Quick trip to Maine in late August? Are we crazy?
 

My husband and I are looking for a place to escape New York City for a few days in August, and we never been to Maine and would love to visit. Does anyone have any recommendations for a (coastal) town/place to stay. We're in our late 20s and on a budget, so I'd love to keep our lodging costs around $120 a night. Our only requirement is that it's clean. (Is this even possible since I don't yet have a reservation!??)

Boyce's Motel in Stonington looks like it would fit our bill, but I just wonder if the drive would be horrible for a three night trip? http://www.boycesmotel.com/boyces.html

Also, I know we're not exactly choosing off-season and I am a little nervous about the crowds (the whole point of leaving NYC is to escape crowds!, so if there are places that are less touristy please let me know). Also, the best time for me to go would be around Labor Day--Yikes, I know. I wonder if we can miss some of the crowds by arriving on a Thursday, and leaving on the Monday before Labor Day?

Thank you all!

Stonington is much too far for a 3 day weekend coming from NYC. It's probably a 4-5 hour drive just to get to Portsmouth NH. Thursday travel should be better esp if you can get thru Hartford or other big cities when it's not rush hour. Rt 495 is much less congested than 128/95. I think your fastest route is up thru Hartford to the Mass Turnpike to Rt 495 to 95. We have stayed at Glenmoorbythesea in Lincolnville just north of Camden, which has a big rate drop if you can go after 9/1. Some towns will be very crowded almost any weekend. Camden is still a long drive for you. Maybe look for something in the Portland area and do a day trip along the coast. Keep looking for motels like Boyce's. A lot of kids go back to school before Labor Day so reservations might not be too hard to get. You can also buy a Maine Atlas and Gazetteer at bookstores. It's overize but easy to carry and shows all the roads. You can find your own ways around high traffic areas such as downtown Camden. (Although we have an atlas now we just took some side streets and found a way to avoid the downtown area.) We have an atlas for NH and VT, too, and plot our own trips off the beaten path. Of course, sometimes we have to turn around!

Labor Day is a monday, so if you are talking about going a full week before Labor Day then, yes, you will have lots less traffic and hassles. Labor Day weekend is tourist-exit time up there, and also it's first weekend for tons of colleges and schools up there so I'd stay away.

Thanks for the responses. Maybe we can try to pick another weekend...possible earlier or later than Labor.

Glennmoor by the sea looks like a great place to stay. However, is there any chance of finding a place on a beach? We love taking walks on the sand...and I would miss that, if we were in a harbor town. But I'm completely ignorant of Maine coastal towns....

Any more advice?

The weekend AFTER labor day would probably be perfect. Rates drop after Labor day and you can probably find much nicer accomodations in your price range.

Billowhouse.com is a place in southern Maine (Ocean Park) where you would have a huge beach at your doorstep. It's on the very quiet end of the funky Old Orchard Beach area (think Coney Island)...and it's a lovely area in September after the crowds are gone. The only problem with this choice is that you'll have to drive to almost everything...including most dining options. However, there is some great dining within a 10 minute drive. And if you want real quiet, you probably won't find a smaller "community" than little Ocean Park, Maine.

York Harbor Inn would be a great place to stay with beach nearby, also the towns of Wells and Ogunquit have great beach areas. Other tourist stops including Camden,Boothbay and Bar Harbor are more rocky coast than beach. From Ocean Park, Wells or Ogunquit you can easily find some more rocky/coast places to visit for an afternoon....so that you'll get a taste of both the sand and the pounding surf sides of Maine.

Some places will call the weekend after Labor Day the beginning of "off-season" and you might find some great prices! I would just add that September usually brings the BEST weather to Maine, we always like to go in September....(but let's keep it a secret if we can!)

We spent the week after Labor Day in a share rental house in Boothbay Harbor a few years ago. The weather was sunny and crisp and there were people around but not the crowds I'd expect during the season. Boothbay is the quintessential NE coastal town - fairly touristy but that results in good restaurants and lots of little shops to wander around in. As another poster said, it's the rocky coastline, so no sand to stick your toes in - but remember, Maine waters are very cold even in August! (Alas, no gulf stream...)

However, Boothbay might be a little far for only three days. As another poster said, it's a good 4-5 hours to the NH-ME border. (The I-84 to I-495 to I-95 directions are the best way to go from here in NYC.) I think it was another hour and a half to Boothbay... but I can't be quite sure because we stopped at LL Bean and the other outlets in Freeport both coming and going! :-O

I have to jump in before I get too jealous of all you who can travel in Maine in the fall. I think my last post was a bit misleading...I was thinking of trying to squeeze a trip in just a couple of days after Labor Day. I would love to go much later in September, but I am starting a graduate school program (Master's in the History of Dec. Art and Design!) in the fall, so this will be our last trip before I hit the books.

I got a couple of "weekends from New York" books and one of them suggested spending one night in Kennebunkport and then maybe two nights in Stonington, then maybe one more night somewhere else before we drove back down to NYC. (this last part was my idea, they suggest driving all the way back in one day) How does this sound?...keeping in mind that this will be in August....

Eliza, I'm starting grad school this fall, too! Only Parsons starts the *day after* Labor Day and I have a 4-week summer course I have to take first... So now it's my turn to be jealous of you, getting away for even a few days at the end of August would be lovely!

What draws you to visit Maine? Could you be tempted by closer water views (CT) or non-shore rocky beauty (Catskills, Berkshires, southern VT)? I love visiting Maine, it just seems like a long drive and maybe not very reasonable prices in August? But I totally understand if that's where you want to be!

Oh - a new thought - what about northeastern Mass? Have you ever been to Rockport, Gloucester, Marblehead, Manchester-by-the-Sea? Boothbay Harbor reminded me of Rockport (and Provincetown minus the sand). These towns are on Cape Ann, about halfway between Boston and Portland, ME. Something of a Maine feel without quite the Maine distance/cost. Just a late-night thought... :)

ggreen-
My program is actually through Parsons though it's taught at Cooper-Hewitt.

Anyway, we've never been to Maine and always wanted to go (just a romantic notion!), but we're not native east-coasters and have hardly traveled around at all. (Only to the Berkshires and the Montuak) So, we haven't been to any of the Mass towns on your list....Hmmm definitely a thought. I don't know, if we'll be able to give up the idea of Maine, though....

Won't everything be crowded in August though? I have this perception that there is a mad rush from cities to all the coastal towns in the east coast...but I don't have any experience to back this up!

Crowded, yes, but nothing like Cape Cod (or Jones Beach!). Just try to avoid driving on the 1st, 15th and last day of the month because people are moving in and out of rentals. (Not that you'll be there, but I-95 in CT becomes a total parking lot.) And of course the regular weekend Friday-night-out and Sunday-night-back crowd (or Monday when it's Labor Day). But I think once you get somewhere and plunk down, you should be okay. Especially since you're doing research and so will likely avoid the busier locales... As you know from the Berkshires, the scale of everything in these towns is smaller and lower-key than NYC, so you can't help but be more relaxed!

Of course I have no idea what your tolerance for driving is, but I would suggest finding a place no more than six hours away - or if you're like me, the vacation will have evaporated by the time you get back!

I don't know Stonington, but off the top of my head, your Kennebunkport-Stonington-someplace else idea doesn't sound bad. Kennebunkport will probably be fairly crowded but fine for one night; it's a cute town. Or maybe even stay in Portland or Cape Elizabeth to keep costs down? (Portland's downtown area has some decent bars and restaurants.) I'd be concerned about how long it takes to get to Stonington, but it looks like a nice place. (I think on the coast it would be hard to go wrong!)

I hope this helps!

Yes if it's August you'd be crazy to go to Stonington. The traffic jams up Route 1 can be miserable. I'd stay as far south as possible, maybe York Beach, if it's August. Especially if you are looking for sand instead of rocks.

i'm jumping in a bit late here. as a former texan, transplanted to maine in 9th grade, grad school in boston, career in nyc, finally settled in newburyport on boston's north shore, i have some informed opinions about your nyc getaway.

while in nyc, we would make the six-hour drive every weekend from nyc to cape elizabeth, maine to get away to the beaches. a very easy drive, with a half-way pit stop at sturbridge. having had the opportunity to find every beach between boston and stonington over the last 20 years, i recommend southern maine for your trip. cape elizabeth has inn-by-the-sea on crescent beach, with a short drive to enjoy higgins, ferry, and atlantic beaches and pick up local harvest at roadside stands. or the black point inn on prout's neck with all of ram island to explore. it's all close enough to go out to dinner in portland and poke around the old port around exchange street or ferry out to one of the calendar islands in casco bay.

closer still is kennebunk and a little known, secluded area called parson's beach, just down the road from the rachel carson wildlife preserve. the water is a tolerable temp for maine, and it's the best boogie boarding beach i've found next to good harbor beach in gloucester. skim boards are allowed, too. from the northern end of parson's beach, you can walk up the river and ride a boogie board down to the ocean. boogie boards are under $10 in every CVS, but they'll be sold out by that time. walk to the south end of the beach, and it becomes private with stately old summer cottage-stlye mansions. there are more than a few good places to stay in kennebunk, wonderful theater and beaches in ogunquit, even better inns and beaches in york. i prefer york as it's charm is more typical new england compared to touristy-looking ogunquit. you'd be close enough to dine in portsmouth, a charming walking city with many, many good restaurants, like a slice of a nyc neighborhood, with cafes tucked into little alleyways and interesting shopping. no need to go further north to experience a quintessesntial maine getaway.

the water is a bit warmer in northeast mass. a delightful "wow" retreat is the new inn on plum island called blue, consisting of beautifully refurbished summer cottages and rooms in the main building. the inn was built by jeanne geiger, wife of aeropostale retail chain owner. she fell off an unrailed deck during the refurbishing and died, but her work was finished lovingly and the place is nothing short of the perfect getaway with an outstanding restaurant down the street called the plum island grill with a really happy bar scene. mad martha's is open for breakfast and it has great food. altho blue is right on the ocean, it's nice to slip off to a local secret down at the southern tip of plum island called sandy point. it's opposite crane's beach in ipswich, with the same beautiful sand, but a flatter expanse of beach with many tide pools. en route, because you're driving thru the parker river wildlife refuge, there are at least seven points of interest to detain you. with the exception of sandy point, plum island doesn't hold a candle to the inns and beaches in essex, gloucester and rockport on cape ann, but you're trying to get to maine, right? save the penobscot bay beaches and inns in maine for another time when you can go in july or august.

Via ferry from Thomaston, MONHEGAN ISLAND might prove a great escape as long as you pre-reserve accomodations.
Price would be right. Fly into Portland,
rent a car for the 1 hour drive to Thomaston.

For a Parsons student, Monhegan is the Wyeth family's retreat so you probably
know many of Jamie and Andrew Wyeth's
watercolors of the island already.

I also would recommend southern Maine - particularly if you want long stretches of white sand beach. Check out York, Ogunquit, Wells, and the Kennebunks. If you want a motel right on a long sandy beach, look at someplace like Lafayette in Wells, which is a large motel complex along the beach. The rooms not facing the water are not too expensive. There is lots to do in this area - just realize the water in Maine is a mite cool, but can be bearable at times.

bookmarking. Sounds fabulous.

Eliza - I think why people are confused about your trip is the following:

"squeeze in a trip just a couple of days after Labor Day", and "keeping in mind this will be August".

Labor Day is September 4th. August, obviously, is BEFORE this. So, do you want to go in August or AFTER Labor Day?

Karen
just trying to help...

Hi everyone! Thanks for all of your responses. I think people might be confused about our trip because I started out a bit confused. OK, looks like we will be traveling in August.

Before I read all of these posts, I thought I had my mind made up but corwin's advice sounds wonderful...OK, here is what I was thinking (if corwin could weigh in again, I would so appreciate it!).

Note: I just started reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, which is about trusting your gut. And how your gut feeling can be the right one. After two hours of looking at travel books last night, my gut is telling me that that we want to see "real" rugged Maine. I do like taking walks on the beach, but I can do without the sand on this trip as a trade for a quiet rugged coastal town.

So, what if we left on a Wednesday in August. Drove to Southern Maine spent the night in York (or somewhere close), then drove up to Castine or to Stonington for two nights, then back down to New York on a Saturday (hopefully travelling in opposite direction of everyone else). I might be able to talk my husband into staying a fourth night somewhere else--to make our drive back a little better.

I'm just afraid that we'll really regret it, if we don't see that beautiful Down East coast....comments?

Also, any preferences on Castine vs. Stonington?

I haven't spent much time in either but I think Stonington was my preference. But, our visit was in mid-June not busy August. According to Blink, gut reactions work well based on a person's knowledge and experience although the information isn't at their fingertips. I suspect you'd like to see rugged Maine and feel the local flavor but this doesn't usually happen if you're rushing thru. We visited Belfast in mid-June but I found one shop closed with a sign posted "gone fishing", my husband decided he needed a haircut and enjoyed conversation with the barber about places to see. We overhead a local complaining about a summer resident with a monologue that would have done Tim Samples proud. On our trip next week my husband wants to just sit and watch the ocean somewhere like Pemaquid Point where we've been before. We carry bag chairs and pack binnoculars and a snack. We've found pies and pastries for sale on the honor system on someone's front lawn. We also try to incorporate a boat ride so we can see the coast from another angle.
I still think Stonington is too far but maybe not as long as you don't whiz past some of those places like the used bookstore near Ellsworth that used to be a chicken coop or miss hearing the directions for the unique Victorian village that's not on Rt 1.
Best wishes, I'm sure you will find what kind of travel suits the two of you best.

I'll tell you a little secret....coastal towns on Cape Cod and Maine experience a wonderful lull during the week before Labor Day. Families are getting ready for school to begin and some elementary and secondary schools start up even earlier. So the Sunday-Thursday before Labor Day is a great time to see those coastal towns. Of course, the last hurrah of summer takes place on Labor Day weekend and traffic picks up considerable on Thursday night. We love Acadia and Bar Harbor but that's way too far to go from NYC for a couple of days.

Thanks yellowbyrd. Ok, I'm think I'm going to listen to the masses and try to find something furthur down south. I think I'll look around the Camden area for a taste of real Maine.

corwin, I love all of your suggestions, but they're a bit out my price rage. We were trying to keep it to $120ish a night. But I'm going to hang on to this and as soon as the budget loosens....

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

(Thank you all for posting...isn't it strange how much we end up revealing out ourselves?! I feel like you all basically know my life story by now!)

my pleasure to weigh in again eliza26. these are tough decisions. i like dfrostnh's ideas, and also ggreen's, tivertonhouse's, and zootsi's. with concern that august will be fairly booked up by now labor day weekend may be your only option by the time you decide! book accomodations quickly if it's august. i read blink too, so i'll try to "blink" my way thru this to see what bubbles up.

here goes.... to me, downeast can be found in a lobster "shack" on the craggy shoreline as well as in the exquisite drive on route 1 from brunswick thru camden and belfast to bucksport. after that, the coast raggedly fingers down east and route 1 is more inland, so you have to actually choose a finger of land and drive downeast to see coastline. while stonington is great, i think i'd choose monehegan island with bikes, vinalhaven or isle au haut if all i had was 3 days. but, if you can forgo long stretches of white sandy beaches, plus the dining and night life that southern maine, nh, mass have to offer, and prefer a lot of driving over relaxing, here's what you could consider:

1) buy a delorme map book of maine now. you'll enjoy it till you die.
2) hit a lobster shack (byob) at either chauncey creek in kittery point***, two lights in cape elizabeth** (exactly 6 hours from nyc), or drive downeast to the bailey's island lobster pound* from brusnwick.

if chauncey creek isn't maine enough for you, head up to cape elizabeth to the two lights lobster shack. if that does do it for you, then head to monehegan island with your bikes (no cars on island) out of portland. if you still feel like driving hours more.....

3) head north up route 1, deciding in brunswick whether you're going to turn downeast to bailey's lobster pound, or onward around penobscot bay, which is how you'd get to stonington anyway. anyhoo, the bowdoin campus and museum is a nice pit stop.

the view from the car starts getting more downeastie looking somewhere around wiscasset unless you turned off in brunswick.

3) stop in rockport/rockland to see the farnsworth museum collection (farnsworth's live in cape elizabeth on ram island) and walk the jetty at the samoset. take a ferry over to vinalhaven or isle au haut and stay overnight instead of pushing on to deer isle. those places are as downeast as it gets, baby. i love them and dark harbor too.

5) or just push on to stonington, taking in the easterly view of cranberry bogs, blueberry covered hillsides, craggy coast line, islands, and ocean. you can choose castine, which is fine, but it's not the same as deer isle, which has towns named sunset and sunshine, the haystack mountain school of crafts which is NOT TO BE MISSED even if it's closed, walk the boardwalks all over the wooded campus, and also NOT TO BE MISSED is the arboreal fog forest path taking you to barred island next to goose cove. go at low tide. (Barred Island Preserve is off 15A or the Sunset Road until you come to Goose Cove Rd. on the right and follow that for a ways and you will see the small parking lot on the right with the land conservation preserve sign.)

there's a flower nursery in blue hill that i love. and you'll go thru sedgewick which is THE eddie 'wild child' sedgewick family of andy warhol's early years. it is also fun to approach Haystack and Barred Island by kayak.

does this help or hurt? you could just love chauncy creek at kittery point and claim southern maine the spot. also, craggy coast is in full bloom on cape ann, as another person mention. let me know what you decide after you've purchased your delorme.

corwin

corwin,
You're suggestions most definitely help. Also, I have a husband who is putting is foot down on the possibility of driving 10 hours!

I will most definititely buy the map book you suggested. It sounds like a wonderful investment toward future Maine travels. Kittery Point sounds like a great lunch spot, and I'm thinking Camden area to stay.

I found a B&B in Searport that looks wonderful and is well within our price range, but I can't seem to find much about Searport....I saw one comment that the beaches are muddy there, not rocky...I don't know what this means. Here's the B&B (The Wildflower Inn) http://www.wildflowerinnme.com/

We could also stay in Camden at Elms Inn http://www.elmsinn.net/ It's a bit at the upper end of our budget, though, so it would be a stretch....at $139

I haven't been able to find anything in Belfast...

Thank you all for your help. Hope I can repay the favor, if you ever need assistance on an NYC trip or anywhere else I've been!

Belfast/Searsport is about 30 minutes more of driving that you don't want to do...and for 20 year olds pretty laid back/dull. Improving, but still a ways to go to become a hotspot.

If "clean" is your only requirement, take a look at High Tide Inn just north of Camden, an OLD summer home turned into an inn with oceanfront rooms (more expensive) and ocean view motel rooms (set back from the ocean). They should have something to fit your budget.

If your husband insists on something further south...Billowhouse in Ocean Park is right on a huge beach and you can take short drives south to Kennebunk for rocky shores. And don't forget...with gas prices as they are , if you stay south you can afford $130 or $140 a night instead of $120

joesorce,
thanks for your reply. We're not really concerned about Searsport being a hotspot. We have that here in New York. We're looking for some great scenery, lobster and blueberries... And I've read good things about Belfast. I haven't been able to find many Searsport pictures, so any comments would be great...

I've also found a possibility in Wiscassett. Any comments about that area? Too crowded?

(I'm sure you will all be relived when I make my decision! I'll most definitely write a report!)

OK, just found a third possibility in Lincolnville Beach. So, now it breaks down to:

Searsport?
Wiscassett?
Lincolnville?

Searsport would be the cheapest ($80 per night), followed by Wiscassett ($100), finally Lincolnville ($115), but all under budget....

weighing in on your choices....

wiscasset offers nearby access to monhegan island (which i wouldn't miss). you could go on a drive downeast to boothbay harbor, popham beach and reid state park, or just up the road to damariscotta and it's funky art/antique shopping. being just outside bath, you'll find excellent dining, cool yarn shops, museums, and other historical delights in. tenants harbor, friendship, and pemaquid will be fun to nose around. total driving time about 7 hrs, 15 min, not accounting for traffic and your lunch at chauncy creek in kittery point (which i wouldn't miss--be sure to get directions and then use your delorme to follow them, it is easy to make a wrong turn en route there).

lincolnville is situated outside of one of the lovliest towns on the maine coast and sits in the heart of vintage goods/antiques shopping spread out over a wide area from route 1 inland on all the little roads and side roads. from there you'll be able to easily visit not only islesboro, vinalhaven, or isle au haut (quintessential downeast summer spots for natives), but also rockland and rockport for farnsworth musuem, owl's head museum, as well as the camden scene (hills/restaurants/shopping/outdoor cafe/seafaring category).

i have hung out multiple times, but never stayed overnight, in linconville or wiscasset, only in nearby harbors sleeping on a boat while sailing. having sailed penobscot bay every summer of my young adult life, i'd be partial to searsport because it's on that leg of the drive that you get the route 1 view over blueberry and cranberry farms out into to bay of beautiful islands that is a sail boat paradise. from searport, it'll be easy to still day trip to islesboro, vinalhaven, et al, also day trip to castine or even back down to camden for civilization. in searsport, you can walk the rocky coast, the old cemetaries, and go inland to pick wildflowers, and find the ponds to skinny dip in. and most certainly you could day trip by driving downeast to deer isle......but your'e at over 8 hours of driving!

in any location, i can't encourage you enought to take bikes, and get out onto the water any way you can. ideally, load bikes onto a ferry to any island to spend the day tucking them into the woods on the side of the road so you can explore a piece of coastline you wouldn't normally have found otherwise. to me, that is what i think will bring you the serenity that downeast offers it's visitors. your own discovery of your own little piece of coastline that you don't think anyone else has really walked before you.

when did you say you'd be traveling? august is buggy. eveings are chilly enough sometimes for a fire. have you found a place with a fireplace? in case of extreme fog, that would be your best bet.

corwin

did you try this website? (i just googled penobscot bay sites).

http://www.mainebridges.com/lodging.html

my delorme is so crumpled on the penobscot bay pages that i need a new one, which will be my third.

on maine's 95 north, as you are leaving yarmouth and entering freeport, an excellent pitstop is the delorme map store because they have "eartha" which can be viewed in all her glory from the highway. a picture of eartha is here. http://www.delorme.com/about/eartha.aspx

corwin

We traveled off-season in Sept so didn't need a reservation...by the time we got up past Searsport we turned around and went back to Glenmoor (great place, but over your budget in summer) and Lincolnville Beach. Just seemed much more inviting to us. Belfast is a residential town, with summer tourism as a business. Rite Aids, chain restaurants etc. Searsport has a bit more downeast charm I guess, but for $80, make sure you're getting something near/on the ocean because I barely remember seeing the ocean when we drove through Searsport. Lincolnville anything you get will be a short walk to the sea, even if it's across the highway.

check out this website for beach action in southern maine

http://www.maine.info/beach-southernmainecoast.html

and this one may be even better!

http://www.mainecoastdata.org/public/

for some reason, this post never shows up when i search threads with my screen name. can't figure out why!!!

corwin

Thank you all for your gracious help. I finally made my decision! (Yes, I can hear the sighs of relief that you don't have to deal with this anymore!)

I made a reservation at the Spouter Inn in Lincolnville. The front page photo just sold me. The inn keepers are from Philadelphia, and they've apparently made the drive many times, so they estimated it should take 6-7 hours (We'll be traveling during the week, and missing rush hour!).
http://www.spouterinn.com/

We're planning on stopping at Kittery Point for lunch as suggested, and I've checked out Chow Maine from the library to get myself ready to eat!

Corwin, Thank you for all of your help. Today, I ordered the Delorme map. They've just come out with a new addition.

Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions and advice. I'll be sure to post my trip report.

the inn looks lovely!
one thought, chauncy creek on kittery point is byob, as are most lobster pounds. must get there on the early side if it ends up being dinner instead of lunch. parking fills up rapidly. attendant informs you as you approach. lunch, however, should be no problem.
can't wait to hear a trip report about your inn. have fun!
corwin

Eliza, that looks like a great place. We just got back from a week in Maine, mostly the Wiscasset area but did a "day trip" to the Cellar Door Winery in Lincolnville and places along Rt 1 as far as Ellsworth. Downtown Camden was very crowded. It's a beautiful area and do NOT miss the view from the top of Mt Battie. Looking forward to your trip report.