The Insiders' Guide to St. Barths: Bar Harbor, Maine 2008 Trip

Bar Harbor- Labor Day Week 2008

We love New England in September and have gone for many years- Cape Cod, Nantucket, Cape Ann, Newport but I was running out of places. I looked at the coastal map of Maine and there was Bar Harbor all the way up there. Their online 200 page brochure at www.barharbormaine.com/eguide2.html sold me so this was to be our destination for this year. Bar Harbor was a little too far to drive so we decided to fly and the flight was a pleasant 1 hour to Bangor and the same time to drive to Bar Harbor. There are not a lot of upscale hotels in town so we stayed a mile out at the Bar Harbor Hotel- Bluenose Inn overlooking Frenchman’s Bay. A very nice hotel with fireplaces in the room, high speed internet, indoor and outdoor pool, gym and 2 restaurants. It was really nice that there was fresh coffee at all times in the lobby.

View from the Hotel

We arrived in time for lunch and enjoyed a nice lobster roll and fried haddock sandwich at the West Street Café. After lunch we had a little time to explore before we checked in to our hotel and quickly discovered that Main Street is the main drag and the place is loaded with stores- what else in a resort town?

But this is a place that has more restaurants per block than any place I can remember. Some samplings:
Gayln’s- dinner- steamed clams, soft-shell lobster, crabcakes, skewered shrimp. Sugar free blueberry ice cream afterwards.
Rupunini- lunch- Maine oysters on the half-shell, clam chowder, pulled pork and since Maine is the blueberry capital I had a blueberry Mojito.

Parkside- dinner- stuffed whole lobster, artichokes stuffed with curried chicken.
Jordan Pond- lunch inside the Acadia National Park- crabcakes, chicken salad. Sugar free blueberry ice cream afterwards.
Maggies- dinner- wonderful lobster crepes and crabcakes. I had a blueberry Cosmo. Sugar free blueberry swirl ice cream afterwards.

Café This Way- dinner- a funky neat low-key place – melted assagio cheese plate with artichoke hearts, mushrooms and capers, seafood spring rolls, striped bass with cherry/onion sauce. Of course, sugar free ice cream after.
Acadia National Park was 1/2 mile from the hotel and a journey thru it is mandatory. There are more hiking trails than roads and the place is pristine-

Sand Beach

Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mountain

Bar Harbor, so the story goes, is named after the large sand bar that connects it to Bar Island and at low tide the sand bar appears and walking the sand bar is the thing to do.

Tern with crab dinner

One day 2 large cruise ships appeared, town became very crowded, and all of a sudden everything was “On Sale”- LOL.

With Hurricane Hanna coming up the East Coast, I tried to fly out a day early but since I had FF tickets USAIR wouldn’t change my flight unless they called an advisory for Philly which they didn’t so we drove home a day early- 615 miles in 10 ½ hours- 80 mph all the way.
We love New England in September but this was the 4th hurricane in 6 years and I am starting to think I am jinxed. It was a lovely trip though. Bar Harbor reminds me of Newport, RI but a little more laid back which is a nice change. Next year I’ll pick a place in New England close enough to drive.

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Andy -
St. Barts- where no day is ever the same and one day is not enough