2024 is leading me to all sorts of new places. Husband and I are currently on a New England road trip, and stopping in Maine, Vermont, and upstate New York. I’ve decided to turn each stop into a separate post.
I have to be honest. Maine was not one of my favorite places to visit. Part of the problem is that we kind of threw together this road trip based on which areas we wanted to explore. I requested vacation time, and got early-mid April. We booked our Airbnbs and then set out on a trip with very minimal planning.
Maine does have its good points, which I will get to, but let me start out with a few things you probably would want to know when traveling with your dog, and when traveling in April. First, dogs aren’t allowed anywhere in Maine. You can bring your dog to a brewery or restaurant and sit on a patio, but there are no patios in April. This was kind of a huge shock for us considering we bring our dog everywhere in Wisconsin, and it is a widely accepted practice. No problem though, right? Leave the dog at the airbnb and just take her on some longer walks for stimulation….nope! Not in Portland.
We had so so so many people tell us that we would LOVE Maine, and you HAVE to stop in Portland! I’m here to tell you…DON’T DO IT! Portland turned out to be the most dirty disgusting place we’ve ever encountered on our road trips. I am talking trash EVERYWHERE. We couldn’t walk our dog anywhere because the sidewalks were just filled with trash, and I had a real fear of her stepping on a hypodermic needle or glass or something. Our airbnb was a little bit out of town, so it was a bit less trashy in other main areas of the city. Then you have the other big problem: homeless people everywhere.
Our Airbnb advertised being walkable to about 5 or 6 different breweries. It was, but we probably passed 15 homeless people on our less than half mile walk there. We enjoyed a few beers, and then wanted to walk to the grocery store to get something to cook for dinner. The initial plan was that I would stay outside with all of our beer that we bought to go, and husband would pick out dinner, but when we got there and saw another 10 homeless people hanging outside the grocery store, we had to reverse roles.
The final negative that I will point out before getting to the good aspects is that Acadia National Park is closed in early April. You can do a few hikes around the perimeter, but you can’t go into the heart of the park. When the park does open, you need to have reservations ahead of time to drive on specific roads…something we’ve never encountered in another national park anywhere. You really have to do your research if you want to get the most out of a trip to Maine.
Below are a few photos of our Airbnb in Portland; a cute little place that we did enjoy, minus the very steep stairs to get into the place. They had the best coffee bar, which always wins my heart.
We visited a lot of breweries, and ate as much lobster as possible. Exchange street has quite a few shops that we went into to buy souvenirs. I had my first lobster (a whole lobster, I’ve eaten it in things like lobster rolls and mac & cheese before) at DiMillo’s on the water. I even got to enjoy a flight of lobster rolls from Bite Into Maine: one Maine style, Connecticut style, and Picnic style…so good! Breweries visited included Lone Pine, Belleflower, Shipyard, Definitive, Allagash, Battery Steele, and Rising Tide.
After 3 nights, we were beyond ready to move on. Our first stop outside of Portland was in Freeport, ME. Upon arriving, we immediately both regretted not staying here instead. Gone was the trash. Gone were the homeless people. Everything was much more upscale and relaxed in Freeport. We made stops at Maine Beer Company and the flagship L.L. Bean store. Again, no dogs allowed, which absolutely sucked! Our L.L. Bean in Madison, WI allows dogs, so once again we had nowhere to go with our dog, and it was pouring rain. We had the most fantastic carry out lunch from Nighthawk’s.
We continued up the coast and finally found a brewery with a closed in patio that was was out of the rain and dog friendly in Belfast. We stayed for 2 beers and a pretzel just because it was the first thing she could get out and do in days. The beer list at Marshall Warf was extensive, and the staff was incredibly friendly. It wasn’t a hard decision.
From Belfast we completed the drive to Southwest Harbor, ME where we checked into a cabin at The Moorings Inn. This cabin was right on the water, and we were the only guests on the entire property at this time of year, which was perfect. Check out that New England style in the photos below!
This place was on Airbnb, but it was cheaper to go through the inn’s website. During our time in Southwest Harbor, we spent time at Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We had an incredible take out dinner from Peter Trout’s, and went back for breakfast a couple of days later. The seafood truffle risotto at McKay’s in Bar Harbor was incredible. Our final night included clam chowder, an entire lobster, a cob of corn, and a slice of blueberry pie for $52 at Geddy’s. Atlantic Brewing Co. had great beers on tap, and we went to this place twice also.
Of note, many restaurants and bars in Bar Harbor were not open when they said they would be. It appears that updating google when you are completely shut down for construction just doesn’t cross anybody’s mind.
As far as Acadia National Park goes, I’ve already mentioned that most of the park was closed. We were able to drive along the perimeter and hike to a couple of places that were open, but if you are traveling to do the more famous hikes like the Beehive or Cadillac Mountain, then April is not the time to go. Our final day in ME was April 15th, which just happened to be the day that they finally opened the park’s Loop Road. On our way to Vermont we decided to drive the Park Loop, but only made it about 12 of the 27 miles before the rest was shut down for construction. We tried.
All in all, we had a decent time, but if we were to do this trip over again we would have left our dog at home, done more research, bought our park pass ahead of time (finding a place to buy a pass was extremely difficult), stayed in Freeport instead of Portland, and maybe visited just slightly later in the season. Moral of the story: Maine is not a place you can just visit spontaneously, as beautiful as it is.
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