Day # 1, Friday, June 10, 2022
Welcome to Vacationland! Make your way north to Portland, Maine, a peninsula extending into Casco Bay. The Old Port waterfront features working fishing wharves and converted warehouses with restaurants and shops. Lunch on your own in Portland where you’ll see the Portland Head Lighthouse.
Then sit back and relax for your drive along the coast “downeast” to Bar Harbor, Maine. You’ll see quiet little protected harbors filled with working lobster boats along the way. Ospreys and bald eagles’ nest high in the spruces along the rugged shores, deer browse the open fields, moose forage the wetlands and harbor seals make their annual pilgrimage to quiet coves. The pretty pink and purple lupine flowers will be in bloom in late June along the way.
Check in to the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel, overlooking Frenchman’s Bay for three nights. Offers beautiful accommodations, spectacular ocean views, indoor and outdoor pools, and a walkout pier to the ocean.
Enjoy an included dinner at a local favorite. (D)
Day # 2, Saturday, June 11, 2022
Enjoy a breakfast each morning.
This morning enjoy a sightseeing / nature cruise of Frenchman’s Bay. Cruise along the calm waters of the harbor and see a variety of marine life on this narrated excursion. You will head to a small island to look at harbor seals basking on the rocks and enjoy the majestic scenery of the Maine coast.
Free time for lunch on your own in Bar Harbor and some time to explore the shops, boutiques and galleries in downtown Bar Harbor. There are also two parks and a shoreline walking trail here.
Meet your Guide for a tour of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Bar Harbor has been celebrated for its breathtaking beauty ever since the island was discovered in 1604 by Samuel de Champlain, who named it “Isle de Monts Desert” (Mt. Desert Island) for its bare, desert-like mountaintops.
First, you’ll enjoy a one-hour horse-drawn carriage ride along the park carriage roads built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. You’ll travel through some of Acadia’s off-the-beaten-track scenic areas (contingent on 2022 Concession Contracts with National Park Service). Alternate activity: Ride the rails through the mainland countryside on the Downeast Scenic Railway. Here in the first national park founded east of the Mississippi, you’ll see 9 mountains over 1000 feet high, stone bridges, lakes, ponds, trails and carriage roads. You will travel the entire Park Loop road with stops at Cadillac Mountain, Thunder Hole on Ocean Drive and Sieur De Mont Springs Wild Gardens of Acadia, plus learn about the rich and famous visitors who built summer cottages in Bar Harbor.
Don your souvenir Maine Lobster Hat for a traditional Maine lobsterbake dinner with all the fixin’s. Served in a unique waterfront location. An alternate menu is available for any landlubbers. (B, D)
Day # 3, Sunday, June 12, 2022
Breakfast included at the hotel.
This morning visit the Abbe Museum in downtown Bar Harbor. The Abbe Museum is Maine’s most extensive Native American heritage museum in Bar Harbor for a self-guided tour focusing on the four tribes in Maine (Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot).
Enjoy lunch your own in Bar Harbor with free time to explore the waterfront.
Then, take a ride aboard the Downeast-style lobster boat, Lulu! Cruising on Lulu is like making the prettiest coastal Maine postcard come to life. During your cruise on Lulu, experience a sample of the life and work of the Maine lobstermen (or lobsterwomen!). Watch a demonstration of how lobster traps are hauled. Lulu will slowly and quietly approach the rock ledges where the seals rest at the lower tides. Observe sea birds, bald eagles, and other marine wildlife in their natural environment.
Dinner is included at a local Bar Harbor Restaurant.
Tonight, you will enjoy the Great Maine Lumberjack Show. See “the Olympics of the Forest” re-enacted as the lumberjacks and loggers used to compete 100 years ago. You will hear the big crosscut saws singing in the forest, just as you would have heard in a logging camp competition in the Maine woods…and you will watch the thrilling lumberjack sports of wood chopping and sawing, tree climbing, ax throwing, and everyone’s favorite… log rolling… all exhibited with a modern twist, mixed with history, comedy, and lots non-stop, razor-sharp action! (B,D)
Day # 4, Monday, June 13, 2022
After an included breakfast buffet at the hotel, you’ll travel back through mid-coast Maine toward home. Have your camera ready for a photo stop atop Mt. Battie within the beautiful Camden Hills State Park, where you will see sweeping views of Penobscot Bay and the surrounding islands.
Continue traveling south to the charming Freeport Village, where you’ll have free time for lunch and to explore the quaint village. Also, home to the L.L. Bean flagship store – with a trout pond inside! There are a myriad of outlet shops surrounding the LL Bean store. Coupons and walking map provided. (B)
Package Price Per Person: $1,355 Single, $1,049 Double, $1,009 Triple, $979 Quad