Bar Harbor to Boston
 

Planning a four or five day road trip from Bar Harbor, ME to Boston, MA in May. Looking for suggestions as to where to stop and for how long along the way. Also thinking about flying to ME instead of driving from NYC, and flying into Bangor so we don't have to get on a little plane from Boston. So, how is the drive from Bangor to Bar Harbor? Thanks.

Bangor to Bar Harbor takes an hour or so. It's an OK drive, not especially scenic, and traffic shouldn't be bad, especially mid-may.

The ride between Bar Harbor and Boston is surprisingly un-scenic as well. Unlike in some other parts of the country, there is not really any coastal-view road.

Portland, ME is a nice little city - but for 4-5 days, not worth chopping off time from either Bar Harbor or Boston.

Take one of the Amtrak Downeaster trains between Boston North station and Portland. https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/253/414...ule-112116.pdf
Rent a car from there to go to Bar Harbor.
If you don't want to fly, try a Northeast Corridor train to Boston South station or Backbay from New York.

From Bar Harbor to Boston depends on your interests. May can be beautiful but it can also be black fly season so hiking in the woods might not be a good idea.

We love the view from the top of Mt. Battie overlooking Camden Harbor (auto road). We're lobster lovers so we would find a place for lunch. An overnight in Portland would allow you to eat in a wonderful restaurant and perhaps enjoy shopping in the Old Port Area. Portsmouth NH is also a possibility. We like Petey's in Rye NH for an old fashioned seafood place. It's open year round.

Tom, Tom, Tom, if you're gonna put 'em on the Downeaster, they should stay on the Downeaster until they get to charming Brunswick.

But it is not a great idea to Amtrak all the way from NYC because of the time, including the gap between North and South Stations.

It makes sense to fly into Boston, Manchester, or Portland. It may make sense to fly into Bangor; I don't know the connections or cost.

Whether it makes sense to go to Bar Harbor in May is another issue. Coastal New England can be very cold and damp at this time of year, as June brides often find in Nantucket. If you want to walk in the Park and that sort of thing, it could be great. If you want Action, sunshine, lots of choices of restaurants, maybe not. I am only familiar with the area second hand. But I know the Cape and Islands and have traveled in the Casco Bay area of Maine, and extensively in NH and VT at that time of year.

Thank you all for your feedback. I'm getting the idea that my road trip may not be as scenic or as nice weather-wise as I had hoped. So, I think I may forget the road trip and just go to Boston. I was planning on going there anyway because my son-in-law is running in a 1/2 marathon there. I'm thinking 2-3 days in Boston should be enough. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

I would not try to combine Boston and Maine in such a short time. DH and I spent 4 days in Boston in 2015, and we barely had enough time to do everything we wanted to do, but we did spend one day in Salem. Last year, we went to Maine for a week. Flew into Portland, spent two nights and 1 day there, 1 night in Rockland, and 4 in Bar Harbor. It was a very good amount of time, and we were able to see some really diverse things along the Maine coast.

My daughter did the Boston/Maine trip last year. They were gone 9 days (two weekends and the week in between). She said if she had to do it over, she would not have combined the trips. It was a lot of driving.

I think you've chosen well to do only one of the destinations given the amount of time you have. This is what we did in Boston:

Day 1:
Freedom Trail (includes Faneuil Hall, Lunch and shopping at Quincy Market, Paul Revere’s House, North End, Old North Church, and the USS Constitution) We this guided tour for part of the trail, and it was very informative. https://www.thefreedomtrail.org/book...-history.shtml
Lunch in Faneuil Hall
North End on our own
Note: USS Constitution is Closed Mondays

Day 2: Salem

Day 3:
Boston Commons
Boston Public Gardens
Charles River Esplanade
Walk around the Back Bay
Library, Copley Square and Trinity Church
Lunch or Dinner on Boylston
Go to the SOWA Open Market; wander around and maybe have lunch at a food truck; held every Sun., May to Oct. from 11am-4pm; 540 Harrison Ave.; http://newenglandopenmarkets.com/southend/


Day 4:
Morning: Harvard
Afternoon Options: Spend the afternoon doing more of what we liked, or: Take the free Sam Adams Brewery Tour; Arnold Arboretum; Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum

For a lobster roll every bit as good as Neptune, and half the price, go here: Pauli’s, 65 Salem Street. It's in the North End.

"The ride between Bar Harbor and Boston is surprisingly un-scenic as well." if you stay on the interstate highway. But there are opportunities to get off onto smaller coastal roads or to interesting towns along the way. However, I would suggest doing the trip in early June when more seasonal things should begin to be open.
If you start in Boston, drive to the working port of Gloucester, see Rockport, drive across some pretty, sweeping rural landscapes on rte. 133 to Newburyport, via Ipswich for clams and river boating and antiques, a wolf sanctuary and nearby beach (Crane's) and estate,to Portsmouth, where you can take a boat into the harbor or out to the islands, eat at your choice of trendy restaurants on the water, shop and stroll the historic Strawberry Banke village. Continue to York on a small road along the coastal beaches, stop at the old fashioned arcade or to watch taffy being pulled or sample in-house produced whiskey and spirits or ride go-carts, and continue along the picturesque tiny coastal road into charming Ogunquit (1.5 hours from Boston if driving straight through on the interstate). Stroll the Marginal Way, look at shops, eat lobster at Barnacle Billy's, or take a lobster boat ride or sail cruise from Perkin's Cove. Continue up the coast, stopping at Laudholm Farm in Wells, Kennebunkport to see the Bush house and shops/restaurants.
You can get an idea of all these place by looking at videos on You Tube.
Then continue north to Portland and Arcadia.

If you concentrate on Boston, I highly recommend the food tours. Both the North End (Italian) and Chinatown tours are interesting. The Chinatown one ended with a dim sum lunch. And it started with a stuffed bun. I think there were enough samples during the Italian tour so we skipped lunch.

The Kennedy Library is fascinating.

I think 3 days 2 nights is the bare minimum for Boston. You can easily add a day trip as suggested to some place like Salem MA or even Portsmouth. If you choose Portsmouth, drive Rt 1B from Strawbery Banke/Prescott Park thru Newcastle. Then do a detour to take the coastal route thru Rye (beautiful mansions and ocean). The boat trip from Portsmouth up an inland river is wonderful. Great Bay is an important estuary. There's all sorts of short hikes you can take.

I spent Mother's Day weekend in the Wells/Kport area of Maine but I begged off walking some hiking trails and just did a little bit of shelling on one beach. May is actually a good time to be in southern ME because July and August are too crowded with a lot of traffic congestion on Rt 1. There are some beautiful places in Maine but not viewable from I95.

OP - dfrost has some great suggestions, but since you are from NYC, I would skip Chinatown in Boston. You will be sorely disappointed. Definitely, do not miss the North End, and if you chose to do a food tour, do it there. Great food, desserts, and feel. It's nothing like NYC's Little Italy. The North End is vibrant, and a place we returned to several times during our 4 days in Boston. Just my two cents.

The Chinatown tour includes some history about Boston's Chinatown. Plus if you've never visited any shops or an Asian grocery store with live fish in tanks, the tour will be educational. We visited an herb shop and candy shop and some small food shops. We did not enter a live poultry shop but our guide explained how Chinese prefer fresh chicken. It was a great glimpse into a different culture near where we live but didn't know anything about.

The Boston Harbor Islands are interesting. Or a trip around Boston Harbor. If I were you I would take a ferry to Provincetown as either a day trip or an overnight. Nothing like it.

Agreed, a minimum of three days is good for Boston:

Day one: Freedom Trail.
Day two: JFK Presidential Library morning, Harvard Square (Harvard museums, etc.) afternoon.
Day three: Gardner Museum, Museum of Fine Arts (the latter could easily take two days, but you can see a good bit of it in a day)

Things like the Mapparium, Aquarium, and Museum of Science are varying degrees of interesting if you have more time.

But there are tons of excellent day trips one can do, including Salem, New Bedford, Plymouth, Concord, Lexington, Gloucester, Lowell, Marblehead, and Rockport.

I'm completely confused what the OP was originally looking for. I read it as 5 days to get to Boston from Bar Harbor. And although the 5 hour drive is not scenic, over days there is plenty of gorgeous nature and charming towns to see. If the intent was not that and Boston is a destination inclusive of the 4-5 days, thats a whole other trip.

Part of the concern may have been going to Maine in May, which can be a crap shoot in terms of weather and things being open; as mentioned above, June (through Columbus Day, I think) is better.

Boston would work regardless of the month.