip would not be complete without a few tasty food stops along the way. From Ogunquit make your way to The Holy Donut in Scarborough where the donuts are made with Maine potatoes. Joe’s holding the dark chocolate with sea salt, one of the most popular offerings. Note: gluten free donuts are available, but sell out fast.
Best Bakery in Maine – South Portland
From Scarborough make your way to Scratch Baking Company in South Portland. We especially enjoyed the sea salt snacker and the baguette, but I have a feeling everything they make is delicious. The bagels are so popular they have a limit on the number of bagels each customer can purchase at a time.
Maine’s First Capital – Portland
From South Portland make your way to Portland, the first capital of Maine. This charming city on the coast has quite the history. Established in the 1600s as a trading and fishing settlement, Portland has been renamed quite a few times throughout its history. Old Port is a good starting place where you can walk the cobblestone streets and explore the eclectic shops.
Acadia National Park
From Portland, make your way to Acadia National Park. Start at Hulls Cove Visitor Center where you can get trail maps, see program schedules and talk to the rangers. To get a good feel of the park, head out on the 27 mile scenic drive on Park Loop. Give yourself the whole day to explore as there are many overlooks and trails along the way. Below are some of our favorite activities.
Ocean Path Trail
This fairly level trail is over 3 miles round trip and an easy walk with beautiful views of Maine’s rocky coast. Start at Sand Beach and make your way to Otter Point with a stop at Thunder Hole.
Jordan Pond Trail
Jordan Pond is one of the most popular trails and most photographed areas in Acadia National Park. The 3 mile trail around the shore offers stunning views of the mountains. Make sure to have your bug repelling gear on as they’re out in full force on this trail. You can find all the gear we love and use over at our store.
Cadillac Mountain
Either hike or drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the panoramic views. I recommend staying for the sunset or arriving early to catch the sunrise. You can see the sunset time-lapse we captured in our video at the beginning of this post.
Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse
A worthwhile detour from Park Loop scenic drive is the lighthouse at Bass Harbor Head. Built in 1858, the light at Bass Harbor is red and darkens every four seconds.
Camping at Acadia National Park
There are several campgrounds to choose from inside the park. We took a tour of Seawall, a wooded campground with several loops for tent and RV camping. While there are no hookups or showers at the campground, each site has a picnic table and fire ring. You can pay for showers at a convenience store not too far from the campground entrance.
We stayed at Narrows Too Camping Resort in Trenton, Maine.
Blueberries & Lobsters – Bar Harbor
From Acadia National Park make your way to Bar Harbor, one of the most well known vacation spots in Maine. In case you don’t know, a lot of blueberries are grown in Maine and you’ll find all things blueberry in Bar Harbor. Go on a complimentary tour and tasting at Atlantic Brewing to sample their blueberry ale. If you’re hungry for lobster, check out the Downeast lobster experience complete with blueberry pie.
Easternmost Point – Lubec
From Bar Harbor head to Lubec and make West Quoddy Head Lighthouse the final stop on your Maine road trip. Be the first person to see the sunrise in the contiguous United States from here.
Bonus Food Stop: for all you mustard fans, Raye’s Mustard Mill in Eastport is about an hour drive from Lubec. The classic mustard gets two thumbs up from Joe.
Have fun exploring Maine!
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We are going on a cruise mid September- stopping in Bar Harbor. I am hoping you could answer some questions for me please!
1) This is the big one-I am terrified of Mountain Roads with cliffs (after an incident in the smokey mountains) Are there those kind of roads in Acadia National Park?
2) Are the bugs bad in mid September?
3) We are retired so not interested in hiking lol
Thank you so much for any answers you can give me!
The only cliff road we recall is the one up to Cadillac mountain. Otherwise you should be good. Can’t speak to the bugs in September but maybe try calling the ranger office to ask. If anyone knows, they will.
You always paint a rosey picture of van life. Have you ever had the Hymer breakdown on any of your trips?
Hey David. Have you watched the slice of van life video? I left the radio on and it drained the chassis battery https://youtu.be/LDE04C2EOqc
Did You find any free camping sites in Maine and if so how were they?
Budget is good 🙂 There are Harvest Hosts and other RV friendly businesses throughout Maine such as Cabela’s and Walmart.
HEY GUYS, HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR BUDGETING. SEEMS LIKE YOUR EXPENSES HAVE GONE UP CONSIDERABLY.
Fairly new subscriber here who loves your videos! The question I have is how difficult is it to schedule/keep regular appointments…dentist, haircuts etc? Do you always go to a new dentist, barber etc?
Hey Jon! We find new places to take care of those things as we travel and it’s fairly easy to keep appointments when we plan in advance. Haircut appointments are the easiest for us since Joe is our barber 🙂
We met you guys at Atlantic- Midtown (downtown Bar Harbor). We left you with one of your biggest fans, and probably one of the most hilarious people I have ever met, Bob. It was lovely meeting both of you and watching your video! We loved camping in Seawall, you guys should check it out next time you guys are in that area. We hope you can make your way to Western MA sometime, we have some beautiful places worth checking out. Safe travels!
Kye and Blake
Good to hear from you both! We hope to make it to MA this summer and explore. Take more vacations this year and maybe we’ll see you both at another brewery.
You missed Shain’s Lobster Rolls in Sanford. Two years ago they were $7-8.
Would you recommend the permethrin as being effective?? Thanks and always great videos. Thank you. Carl & Sandra
Yes. So far so good and the park rangers recommended it to us.
I believe this product is made from ‘chrysanthemum ‘flowers, w hen I lived in JAMAICA BWI , dad used to buy the stronger version from England brand name ‘PYRATHEX’, in gallon cans .
Please do an episode about the bug shirt Kait wore in this episode and the bug abatement stuff you use. The chemical mentioned wasn’t familiar to me.
Been years since I was camping, but starting van life soon as I finish my van so would appreciate advice— hate bugs!
Hey Jay! All the best with your van conversion and look forward to seeing you on the road. You can find out more about the Bug Shirt on their website and the spray we used is Sawyer, which we also carry in our store.
Love your videos… As an avid coffee drinker I wonder Joe, if you purchase coffee what is your favorite brand?
Overall, this is my favorite coffee…especially the Costa Rican: https://cafedemitasse.com/
Joe I have a pkg of JAMAICAN BLUE MOUNTAIN COFFEE ( whole bean) that you can have, my machine died awhile back, so now buy Costco’s 3# can of fine ground Colombian.
)
Life-time Mainer here, Lubec is just about my favorite place on Earth. Not as dramatic as Acadia, but beautiful in its own way.
I’ve been following your youtube channel for over a year – and I just happen to be camping in Arcadia!! We’ll be here until the 14th of June, preparing to go into the Canadian Maritimes – any chance you would have time to share some coffee with a fan? We roast our own coffee 🙂
Richard & Lisa
Hey Lisa and Richard. With the amount of time it takes to shot and edit each week’s video we are already in a new spot by the time it goes live. Hope you have a great time in Acadia!
Thought so! Forgive me my misspelled Acadia, how embarrassing is that! I get the editing time – I’m currently attempting to set up a channel for healthy cooking, nutrition & food supply. The Russo’s channel was instrumental in encouraging us to get fulltime ourselves. A big thanx!!! We are still less than a year in and trying to pull it all together.
Your journey with Leo was particularly touching as we have an older dog who is suffering from issues that vets can’t diagnose – so I’ve also become a nutritional home-prepared pet food chef as well.
Happy travels and perhaps we will cross paths sometime!
Richard & Lisa