Bar Harbor Maine
 

Trying to put together a trip to Maine in august. We are flying into Portland. How far to bar harbor from airport? Will we need hotel reservations? We definitely want to see Acadia. Do we stay in bar harbor to see Acadia? How many days?? We plan on being in Maine 10 days so want to see all highlights and end up back in Portland?

hh -
* The drive from the airport to BH is approx 3 to 31/2 hrs travelling along the coastal route - without side trips to towns such as Boothbay. Could take longer with summer traffic. Driving thru towns with only 2 lanes and traffic lights can slow one up considerably!
* Maine's nickname is Vacationland - for a reason! This site might help you understand why - Popular Maine Towns & Destinations - Visit Maine
* We first traveled without reservations, but we travelled in the off-season; you are travelling in-season so I would not recommend it - unless you are up for adventure and are not selective re the kind of accommodations you prefer. [side story - our trip without reservactions to Bar Harbor 40 yrs ago saw us stay out on the edge of town in a facility composed of old train cars that had been converted to "motel rooms" - $7/person/nite! And the lobster down the road was cooked in a roadside cauldron and eaten on a picnic bench - cost $5/lobster/baked potato! Our youth made it "fun" but I sure envied the folks in the hotel on Frenchman's Bay!]
* If you don't have a planning service thru AAA, do you have a friend with AAA membership? I have found their associates to be a wealth of info for lodging as well as must see places.

Depending on the route you take, 3-4 hours from the Portland Jetport to Bar Harbor if you drive straight through. Most people don't, though. If you take the coastal route, which is Route 1 for much of the way, you go though the pretty towns people think of when they imagine Maine. Places like Brunswick, Bath, Wiscasset, Boothbay Harbor and Rockland. You will want to stop and sightsee. If you travel on a weekend, there will be a lot of traffic in August, since people are escaping the heat everywhere else. Anyway, yes, Bar Harbor is the town you probably want to stay in when you visit Acadia. They are both on Mt. Desert (pronounced "dessert", long story) Island. Reservations are a really good idea in August. If you type "Maine" into the search function for this forum, you will find a thread from a few days ago with suggestions.

Go to google maps...type in Portland Jetport on start and bar harbor on the destination...you'll get the approx. time, distance and routes...you can also print it...

Maine is absolutely beautiful in the summer, BUT it is like snowbird season here, traffic, traffic and then more traffic. We used to make our reservations a year ahead to make sure we could stay where we wanted to, so start looking and booking now!

Unless you are into salt water swimming and love crowds the middle of Sept is a much better time to visit Maine. Weather is great, locals are back in school, and most tourists have headed south. Actually Oct is better than Sept. with foliage in color.

I believe tourism shuts down around Labor Day. I may be wrong on this, but we were late one year and found most of the hotels closed for the season. Also, the weather can be very changeable later in the season.

Need a native Mainer to give us the real deal.

We visited Ogunquit, Maine this past October and loved it. Lots of little shops, places to eat and scenery. Had my first lobster roll. It was fantastic!