Bar Harbor

Bar Harbor is a small coastal town of about 5,500 year-round residents on Mount Desert Island in the Gulf of Maine, 280 kilometers northeast of Portland, Maine and 50 kilometers from the Canadian border. The town serves as the primary gateway to Acadia National Park (one of America's oldest national parks, established 1916, the first national park east of the Mississippi River), which covers most of Mount Desert Island and the surrounding smaller islands. The combination of the dramatic Maine coastline (the only fjord on the US East Coast — Somes Sound — is on Mount Desert Island), the 27-peak granite mountain spine (Cadillac Mountain at 466 meters is the highest point on the US Atlantic Coast), the surrounding boreal forests, and the unique tidal ecology of the Frenchman Bay produces one of the most visually distinctive coastal landscapes in the eastern United States. The town was developed in the late 19th century as a summer resort for the Boston-and-New-York wealthy elite (the famous 'Cottagers' of Bar Harbor included the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Astors, J.P. Morgan, and Joseph Pulitzer); the 1947 Great Fire destroyed many of the original Gilded Age mansions, but the surviving examples and the town's intentional historic preservation give Bar Harbor a meaningfully different character than most of coastal Maine.

Acadia National Park covers about 32% of Mount Desert Island plus the surrounding Schoodic Peninsula and Isle au Haut, totaling about 49,000 acres. The signature park experience is summiting Cadillac Mountain — at 466 meters, the highest mountain on the US Atlantic seaboard, with a paved 5.5-km auto road to the summit and panoramic views over Frenchman Bay and the surrounding islands. From October 7 through March 6, Cadillac Mountain is the first place in the continental US to see the sunrise (the geometry of the East Coast and the mountain's height combine to produce this unusual distinction); the famous pre-dawn drive to the summit for sunrise (requiring a $6 reserved-vehicle permit October-October but free March-September) is one of the most-shared Acadia experiences. Other major park attractions include the 36 km of Carriage Roads (the famous graveled walking-and-biking paths built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. between 1913 and 1940 — 27 miles of paths with 17 stone bridges, preserved as one of the country's most distinctive non-motorized infrastructure systems), Jordan Pond and the Jordan Pond House (the historic 1879 restaurant famous for its popovers and the dramatic view over Jordan Pond toward 'The Bubbles' two rounded mountains), Sand Beach (one of the few sand beaches on the Maine coast), Thunder Hole (a famous coastal rock formation where incoming waves produce a thunderous boom when conditions align), and the Schoodic Peninsula (the less-visited mainland section of the park).

Beyond the park, Bar Harbor's village itself offers significant attractions. The historic downtown along Main Street has the famous Bar Harbor Inn (the historic 1887 grand hotel on the waterfront), the Abbe Museum (one of the country's most comprehensive collections of Wabanaki — the indigenous Algonquian-speaking people of the Maine coast — artifacts and contemporary art), the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, and dozens of independent restaurants, ice cream shops, and craft galleries. The town's restaurant scene leans heavily on the iconic Maine lobster (about 50 lobster boats operate from the Bar Harbor harbor, supplying the local restaurants directly); the famous Side Street Cafe and the historic Stewman's Lobster Pound serve the canonical Bar Harbor lobster dinner. Whale-watching tours from the Bar Harbor harbor (May-October) reliably encounter humpback whales, finback whales, and Atlantic puffins; the famous Lulu Lobster Boat Ride combines a 90-minute working-lobster-boat tour with lobster-trap demonstrations and seal sightings. Most international visitors stay 3-5 nights in Bar Harbor; summer weekends are extremely busy (the cruise ships dock in Bar Harbor; July-August accommodation books 4-6 months ahead). The September-October fall foliage period is widely considered the best time to visit.