Why is Bar Harbor "touristy"
 

I often see Bar Harbor descibed as touristy, the implication being that that is a bad thing. Yet other full-of-tourist towns such as Camden are not. Could somebody explain the difference?

A walkable town with lots of places to stay and lots of restaurants would seem to be a good thing for a traveler! I have nothing against places like Southwest harbor, but it doesn't seem nearly as convenient , unless you are having most meals at the place you are staying.

Bar Harbor pretty much shuts down in the evening, so It can't be because it's noisy at night!

~Liz

Might have something to do with the cruise ships that tender in passengers during the Summer and Fall. We visited for the first time last Summer via a cruise ship (guess we were one of those dreaded tourists) and loved it. We're going back again this October on a Folliage cruise.

When I'm a tourist and find a place is filled with tourists, it generally confirms my choice and we have a good time. On the otherhand when I'm a local I gon't generally frequent touristy places.

i suppose its because there are lots of tee shirt shops and places selling cheap souvenirs and lobster flavored potato chips. But a place becomes "touristy" for a reason, because its beautiful, or is close to something everybody wants to see. It doesn't stop me from going there (heck, large parts of Paris are "touristy", the vast majority of Venice is "touristy" all those museums on the mall in Washington DC are absolutely jam packed with tourists...I'm still going to all those places).

I've stayed in Bass Harbor, in the quieter, less touristy part of Mount Desert Island. I liked it a lot, but its not where I would recommend a person stay on their first trip to Acadia. It's a lot of driving every day if you want to see the main parts of the park (like Cadillac Mountain, the park loop road, Jordan Pond tea house). Great for a second or third trip, but not the first time when you are going for a couple of days.

Touristy towns: lots of cheapy shops full of junk (plastic lobsters,Indian headdresses made of turkey feathers, stuff with the name of the town on it to show you have been there); t shirt shops; video game places; honky tonk bars with fronts open to the street; Old Farts riding Harleys and pretending to be Outlaw Bikers; restaurants with costumed waitresse (colonial ladies, German beer girls) etc.

Twee towns: cutesy buildings, real and reproduction; Lots of Muffy shops with pink and green clothes for college girls; embroidered men's belts and dog collars; corduroys with pheasants; no working economy (no commercial fishermen, lumbermen, farmers, miners); Old Farts driving Land Rovers; branches of certain stores like J McLaughlin and Ralph Lauren; no mall stores; no chain restaurants. Entrees begin at $25. Botox much in evidence.

In both kinds of places, everyone does what the herd does.

In better destinations, you can actually learn something as well as consume something.

It's turned into a tourist place, mainly because it is next to Arcadia National Park. Arcadia is well worth a visit.

I'm surprise no one mentioned that important reason.

Bar Harbor used to be a nice, quiet town. I haven't been back lately

It's only recently that cruise ships stop in Bar Harbor.

I dunno...Camden is pretty touristy too. Locals avoid it during summa when the flatlandahs ovahrun it. Beautiful in the off season though...much nicer than Bah Habah.

DH and I are in Bar Harbor now.Haven't been here for 11 yrs. It's touristy in that there are lots of people here drawn by the park.There are lots of shops with Tshirts, bball caps, etc., some nice shops with more expensive merchandise, lots of restaurants, but it isn't what I would call honky-tonk at all. Old Orchard Beach fills that bill. Several very upscale hotels. Scenery here is lovely bcs of the mts and mt islands. Nice, walkable downtown. Lots of serious hikers, rock climbers and cyclists doing their thing in the park. Front page article in local paper about effort to revamp cruise ship terminal to attract more ships. If that happens, there will be hordes of people all pouring off the boat at the same time. Shops will be happy and probably raise their prices then. We don't cruise but in other popular ports, we have found we get better prices if we say we're not on the ship and will be back tomorrow after the ships leave to buy whatever at a lower price and it always works. Will be interesting to see what happens in BH if new terminal gets done.

Good explanation, Ackislander.

Too touristy is when there are more tourist and tourist-oriented things than the original town. Where you visit depends on what kind of vacation you want to have. To me, Woodstock VT isn't really a Vermont town anymore.

I have my doubts about Nantucket sometimes, but as long as the VFW and American Legion continue to sponsor spaghetti suppers I think we are okay. We also spend a lot of time and money trying to educate visitors about our history and architecture. I think the day trippers miss it, but people who spend a week here get into it.

A friend of mine who lives in Maine and I spent several days in the Bar Harbor and beyond area earlier this year. In Bar Harbor a small cruise ship pulled in one day and there was lots of additional tourist activity. All the rest of the non-tourist visitors had pulled in by road.

We ended up doing BH, and Acadia, and Camden, and all those "directional" harbors as well as Bath, Brunswick, and finally Portland.

There's a reason people flock to certain places and the reasons are usually good ones IMO.

Thanks all,

I think most of you are agreeing with me that telling everybody to go elsewhere, because "Bar Harbor is too touristy", doesn't make much sense. People are there because it has stuff travelers need, and is a pretty pleasant, walkable little town.

We're not shoppers, so I hardly notice the block or 2 of shops on Main St. When we are in town, for a short time each day, it's at the useful places on Cottage St.: Laundromat, grocery store, bike rental, etc.

~Liz

It depends entirely on what you want in a vacation. I would never tell anyone not to go to a place because it is too touristy. Rome and Paris are touristy, and Venice is beyond touristy, but offer me a trip to any of them, and I will be out of here like a shot.

I think your question is a good one because it alerts potential travelers to what they are getting into. I can tell you that cruise boats ("ships" is probably too strong a word) would be a huge red flag for me.

But I remember some poor soul on the Europe forum asking where the quaint parts of London are. Well, there aren't any quaint parts of London in the sense she meant. Medieval London burned down in 1666, and what didn't burn got pretty well destroyed by the Germans between 1939 and 1945. There are lots of interesting old buildings, but not quaint in the sense she meant. Having realistic goals is good.

If the population increases twenty-fold for two or three months of the year, because of a tourist invasion, then the place is probably considered "touristy". Too much traffic for the 2-lane roads, lots of pedestrians, souvenir shops,lots more places to have breakfast than a regular town has, lodging that is 1/4 full for most of the year and sold out all summer.

Much of Maine is pretty touristy in summer and it's getting worse every year, Camden though I think is more year-round-busy than is Bar harbor.

"Touristy" is when lobster comes down in wholesale price by about 50%, but the restaurants don't lower the prices much on their lobster entrees because the tourists will pay 20 bucks for a small lobster with an ear of corn. Non-touristy is in mid september when the "Twin Lobsters $12.95" specials keep popping up all over the place because the tourists have all gone home. But the worst part about the non-touristy seasons in Maine is that all the roadside ice cream shacks close down.

We are just back from a coastal Maine trip ~ 2 nights Boothbay Harbor, 6 nights Bar Harbor and 1 night Camden. I think they are all "touristy" in that they offer something in a central location which tourists are looking for. We have visited BH several times, always staying in town at the Bar Harbor Inn as we did on this trip. The crowds in Bar Harbor do not bother me in the least. During the day we are off enjoying all that Acadia has to offer and return to BH late in the afternoon to relax; we enjoy having so many good restaurants within walking distance. On this trip we were usually back at the Bar Harbor Inn from dinner by 9ish and you could hear a pin drop from our balcony - very quiet and peaceful.

I'm trying to remember. Wasn't there some town on the coast north of Boston where a fishing dock etc were torn down to put in a tourist attraction?

Camden is definitely one of the most beautiful towns on the coast and I always recommend the trip up Mt Battie for the view but it's not a place where I want to spend a week. A couple of years ago we went on a garden tour but I was disappointed that the majority of gardens were installed and maintained by a landscaper and the homeowners were mostly summer people who didn't really work in the their gardens. Even in late September there restaurants are crowded on weekends.

People complain about crowds and don't want to go to Maine during the summer months but we have no problem with crowds while vacationing during 4th of July week. We just avoid the touristy spots.

Last time I was in BH was 8 years ago, so maybe the cruise ships are a new phenomenon since then. BH has tourists (including me, when I was there) but it ain't Vegas, or Gatlinburg even. It's kind of shabby genteel. Think un-air conditioned diners with pancakes, slapping screen doors on the bookstore, coffee outside with the Sunday papers, wild blueberries in the food coop on the town square. The summer we were there the locals were complaining about the lack of visitors actually (the season for them to make $$ is very short because it is so far north).

I think not visiting BH because of fear of too many tourists would be a mistake. So much beauty in Acadia and so many interesting things to do. By all means visit the other towns as well--each has its charms.

There is no R in Acadia National Park!

P A R K

(yes, there is an R in there somewhere!)

Bar Harbor is delightful, but it does feel as though it exists more to serve tourists than as a town in its own right. That's what always happens to a place once the tourists greatly outnumber the locals. It's not a bad thing, just something to be aware of. The towns on the western side of the island, which is harder to reach, feel more "real" (but have less going on in them, naturally).