The Maine coast stretches for some 3,000 miles when all its islands and coves are included (some estimates even have it up over 5,000 miles). That’s roughly the distance from Portland to Los Angeles, so it’s no surprise that Maine is a widely varied place, beginning with miles of sandy beaches and resort communities and ending with rocky cliffs and tiny fishing villages. Along its length are a cosmopolitan city in Portland, vacation hot spots like the Kennebunks, Ogunquit, and Boothbay Harbor, suburbs like Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth, retirement meccas like Damariscotta and Topsham, enchanting islands like Monhegan, cottage communities like Bayside, national parks like Acadia, and hardscrabble Down East fishing villages like Jonesport and Lubec.
Because of this diversity, Maine means different things to different people. Some come for shopping, hitting the outlet towns of Kittery and Freeport, others for sun worshipping, setting up for vacation at a beachside motel in Old Orchard. Still others visit Maine to stay in an island inn, like the Chebeague Island Inn, to enjoy the old architecture of communities like Kennebunk and Belfast, to explore the wildlands on the shore at places like Cutler, or to kayak the isles and shoals of Muscongus Bay or Stonington.
Whatever you’re looking for—small towns or big, the outdoors, great food, fairs and festivals—you’ll surely find it here. In this chapter we’ll walk up the coast, from Kittery to Calais, discovering each community on the way.
Whether you like your culture of the high variety or the pop, you’ll find what you’re looking for on the coast of Maine. Thanks to its age, the state is home to a vast number of historic house museums—often the headquarters of the local historical society. We have two truly exceptional art museums, the Portland Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Art Museum, and any number of eclectic collections, from vintage autos to butterflies. We also have a couple of sports franchises in Portland with legions of fans. And there’s plenty more to discover. Just turn the pages and read on.
Maine’s lighthouses were built to be beacons for sailors, keeping them safe from the state’s serrated shoreline, but they might as well have been put up to attract tourists. The state’s sentinels seem to have a gravitational pull on visitors, drawing them in with their blinking beams. There are dozens upon dozens of them—more than 60—and these stoic icons of the sea are ever-popular among people from away.
The lighthouse has been an evocative symbol of the Maine coast ever since the tall towers started going up in the 18th century, and they now adorn everything from the state quarter to T-shirts to key rings to car commercials. Their endlessly tracking lights and lowing horns have kept generations of mariners safe, allowing the Maine coast to be a thing of beauty rather than something to be feared. Which might explain why many Mainers have a soft spot for them, too, creating preservation organizations and friends groups whenever a light seems to be in need of help.
Maine’s lights are certainly nice places to visit, if only because they sit on some of the finest acreage in the state—on rocky promontories, headlands, islands, and other scenic settings. Lighthouses are perfect for picknicking, and they offer up just the right amount of history for the average visitor. Stir in a little fog and you have instant romance.
Most are fairly accessible, serving as the centerpieces of many a state park or owned by local trusts that allow visitors. Some have attendant museums, others nearby trails, and some are even free to visit. What follows are the most notable of Maine’s lighthouses. Look for others offshore on your drive up the coast or click over to www.visitmaine.com and look up lighthouses in the search box.
Maine continually ranks among the top states in the country to raise children—it was fourth best in a recent national Kids Count survey by the Annie E. Casey Foundation—and millions upon millions of people have rosy memories of childhood vacations spent on the Maine coast. Kids just love the place.
It’s easy to understand why—there are endless things to do by simply stepping outside: Beaches and tide pools await explorers, trees are there to climb, hikable mountains are everywhere to be found, and swimming holes dot the landscape. The state also boasts a lot of entertainment for the smaller set, from the children’s museums in Portland and Bangor, to the Maine State Game Farm in Gray, to petting zoos and amusement parks in various communities up and down the coast. Some conservation groups have great day programs for kids and families, and there are YMCAs along the length of the coast that are perfect for rainy days. Mom and Dad shouldn’t have to work hard to find stuff to keep the kids busy.
This chapter features kidstuff by region and ends by listing miniature golf courses along the Maine coast.
Several of the places and activities listed in previous chapters are just perfect for youngsters, too. These places include lighthouses (see Lighthouses chapter), beaches (see Beaches chapter), forts (see Attractions chapter), and state parks (see Green Space chapter). Check them out for still further ideas.
One of the great things about living on or visiting the Maine coast is its proximity to the state’s famous interior, the woodsy wonderland of moose and mountains and lakes. Baxter State Park, one of the premier wilderness destinations in the East, is within a few hours drive of U.S. Route 1; Moosehead Lake, the largest freshwater body contained in one state east of the Mississippi and a wilderness playground, is about the same distance; and the Rangeley Lakes area, one of the oldest resorts in the state and a picturesque mountain town, is, too. The White Mountains, the tallest peaks in the northeast, are a skip from Portland, visible from various points in the city on a clear day. Of course, if you prefer more cosmopolitan entertainments, a pair of cool cities—Boston, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire—are just a half hour and an hour away, respectively, from Kennebunk. Or you can head out the state’s back door and cross the border into Canada to pay a visit to the Canadian Maritimes and Campobello.
On the Maine coast you can enjoy a day on the beach and head into the city for dinner with relative ease. Maybe shop in Freeport in the afternoon and hit a concert in Boston that night. Or you can spend the morning touring a quiet Atlantic cove in a kayak, and then shove off for a little après-supper canoeing on a remote river up-country later that evening. Many people like to visit the state’s two premier parks—Acadia and Baxter—in a week or even a weekend, which is eminently doable (provided you make the necessary reservation at Baxter). The state of Maine has it all going on—really fun cities, picturesque fishing villages, romantic islands, sparkling sea vistas, majestic mountains, miles of spruce forest—and you have access to everything when you set up on the coast.