We will be driving up the Maine coast in August. particularly interested in places between bar harbor and Campobello.

Interested in birds, tidal pools, nature. etc.

Is winter harbor worth a stop?

etc.

thanks

Winter Harbor, and the Schoodic Peninsula is definitely worth a stop. Its quite lovely

If you're in Bar Harbor do take the time to go to Acadia NP it is beautiful and has all the nature you could want.

Yes Winter Harbor is worth a stop as is Schoodic Pennisula portion of Acadia National Park. We've sat on the rocks there and watched seals and dolphins go by. Lots of lobster boats to watch too.

anything between schoodic peninsula and campobello?

Last summer DH and I visited Campobello en route to our vacation on P.E.I. We stopped for the night in Lubec, ME, the easternmost town in the continental US, just across the border from Campobello. It really was planned as just an overnight stop, but if I'd known how nice the area was, I might have planned an extra day there. We stayed in great B & B there called Peacock House - our room had a separate entrance & private bath, and the owners were super nice and helpful. If you're interested in staying there, here's their website:

www.peacockhouse.com

Lubec has a wonderful summer music school for adults, I'd never heard about it before I went there. On Wednesday evenings there are free concerts at the church just down the street from the Peacock House. I wish we'd known that, we were there on a Wednesday night, but arrived late in the evening. All of the other guests were at the concert, and they came back talking about what a great concert it was. If this interests you, here's the schedule of the 2009 summer concerts:

http://www.summerkeys.com/dedication.html

The next morning, at our host's suggestion, we drove over to the West Quoddy lighthouse, which is in Lubec. It's part of a state park along the coast, and a very beautiful one! We thought it would be a quick stop, but we ended up spending several hours there. In addition to the lighthouse, which has a nice visitors center and gallery, there is a wonderful hiking trail that goes along the coast for about two miles. It has really beautiful views of the ocean, cliffs (and goes along them), tide pools, etc. If we'd known about it and had planned more time, we would have hiked the entire trail, but we only did about half of it. There is also a trail that leads into an enormous peat bog, supposedly the only well-preserved peat bog in the eastern US. It has a couple of boardwalks that cross it, so that you can really get in the middle and see it up close. We found it really fascinating, there were amazing plants in there we'd never seen anywhere else, including several varieties of carnivorous plants. As we are both avid amateur photographers, we had a great time taking lots of cool pictures, and spent a long time there. I definitely recommend you budget a good chunk of time to spend exploring the lighthouse and park.

I don't know how much time you'll spend on Campobello, or what your plans for the return trip are, but here's a suggestion. It would add some extra time, but would be interesting, and you'd see some more neat places. You can take the ferry (actually two ferries) from Campobello to the New Brunswick mainland at L'Etete, then drive down to the charming town of St. Andrews to spend the night before heading back across the border, which is a little less than an hours drive from L'Etete. We took the ferries on our way north, but we stayed in St. Andrews on our way home. The ferries were fun, and we got to see a lot of Passamaquoddy Bay. There was a very small ferry that took us from Campobello to Deer Island - we were the only car on it, it was neat to have it to ourselves. Then we drove all the way to the other end of Deer Island, a very pretty drive, to catch another, larger ferry to the mainland. Saint Andrews is a lovely old resort town in a great location, and is a good place to see the extremes of the tides on the Bay of Fundy - not as extreme as at the northern end of the bay, but impressive, nonetheless.

We got a great rate to stay at the Fairmont Algonquin through TripAdvisor - it's a beautiful, historic hotel. It was a several block walk downhill to the town center on the waterfront, where we had dinner on the deck of a restaurant overlooking the bay. There appeared to be several places to stay right near the water, too. There is a wonderful Botanical Garden in Saint Andrews, Kingsbrae Garden, well worth a visit, we spent an entire morning there. You can also take boat tours and whale watches out of Saint Andrews harbor. The border crossing back to the states at ST. Stephen/Calais can get backed up and take awhile, so that is one possible drawback to the plan, but might be worth the slight inconvenience to visit ST. Andrews.

If you like the idea of experiencing the ferries, but don't want to visit Saint Andrews, you can also take the ferry from Campobello to Deer Island, and then another one from Deer Island to Eastport, ME. Here's the website of the ferry co. for more details:

http://www.eastcoastferries.nb.ca/index.htm

Have a great time on your trip, this is a beautiful area with a lot to see and do - I hope to go back again sometime!

Hmm, the edit function doesn't seem to be working. After previewing my answer I went back to edit it, but when I previewed it again, the changes were missing. So I tried editing it again, and, once again, the changes were missing. I went ahead and posted it anyway, the tweaks were slightly minor. The one thing I did want to point out, however, is that you should be aware that New Brunswick is on Atlantic Time, so it's an hour later on Campobello than in Maine. You may already know that, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case.

the loop to st. andrew sounds like a great idea. how long does it take to get there on the ferries and driving from lubec? and then from there back to the US border?

we already have reservations at the Peacock house. Just not sure how many nights will stay there.

also not sure if can do the drive from bar harbor to schoodic peninsular to lubec in one day? are there things worth stopping at on the way?

According to Google maps, the drive from Bar Harbor directly to Lubec is 2 hours and 18 minutes, or 2 hours and 43 minutes if you detour to Winter Harbor - so definitely doable in a day! It just depends on how long you take on the Schoodic Peninsula - I've never been there, so can't advise you on that, although I hear it's beautiful. I don't really know of anything particularly memorable to see between there and Lubec. Here's a website for Washington County (where Lubec is) that lists various natural and historic attractions, you can take a look and see if anything appeals to you:

http://www.sunrisecounty.org/pb/

I just found a web site for kayak trips on Machias Bay out of Machias, which you go through on the way to Lubec. Here it is:

http://www.sunrisecanoeandkayak.com/dir/daytrips.htm

The ferry from Campobello to Deer Island takes about 20 - 25 minutes, they leave once per hour. I think it may have taken us about half an hour to drive to the other end of Deer Island to catch the ferry, but we stopped a couple of times to admire the scenery and take pictures. The ferry from Deer Island to L'Etete leaves every half hour, but I doubt if you could make it from the first ferry in time to catch that one in only a half hour, so count on an hour between arriving on the island and getting on the next ferry (or you could spend some time on Deer Island itself, it was quite lovely). It's about a 20 minute ferry ride to L'Etete, and once again according to Google maps, a 53 minute drive to Saint Andrews. It's about a half hour drive from Saint Andrews to the border crossing at St. Stephen/Calais, and the crossing can take awhile if there's any backed up traffic. Going over the bridge from Lubec to Campobello was pretty quick, as there's not much traffic there, even though they did search our car and trunk at the custom station there - we weren't searched at Calais. What would be your destination after that - back to the coastal area, or heading back south then to wherever you came from? If you're heading south probably the quickest way to go would be to take ME-9 to Bangor, about a 2 and a half hour drive, then get on I-95 - or you could go back to Route 1 along the coast.

If you want to go to St. Andrews, but not by ferry, it's an hour and 45 minute drive from Lubec, not counting the time at the border crossing.

I haven't been to Eastport, and don't know if there's anything very interesting to see there, but I was looking at some websites, and I see there are schooner whalewatching and sunset cruises from there:

http://www.eastportwindjammers.com/beal.html

Have fun on your trip!

thanks for all your great suggestions.

how long did you stay in st. andrews? did you do the garden and what else?

same with Peacock B &B? How long? restaurants?

gather you went further up into canada.

Right now we are spending a night in portland (leaving from boston area). probalby 3 nights in bar harbor (been there before). and then will drive thru winter harbor etc. to lubec taking all day for the trip maybe. and stay in lubec 2 or 3 nights. seeing campobello, the pebble beach, quoddy light and ?

plan to go on by ferry to st. andrew for 1? night. is that enough?

and then back to bangor to visit friends and then a stop somewhere on the way back to boston area.

Our stays in Lubec and Saint Andrews were simply overnight stops with some extra time for sightseeing on our way to and from our vacation on Prince Edward Island (another amazing place, we loved it). We stopped in Lubec because I wanted to visit the Roosevelt house on Campobello, and I figured that it would be easier to stay there for the night than deal with the border crossing and time change, since I knew we'd be arriving somewhat late in the evening. Had I known about the cool lighthouse and great hiking trails at Quoddy Head State Park, I would have planned more time for Lubec. As it was, we spent the morning exploring the park and wishing we could spend more time there, had a late lunch at a small restaurant in Lubec, then drove over to Campobello and toured the FDR house near the end of the day. We really enjoyed seeing the house, it was very interesting. There's a visitors center where you can watch a film that gives you the background and history of the Roosevelts and the house, and then you do a self-guided tour at your own pace in the house. There are docents throughout the house to give info and answer questions, they were very friendly and informative.

Then we drove to Friar's Head, where there's a great view of Passamaquoddy Bay - but it was late in the day at that point, and it was starting to rain. So we drove to the other end of the island to see East Quoddy Light - it was interesting, but you can't get very near it, it's on a small island cut off from Campobello itself. Apparently at low tide you can climb down a ladder, walk across to that little island, and climb up another ladder if you really want to see it up close. We had originally planned to hike on some of the trails in the International Park on Campobello, but since we'd spent half the day at West Quoddy, we didn't have time (and it was raining by then). So we went to the ferry landing. I have to say, when we got there I said "you've got to be kidding!" - I expected an actual dock or something, but it's just a dirt beach with a sign saying it's the ferry landing. We were relieved when the ferry came into sight - it's pretty small, it probably has room for about six cars. Fortunately it had stopped raining by the time we embarked, so we were able to get out of the car, stand on the deck, and enjoy the scenery during the ferry ride. We were heading on farther north after our ferry rides, spending the night in Saint John, where we enjoyed seeing the Reversing Falls-but I digress, you're not heading that way.

Be aware that Lubec is a VERY small town. When I made our reservation at Peacock House and mentioned we probably wouldn't arrive until about 8:00 PM, and then we'd need to go eat dinner, Sue, the innkeeper, warned me that none of the local restaurants would be open that late, and we'd better stop and eat on the road. I'm glad she told us, we'd have been hungry and unhappy! We did eat lunch at a place in town, but I don't remember the name - I had some decent seafood chowder in a homemade bread bowl (don't remember what DH had)- we sat on a deck behind the restaurant with a view of the bridge and Lubec Channel. Unless you have various activities planned in the area, or are participating in the SummerKeys Music School, I think that two nights in Lubec would probably be enough.

As for Saint Andrews, we stopped there for the night after driving down from P.E.I., and we left for there later in the day than we'd intended, due to some sightseeing we wanted to do on the western side of the island on our way out (we stayed on the eastern side) - do you detect a pattern here? More to see and do than we have time for, and discovering we'd like to spend more time in places that we didn't know we'd like so much.

We arrived at St. Andrews late in the day, and were surprised to discover that the Fairmont Algonquin, that I'd booked because it looked neat and I got a great rate, is a resort hotel - if we'd arrived earlier we could have taken advantage of all kinds of amenities - pool, spa, golf, tennis, lawn croquet - had I known, we wouldn't have dawdled, and arrived earlier. We walked into town and ate at a nice restaurant on a deck overlooking the water - I don't remember the name, I really should keep better records of our travels. I'm always impressed with those who post such great, detailed trip reports.

St. Andrews was charming, and I think worth at least two nights. The main street along the waterfront had many restaurants, and I think there were some nice stores and galleries, although we weren't there long enough to check them out. I would have liked to have more time to explore the town. Besides the Kingsbrea Garden, there's the Ross Memorial Museum, I don't really know anything about it, there are some historical buildings, and I think an aquarium and/or some sort of display about local aquaculture. There are also various cruises from the harbor; I suggest doing a Google search to find out what else is in the area.

I'd love to go back and spend some more time in this part of down east Maine, southern New Brunswick, I know there's a lot to see and do there. I hope you have a great trip!

I see you say you're planning a stop overnight between Bangor and your home in the Boston area. I have to wonder why - either you're quite averse to driving more than 2 or 3 hours a day, or you're trying to fit in many stops along the way. Bangor is about a four hour drive, plus or minus some time depending on where you're coming from, from most places in the Boston area. I'd think you'd rather spend your hotel stays exploring locations farther north - do you really want to spend the money for an overnight stay somewhere within a one -two hour drive of your home?

OK, if you do, I suggest you get back to the coast -Kennebunkport, or Ogunquit would be nice places to stay . I've done these as day trips, but I have no clue where to stay overnight. Portsmouth is a great town, lots to see and do - Strawberry Banke, wonderful shops and galleries, cruises on the waterfront and to the Isles of Shoals

I hope you find this helpful. I'm happy to answer any other questions.

Sara, thanks for all your helpful suggestions.

yes we are a bit adverse to long drives. may want ot stop in oqunguit - a favorite of ours or plum island in newburyport for bird watching on the way back - weather dependent.

but as for lubec and st. andrews it is very hard to figure out a time frame for a place when you havent been.

if we arrive very late in the afternoon at lubec. it seems we will need more than one day to see everyhing - thus the 3 nights which are possibly too much.

leave early morning for st. andrew via ferry. get there early afternoon and then leave late the following day for stop over in bangor - sleep and visit friends the followng day. thus the stop on the way home.

5 hour drive for us.

the other option is 2 night in lubec and 2 in st. andrews and jiggle things a bit. not sure yet.

also depends how much we stop, etc from bar harbor, schodic point, etc. etc on way to lubec.

we have just found out that sackville NB has a great birding sanctuary that is very active in aug. and we may add this on to our trip. any 3 hours each way however. did you come down the coast of NB from prince edward island? and if so where did you stop and what did you see that was worthwhile or not worthwhile.


we have been to nova scotia but not prince ed. Is. but won't add it on this trip. (what did you see there that you liked - just for the record - bsides ann of green gables place).

thanks for al your help. do you have a trip report posted somewhere?

Unfortunately, I don't have a trip report posted. I meant to do one, in fact, I started to write one in a word processor, but only got as far as the third day of our trip, and never finished it. I really should do that sometime, although it's been about nine months now since our trip, so some details have become fuzzy.

We did more sightseeing on our way to PEI than on the way back. We stopped overnight in Saint John after our day in Lubec and Campobello, where we saw the Reversing Falls, which we thought were pretty interesting. It's a spot where the Saint John River, which is fairly wide just upstream of there, goes through a narrow chasm that drops sharply and also takes a sharp 90 degree turn. We didn't see the tide going upstream, we were there just about high tide, right after it switched, but we did see the remarkable difference in the river as the tide dropped rapidly, including many whirlpools, rapids, etc. We ate dinner at a restaurant on the cliff just above it, so we were able to watch it change as we ate.

In researching our trip I found out about The Fundy Trail, which is a bit north of Saint John. It's a coastal access network which includes a low-speed auto parkway with scenic lookouts, hiking trails, and an interpretive center. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to explore that, but it looks great. Here's their web site:

http://fundytrailparkway.com/welcome.htm

We did visit Hopewell Rocks, which is an amazing place, and if you are going to Sackville, you should definitely try to go there, especially if the timing of the tides works well for the time of your visit. It's a provincial park where there are many freestanding rock formations (called flowerpot rocks) just offshore that have been carved and eroded at their bases by the changing tides; they have trees and other vegetation growing at their tops. At low tide you can walk among them, and at high tide they are little islands. The park is very nice, with trails, and a visitors center with a decent casual restaurant, large gift shop, and excellent displays on the geology, hydrology, history, and other aspects of the Bay of Fundy. The admission fee for the park is good for two days, so people can go see it at both low and high tides (assuming they don't want to hang around for six hours). You can walk on the floor of the bay around the formations for about two hours before and after low tide. We arrived there mid-afternoon and spent as long as we could, exploring among the flowerpot rocks and taking pictures, until we had to go ashore due to the approaching tide (there's a metal staircase that goes down the side of a cliff to give access). We stayed overnight at the Hopewell Rocks Motel and Country Inn just outside the park, so we could go back the next morning and see it at again at a different tidal stage. The motel was adequate - not by any stretch luxurious, but it was clean, and had a nice view of the bay. Their restaurant was fine, nothing special, and they don't serve liquor, so no wine with dinner. Here's the website for Hopewell Rocks:

http://www.thehopewellrocks.ca/English/index.htm

And here's the one for that motel:

http://www.hopewellrocksmotel.com/

There's a nice little town about 45 minutes south of there on the shore of the bay called Alma, at the entrance to Fundy National Park, we drove through it, and there were several restaurants and places to stay there. We also went to Cape Enrage, between Alma and Hopewell Rocks, that was pretty interesting, and quite scenic. We walked a bit on the beach there, it was very different from any I've been to before - huge rocks, hard to walk on, but pretty neat. Here's their web site:

http://www.capenrage.org/

Route 1, the main highway between the border and Moncton, is a good road and can be traveled fairly quickly, in about 3 hours (to Moncton), and we drove that straight through coming back from PEI to St. Andrews. However, on our way to PEI, we spent the night in Saint John after our ferry ride from Campobello/Deer Island. North of Saint John the road veers away from the coast. We took Route 114 back to the coast through the Fundy National Forest. That road is kind of rough, and goes through some pretty remote forest area, but it's an interesting drive. You don't have to pay when you enter the National Park if you're just driving through, but have to pay a fee if you plan to stop and do any hiking. North of Alma we took Route 915 out to Cape Enrage, it's a very pretty drive, and it reconnects to Route 114 shortly before Hopewell.

If you do plan to go up to Sackville, I suggest you head north after you get off the ferry, staying in Saint John or somewhere further north, depending on what time it is. Visit Saint Andrews on your way back south from there. There are very nice visitor information centers located frequently along the highway, and are easy to spot by the big question mark identifying them; you can pick up lots of brochures and other info on local attractions at them. We stopped at the one on Campobello, just past the border entry station, where we got a very nice free highway map of New Brunswick denoting points of interest, and showing where all of the various information centers are located.

As for what we liked in PEI, I'll start another thread when I have time to answer in more detail - I'll post it on the Canada forum, but I'll put a link to it on this thread so you'll be able to find it. The whole island is filled with incredible natural beauty - red cliffs, rolling meadows and farmland, beaches, little coves and harbors - just one stunning view after another as you drive around (and we drove a lot, there's so much to see). I'll try to find time to do that soon.

thanks for all the info!!!