Bar Harbor or Portland?
 

Trying to decide between Bar Harbor and Portland. Going in late July. Will have seven people: my husband and me, our three kids and my parents (both 70.) Thinking we need a cottage with a kitchen so we can save $ by cooking some of our own meals. Suggestions? Preferences?

I love Portland. Oregon has such beautiful scenery, of course it's a little further drive than Bar Harbor.

Hahaha nanabee! Portland Maine of course. Portland and Bar Harbor are different. I would choose Bar Harbor, but I like to be outside riding bikes, hiking, and sight seeing. Portland Maine is a great little city with its waterfront, lovely old port area and you can drive to beaches, light houses, or take the ferry out to an island for a bike ride or dinner. I don't know. You might want to find out what cruise ships might be in Portland when you want to go because that will mean the old port and the water front will be crowded.

You won't find a cottage for rent in Portland. Portland is a city of 80,000+ with typical surburban towns surrounding it. No cottages. As tbelgian says, they are different and it would help to understand what you expect to get out of your stay.

Glenmoor by the Sea in Lincolnville just north of Camden offers a variety of accomodations from motel to cottage. We stayed in a unit that had living room area and mini kitchen with frig and microwave. Continental breakfast was included. A full kitchen would be better but one of our trip strategies is to have a great lunch someplace and then dinner back at camp. You could easily do take-out things or prepared meals from a market even if you didn't have a full kitchen.
What are the ages of your kids?
Bar Harbor is great for active families. Would your parents like some quiet time to just enjoy the view? If you want a sandy beach area, look at places south of Portland. My in-laws loved York. If you would rather do a lot of different things, you might prefer something around the Boothbay/Wiscasset area. I like this location for exploring north to Camden and south to Brunswick. We do a lot of driving ending up someplace for lobster. The nice thing about a cottage in a place like York within walking distance of beach is letting teens go off on their own. Some of the cottages have small but nice, grassy backyards where folks can just relax.

Bar Harbor is quite a BIT further than Portland (if you're coming from the west or south), and if time/distance is a consideration, be aware of that. There are many really good places to look between the two, and I was going to suggest the Camden area, too.... if you look at a map, the Maine coast north of Portland is a series of peninsulas stretching out like fingers with the larger towns often situated along the "knuckles" between the fingers. Sorry that's a crude image, but what I'm suggesting is that you Google towns like Boothbay and Camden and see what pops up by way of rental agencies that would cover the nearest peninsulas to those towns.