Hi,
We are planning a trip in mid June. We would like to go from Bar Harbor to Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard. We are planning 8-10 days in the region. Where should we stay along the way and how many days would you suggest in each location. Also, can we plan on getting hotel rooms as we travel or do we need to make reservations now.
Thanks for all your help.

Wow, that's quite a hike - about 10-12 hours of travel if you don't run into any traffic! But you will see a lot of beautiful coastline. I am assuming no kids, so I'll make recommendations based on that assumption. If you don't have your heart set on a particular hotel, inn, or price - you probably won't need reservations mid-week in mid-June. I'd suggest a couple days in the Kennebunkport/Ogunquit (the Marginal Way at Perkins Cove is a "must do") region; you may want to visit the Fuller Gardens in Rye, NH and/or the outlets in Kittery, Maine. Also visit the "Northshore" of Mass for a couple days. This includes Newburyport, Gloucester (esp the Hammond Castle Museum), and Salem (esp the House of 7 Gables, Witch Museum, and Peabody Essex Museum). Are you planning to visit Boston? You could park the car for the day rate ($26) and visit for just the day. If so, make reservations for either the Duck Tour around Copley/Prudential or the North End Culinery Tour.) A charming place to stay at the Cape is Chatham (for lodging check the Wequassett, Chatham Bars, or Bradford Inn. But I think the ferry leaves only from Hyannis. Hyannis is more commercial, but certainly has plenty of rooming options. Hope you have a ball, and would love to read a post with your impressions upon your return. Where are you from? Just curious if you are from far away, or more of a "local" checking out your own back yard!

Being an outdoor type of person, I would spend more time in the Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park area than the Cape. Traffic can be a nightmare on the Cape Fridays and Sundays. Take your time in Bar Harbor and explore Mt. Desert Island (Beale's Lobster is great and Jordan Pond for lunch) and Acadia NP. Camden is a nice place to stay for the night on the way south. You might consider spending a night in Portland if you like small cities or Freeport for shopping. On the Cape, try to get to Martha's Vineyard. Spend 3-5 days in the Bar Harbor area, 2-3 days traveling down to the Cape and 3-5 days on the Cape.

Thanks Beth and Liza. You've both given me some good ideas. Beth, you were right in your assumption that we will be traveling w/o kids. We are coming from the west side of Michigan, near Grand Rapids. I am curious about the Duck Tour. I've seen it mentioned, but have no idea what it is. Also, what is the Culinary tour? Sounds interesting.

The Duck Tour is basically a tour of some Boston sights from an amphibious-mobile - both land and sea! The phone is 1-800-226-7442. It's about an hour long and very fun on a nice day. It's takes off from the Prudential/Copley area. The Culinary Tour is a 3-4 hour Italian Market tour that includes tips on authentic food preparation from Michelle Toper. (You may have seen her on H&G's Good Life program one Sunday night!) That phone number is 617-523-6032. Both have websites, as well, although I didn't write them down!
Have fun investigating!

Hi Beth,
My husband and I did something similar a few years ago. Although, we did two seperate trips. One was to Maine. The other to the Boston/ Cape Cod area and included driving into Newport RI.
In Bar Harbor we stayed at the BayView. It's a neat place with a lovely view of the bay. We enjoyed Acadia Park. Also spent time just driving around the area. There were many good restaurants in the downtown Bar Harbor area. Also, took a boat tour from the town of Bar Harbor - we saw bald eagles!
In Cape Cod, we enjoyed the whale watching tour from Provincetown. I'm not rememebering where we stayed but found we just slept there - mostly drove during the day, spent time at beaches, etc. Neat little towns in the area. We also stopped at Plymouth, Mass and the Kennedy Museum. Spent two days in Boston and I'd highly recommend doing the walking tour of all the historic sites. It's long but a great way to see everything up close.
Have fun. I love that area of the country. We also are from Michigan and drove out there. It depends which way you drive - once we went through Canada and stopped at Niagara Falls. On the trip to Maine we also went through Candana and stopped in Montreal and Quebec. Then hope through Vermont (stop at Ben & Jerry's) and through upstate New York.