What to do in Bar Harbor and nearest section of Canada

We're planning to head up to Bar Harbor and the Acadia National Park in a few weeks.  What are some of your favorite things you've done in the area?  We wanted to take a quick trip up to Canada one day.  What's a cool place to visit near the border?


Bar Harbor......pronounced Bah Habah is one of the better places to take a ride out for a few hour whale watch. Just about any place in Maine it is legal to do violence to as many lobster rolls as you can imbibe.


We love hiking and cycling there.  If you have little ones, the Jordan Pond loop and Ocean Path are nice trails.  If you’re looking for a challenge and it’s open do the Precipice Trail.  Views from Beehive Trail are amazing.  Sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain is beautiful.  Walk over to Bar Island at low tide. 


Swimming in Echo Lake;  Mount Cadillac at sunrise, a visit to the Appalachain Mountain Club on Echo Lake, dinner at the lobster pounds (I like Thurston's in Bernard - very rustic);  crabbing on the Bernard dock; trip to Thunder Hole at Acadia National Park;  ice cream at one of the Bar Harbor ice cream shop;  bicycling on the bicycle trails; day trips to: i.) Wooden Boat school in Brooklyn Maine;  ii.) to Stonington dock and pay for trip on lobster boat to go out lobstering (or fishing); iii.) trip to the granite museum in Mt. Desert.

Enjoy!!!!!


Whale watching and popovers at Jordan Pond.


cubby said:
Whale watching and popovers at Jordan Pond.

 Popovers are amazing! 


When you get to Canada ask for asylum.  That's what I'd do


you can take a cruise to Petit Manan island to view the puffins. That is fun. Soames Sound in Acadia is one of the few fjords in the northeast, so that is also worth a visit. The popovers at Jordan Pond  house are famous and the surrounding gardens are beautiful.


On a clear night, preferably new moon (otherwise known as moonless), you can go up Cadillac Mountain and see the Milky Way and other constellations.  You will see a meteor every minute or two. Download an app or two on astronomy and you can spend a couple of hours there.


If you are going in September, the dark sky festival is in early September.


If you go to Canada (take your passports) visit Campabella. It is on the Maine/Canada border and is where F.D.R. and Eleanor had their summer home. If you go further into New Brunswick, you can see the tides at the Bay of Fundy.

You can take a single engine plane ride around the harbor. Not too expensive.

The ice cream stores at Bar Harbor are great.


I don't know if even the closest part of Canada (New Brunswick) is really a day trip, though Campobello might be. I do remember trips to see the massive tides the Bay of Fundy as a child but I think you would do better to explore the Maine coast and enjoy Acadia, which is beautiful. There is a lot of driving involved in an case, whether you go to Canada or southwest along the coast. There are so many lovely peninsulas and coves heading toward Camden from Bar Harbor (not a short drive by any means). I will toss out some things we've enjoyed over the years other than Acadia (view from Cadillac Mountain and popovers at Jordan Pond of course!) and Bar Harbor and the feeling of wealth around Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor. The following may be too long for convenient day trips depending on how long you will be in the area,  but I'm not sure they are actually farther than interesting parts of NB. 

Maritime Museum in Searsport. 

Castine and Blue Hill (that whole peninsula is extraordinarily beautiful, and if your children are the age to love Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, remember that E. B. Whtie lived-in Blue Hill).

Not looking at  map at the moment but:

My children enjoyed going out on two-hour lobster cruises from Camden and Boothbay Harbor aon various vacations--lobster boats and sea birds and islands and lighthouses.

Rainy day activity for adults and older kids: Farnsworth Museum in Rockland.

Lighthouse at Pemaquid Point, historic and great rocks to sit on (maybe for trip home, since it is considerably farther even than Camden from Bar Harbor). 


Mood's Diner on Rt. 1.   On Tuesdays, they have Grape Nut pudding. 

Interesting, east of Bar Harbor on Rt. 1, Towns are numbered.   Such as "Township 317" and so forth.

I agree, the trip to Canada border is long. You can go to Poland Spring. It is not set up as a tourist attraction but nevertheless, it is there.


I'd also recommend a visit to Campobello Island to see the Roosevelt home, link: https://www.visitcampobello.com



We've gone from Bar Harbor to Canada, but not as a day trip. Once we took the ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia - lovely trip, but I think it was at least 5 hours. Saw whales and the ship was very well-appointed, with shops, a restaurant, large observation lounge and a small casino. The other time we drove up to New Brunswick, stopping at Calais, visiting the lighthouse at East Quoddy Light, got some very nice shots around Lubec. But, again, not a quick trip. We stayed the night at Calais. We didn't go to Campobello, which I've always regretted. And sunsrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor is beautiful - the panorama of Frenchman's Bay is stunning.



There are some beautiful gardens at Northeast Harbor and Seal Harbor. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Gardens are close to Acadia in Seal Harbor. They are magnificent and open on Tuesdays and Thursdays until Sept 11. You have to make a reservation,adults $15, seniors $10 and children 11 and younger free. These gardens are outstanding. Thuya and Asticou Cardens in Northeast Harbor are lovely as well. Seems like that delicious Maine air makes all the plants do well.  I have visited Campobello and it was interesting to see historically but not particularly pretty.  Just a short distance over the border. As a child vacationing in Maine I loved climbing the rocks,some more adventurous than others and also picking wild blueberries. The native people can be fun to get to know as well.


Maybe my geography is fuzzy and I don't have a map handy, but I would say that it is more than a "quick trip" from Bar Harbor to Canada.  We have been up and down the southern Maine coast on several trips, but we have never gotten farther than a little past Bar Harbor.  Canada and/or inland Maine were going to add several days to our itinerary, so still on our bucket list.

Good luck figuring it out.


sac  I just googled it for you. Bar Harbor is 2 hours,26 minutes from Campobello or 106 miles. I remember we drove up for the day and then came back to our summer rental. 


Kayaking on Somes Sound, antiquing in Southwest Harbor, lunch at one of the myriad lobster pounds, echo lake beach, Acadia Mountain, among other hiking trails....basically don’t spend the whole time in Bar Harbor check out rest of MDI.


Bar Harbor sandbar is cool too.



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