Introducing Maine
Blessed with one of America’s most magnificent coastlines, Maine looms large over New England. Countless islands, deep-water harbors, and wild, glacier-carved bays create the dramatic beauty of Maine’s rocky shores – which, if smoothed from end to end, would stretch more than 3500 miles. Planted along this seascape are fishing villages, summer resorts and picture-book colonial towns, with a thickly settled southern coast and wilder untouched scenery to the northeast. A suitable introduction to Maine is the old city of Portland, whose atmospheric downtown boasts a growing restaurant and gallery scene. East of there, the Midcoast offers a mix of old shipbuilding villages, academic settlements and pretty harbor towns. Further east lies Acadia National Park, a spectacular island of mountains, lakes, fjord-like estuaries and coves. Beyond it stretch the little-visited peninsulas and jagged cliffs running east to Canada.
While the coast is the fame of Maine, inland travel offers ample reward. This is, after all, ‘the pine state’ with forests covering 90% of the land. Thousands of lakes and ponds fill the vast wilderness, with moose and bald eagles far outnumbering humans. Maine’s own stretch of White Mountains provide alpine appeal, luring snow-seekers to slopes near Bethel and Rangeley, while further east lies the cloud-piercing summit of Mt Katahdin.
Adventure comes in many forms in Maine, from racing white-water rapids to kayaking tranquil coves along the coast; there’s hiking, bird-watching, mountain-biking and rock-climbing, with plenty of bucolic B&Bs in which to recover after the day is done. Perhaps best of all are the wondrous fruits of the sea. The lobsters fished from Maine waters have no equal anywhere on earth: other attractions aside, a lobster feast is reason enough to linger here.
Activities in Maine
Portland
Maine’s biggest city is small and laid-back, with a lively waterfront, impressive late 19th-century architecture and a burgeoning restaurant and gallery scene.
Midcoast Maine
Midcoast Maine is where the mountains meet the sea.
Maine destination guides
Ogunquit & Wells
Known to the Abenaki tribe as the ‘beautiful place by the sea, ’ Ogunquit (pop 1300) is justly famous for its 3-mile sandy beach.
Hotels in Maine
Guesthouses and B&Bs in Maine
Apartments in Maine
The Kennebunks
Together, the towns of Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Kennebunk Beach make up the Kennebunks.
Need to know
Entertainment in Maine
Boothbay Harbor
Once a beautiful little seafarers’ village on a broad ford-like harbor, Boothbay Harbor is now an extremely popular tourist resort in the summer, when its narrow and winding streets pack with visitors.
Shopping in Maine