City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Address: Loop Rd.
2. Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co.
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-9800 or (888) 533-WA
Address: 1 West St.
Description: A multifaceted excursion boat company with a whole fleet of vessels, Bar Harbor Whale Watch does two-hour lighthouse and nature tours of Frenchman Bay. These trips take you to the seal haul-outs and tall beacons off Mount Desert, with naturalists narrating all the while. They head out at 10 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 6 p.m. daily from July 1 through the end of August and two or three times a day in the off-season. Call for the full schedule.
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Address: Bar Harbor Inn Pier
4. Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co.
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-2386 or (888) WHALES
Address: 1 West St.
Description: Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. sends an armada of vessels out in search of whales on a daily basis in summer, with tours leaving at 8:30 and 9 a.m. on a whale and puffin cruise; and at 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. for whales. The last run is a three-and-a-half-hour sunset cruise that makes for beautiful viewing. Check the Web site or call for details.
5. Janna Marie
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-4585
Address: Bar Harbor Inn Pier
Description: Part of Captain Steve Pagels’s armada, the 56-foot Janna Marie sets out on four-hour trips in search of cod, cusk, pollock, mackerel, cunner, sculpin, black sea bass, and redfish at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. daily in summer. Trips are limited to 35 anglers, and all bait and tackle is provided. Passage is $39.50 per person.
6. Lulu Lobster Boat Ride
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 963-2341 or (866) 235-23
Address: Golden Anchor Pier
Description: Lobster boxing? Captain John Nicolai will explain what that is if you step aboard Lulu, his traditional lobster boat based in Bar Harbor, for a cruise out into Frenchman Bay. He’ll explain all sorts of neat facts about everyone’s favorite crustaceans—that they smell with their leg hairs, for example—while hauling and baiting traps. The trips clock in at close to two hours, they’re very informative, and they’re the only lobstering cruises out of Bar Harbor. From June 14 to August 19 they depart daily at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 6 p.m., and while they are still offered on Sundays, no actual traps are hauled. Fare is $30 for adults, $27 for seniors, $17 for kids age 11 or younger.
7. Coastal Kayaking Tours
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-9605 or (800) 526-86
Address: 48 Cottage St.
Description: You can’t walk down a street in Bar Harbor without bumping into someone toting a kayak paddle these days. Coastal Kayaking is one of the companies responsible for the proliferation of the sport, and the folks here take kayakers out like clockwork to paddle the pristine waters around Acadia National Park. Their half-day tour ($48) is popular, covering about 5 miles of coastline and featuring narration about the natural and geological history of Mount Desert Island, but you might also consider the two-hour harbor tour ($38), the 10-mile full-day tour ($69), or even the solo tour, which is a personalized outing geared toward improving paddling skills ($72). There are many other options as well. Call or see the Web site to find out more.
8. National Park Sea Kayak Tours
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (800) 347-0940
Address: 39 Cottage St.
Description: The name says it all with National Park Sea Kayak—though not officially affiliated with Acadia National Park, the outfitter uses the waters off the park as its playground. Depending upon the weather conditions and tides, the company’s half-day or sunset tours might explore 5 or 6 miles of Frenchman, Western, Eastern, and Blue Hill Bays or Somes Sound. Departure times for the four-hour tours are at 8, 9, and 10:30 a.m. and 1, 2:30, and 4 p.m. The outfitter has a sunset paddle in the evening, too, and occasionally offers multiday expeditions. This is one of the oldest outfitters on Mount Desert, and it has gotten sea kayaking down to a science.
9. Indian Point-Blagden Preserve
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 729-5181
Address: Off Indian Point Rd.
Description: Another Nature Conservancy property, this 110-acre parcel protects stands of trees that escaped the great fire of 1947, and it includes 1,000 feet of frontage on Western Bay. There is a seal haul-out just off the northwestern corner of the preserve, and you can watch them from the shore (be respectful). Paths thread through the sanctuary. Open from sunup to 6 p.m. year-round.
10. College Of The Atlantic
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-5015
Address: Eden St.
Description: What would Eden be without gardens? (That’s the paradisiacal name by which Bar Harbor used to be called.) The library grounds at this progressive learning institution include terraces that were designed by noted landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, a legend in these parts.
11. Jordan Pond House Flower Gardens
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-3338
Address: Park Loop Rd.
Description: People typically flock to the Jordan Pond House for its tea and popovers, but they should make sure to check out the perennial beds filled with dahlias, monkshood, delphiniums, and scads of other colorful flora.
12. Acadia National Park Headquarters
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-3338
Address: Route 233
Description: This is the place to turn for information in the off-season, when the visitor center is closed but the park isn’t.
13. Oli’S Trolleys
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-9899
Address: P.O. Box 784
Description: Another option for a motor coach-based excursion is Oli’s Trolleys, which offers one-hour and two-and-a-half-hour tours of Bar Harbor and Acadia in its colorful, open-windowed, ersatz trolleys. Like the bus tours, these trips combine a bit of cultural history—stories of old Bar Harbor as you pass by the venerable “cottages”—with visits to the more popular scenic spots in the park itself. Reservations are recommended, and tickets (about $15 for the short tour and about $30 for the longer one) can be purchased at One Harbor Place (next to the Town Pier) an hour before the tours.
14. Down East Nature Tours
City: Bar Harbor, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 288-8128
Address: P.O. Box 521
Description: Michael Good has been a guide for years and has about 30 years of experience studying birds. He’ll take you on a four-hour tour of Mount Desert’s avian species—focusing on bald eagles, ospreys, peregrine falcons, shorebirds, and warblers—or set up photography or camping trips. Rates vary according to the trip.