Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park - August 2024

I went back and forth a lot on what flights to get. There was a direct flight from St. Pete to Bangor, Maine on Allegiant, but it didn’t arrive until about 6:30pm and I wanted to have a little more time on our 1st day since we were only staying 3 nights. I ended up booking an early flight on American with points with a stop in Charlotte. The morning of our flight, our flight was cancelled (6am flight), but we were rebooked on a 7:30am flight and we had a long layover so it all worked out. There were huge lines at the TPA airport, I was kind of surprised that early, but it was a Saturday. We made our flight and had no issues. In Bangor, we had reserved a rental car with Budget/Avis. We had reserved a minivan, but they got recalled right when we got to the desk. Luckily they had a Suburban available and it was a very comfortable ride. I booked the flights just about a month before.

Long lines at TPA

I had booked a room at Bar Harbor Inn in April for our August trip. At the time, I was only able to get a garden view room on the 1st floor at the Main Inn. I kept randomly checking to see if an ocean view room opened up until August and it never did for our dates! No other rooms ever opened up including the room that I booked. It was completely sold out. Our room ended up being lovely, with beautiful gardens to sit in and an easy walk to breakfast and the pool.

Our little sitting area outside our room in the beautiful gardens. 
There were lots of hydrangeas in Maine - so beautiful!

Beautiful gardens at Bar Harbor Inn

We loved the Bar Harbor Inn! The location was great - right in the center of town. It was very quaint. They had great amenities, too. Continental breakfast was included. They also gave my kids stuffed animals on arrival. Every night they also had free s’mores by the fire pit and cookies in the afternoon. The pool was lovely with a view of the harbor. Other hotels that looked nice with a good location were Harborside Hotel and West Street Hotel - both Opal Collection hotels.

S’mores every night

Great breakfast included

Nice pool area

The forecast for our stay looked bad. It looked like it would rain every day except our 1st day there, so we tried to squeeze a lot of things in on Day 1. I peeked at the tides online. To visit Bar Island, I had read to go about an hour and a half before low tide. We arrived in town right around that time, so we checked into our hotel and instead of dropping our things in the room, just headed straight to Bar Island. It was cool to see. The kids enjoyed tide pooling a little and throwing rocks. We didn’t walk all the way to the island, but hung out for a bit. We grabbed some ice cream in town on the way back to the hotel at Jordan Pond ice cream - it was delicious!

We then headed to Acadia National Park. I had reserved 6:30 pm entrance to Cadillac Mountain about a month in advance. It’s very popular to watch sunrise on Cadillac Mountain as it’s the easternmost place in the US to see the sunrise. I thought it was too early for our family, plus it’s very hard to get those reservations, so went for sunset. You cannot drive to Cadillac Mountain without a reservation. We also used the Guide Along app (formerly Gypsy Guide). I’ll say for this park it wasn’t as good as some others we have used (Yellowstone was the best), but we always enjoy hearing “Mr. Gypsy” tell us about the park and what we are seeing.

Since it wasn’t raining and we were a little early for our Cadillac reservation, we decided to stop by the Jordan Pond House. We had reservations for the next day, but it looked like rain. We were able to walk in and got seated right away inside. They weren’t seating outside as I guess it had been raining earlier. We got the famous popovers and some blueberry soda and blueberry lemonade. My daughter loved the blueberry soda. The popovers were good and warm and came out quickly.

Yummy blueberry soda

View outside Jordan Pond House

We then headed for Cadillac Mountain. We had the 4th grader pass, so entrance was free, but we paid for the reservation. We also got our Junior Ranger booklets to work on.  

I had read to park at the Blue Hill Overlook for sunset, but didn’t see that marked. There was a West and East parking lot. The West parking lot was full, so we parked at the East parking lot. We walked around the East side for awhile exploring. My husband then dropped us off at the West parking lot and then drove back to park at the East parking lot. We enjoyed watching the sunset here. Some people had packed cute picnic baskets with champagne, another family had a little stove set up making dinner, and another family had brought a pizza with them. It wasn’t too crowded, with plenty of space for everyone to watch.

Sunset at Cadillac Mountain - Hope in her Stitch PJs all day!

A family making dinner at Cadillac Mountain

Beautiful sunset

We then headed back to our hotel. We spotted a deer on our way out, but I couldn’t get a good photo. We finally took our bags to our room. Parking is free at the hotel and we were able to park close to our room. They do offer valet, but it wasn’t necessary. There was sort of a weird scent to the room and only one sink, but it was specious and clean. They were still doing s’mores so we of course made some. We watched the Olympics every night in bed.

Day 2

The next morning we got up and enjoyed our free breakfast. We all had yummy croissants and some fruit. I enjoyed their coffee. We then headed back to Acadia National Park. On the way in, a fox ran across the road, we got a quick glimpse of it, but couldn’t get a photo. We also saw a Little League All Star game being played between Ellsworth and Caribou, so watched for a tiny bit before heading on. 

I had read to be at Thunder Hole 2 hours before high tide to hear the “thunder”, so we arrived around 9:30am. We passed Sand Beach to get there on time, and never ended up making it back, so that’s something we will have to see on a future trip! The parking area for Thunder Hole was full, so we had to park on the street. It was supposed to rain later today and when we first arrived, I thought I heard thunder, but then realized - that was “Thunder Hole” - haha! We watched for awhile and saw a few big splashes, but never heard the “thunder” as loud as when we 1st arrived. It was slippery here and we all almost fell, so hold onto handrails!

Thunder Hole

Thunder Hole

We then drove around the Loop Road listening to “Mr. Gypsy” on the Guide Along App. It started to rain, so we didn’t make many stops.

Street parking near Thunder Hole as the parking lot was full 
That’s our white Suburban

Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park

Bridge of one of the Carriage Roads

We had reservations for lunch today for Jordan Pond House, but since it started to rain I cancelled them. We decided to head back to Bar Harbor for lunch. We chose Geddy’s for lunch. They had a kids menu so my picky eaters were able to get chicken fingers and Mac and cheese. My husband had lobster and I had a haddock sandwich that was quite good. We watched the Olympics while we ate. For dessert we had a blueberry pie that was delicious! Everything blueberry in Maine was really good and I don’t normally like blueberry that much.

Warmed up from the rain at Bar Harbor Inn

Huge Shirley Temple

Everyone tried Daddy’s lobster

One of many lobster meals for Daddy

Delicious blueberry pie

We then walked around town a bit. The rain had stopped. We stopped at Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium. It’s famous for lobster ice cream. We didn’t try it. But honestly the ice cream I got was so bad that I threw it away. The photo is cute though. They have a lobster outside. My son liked his ice cream okay and they had tons of candy. We tried a whoopie pie since it’s famous in Maine, but it was just okay I thought.

We walked around town more and the weather was looking better. We wanted to see Bar Island when the tide was in. It was cool to see the pathway gone. We also tried to book a lobster tour with Lulu but they were sold out the whole time we were there, but I was able to book a lobster and seal tour with Bar Harbor Whale Company for later that day.

The island to the right, you can walk there during low tide
Now can’t see the pathway

Bar Harbor - buoys everywhere for the lobster traps

Bar Harbor

We went back to the room to relax a bit before our 4pm Lobster and Seal tour. It was a very short walk to our tour. 

Bar Harbor Inn

Schooner boat - gives tours from our hotel

Our tour on Miss Samantha to see Lobstering and Seals

We really enjoyed the tour. The lobstering was interesting and we saw so many buoys in the water. Now we know they are all lobster traps and each company has their own colors to distinguish them. We didn’t book way ahead because I wanted to watch the weather. You don’t get to pull up the traps, but you watch the captain do it. We sat in the front row to the right as you enter and had the best seats to see him pull up the traps.

Pulling up lobster traps

Captain showing the lobster

Naturalist explaining everything to us

We then headed to Egg Rock to see the seals. They had binoculars you could borrow on the boat to see the seals. There is also a lighthouse here and the Naturalist told us the history. The men that worked the lighthouse used to just live there alone with an assistant. I think it’s automated now. The fog horn goes off something like every 30 seconds. We also spotted an Eagle on the way back.

Seals at Egg Rock

More seals

Lighthouse at Egg Rock

Bald Eagle

Everyone can hold a lobster

Lobster on the head!

Back in town, we put our name down at Terrace Grill at the hotel. Hotel guests supposedly get priority. We had nice views here and saw the tour boats coming in. The food was okay, we had a crab dip appetizer that was yummy. We got s’mores again after dinner and watched the Olympics.

Terrace Grill

Schooner boat

Bar Harbor Inn

A yacht supposedly owned by the owner of the Eagles

Day 3

The next morning we had free breakfast again at the hotel. It was a beautiful day today and we ate outside by the pool. We just loved the beautiful gardens at this hotel. I also liked you could enter and exit our room through the back door and it locked and you could use your key.

Breakfast by the pool

Beautiful gardens at the hotel
We walked this path to the pool and breakfast

We then headed to do the Jordan Pond Hike. We found a parking space right away as someone was leaving. We started to do the hike and I realized it was almost 11am. It was such a beautiful day I wanted to see if we could eat outside at Jordan Pond House so we headed that way. We stood in line for walk ups. There was a very long line, but they hadn’t opened yet. Once they opened, the line moved pretty quickly and we were able to be seated outside right away.  This place gets poor reviews on their food, but our lunch was actually very good. My husband had a lobster popover that he enjoyed and I had a turkey BLT that was quite good. Kids had buttered pasta and a grilled cheese and of course blueberry soda and popovers. Son hated the grilled cheese, though. 

It was a gorgeous day! The wind picked up at times and knocked a table over from the wind catching the umbrella. After our seating, they were taking the umbrellas off of every table when the guest left. I’m so glad we ate here when we did.

More blueberry soda

Our table at Jordan Pond House

The famous popovers

Beautiful day at Jordan Pond House

After lunch we did the hike. Most recommend doing the hike counter-clockwise, but because we had parked at the other lot and already started clockwise, we continued this way. The first part of the hike was mostly boardwalk.

Continuing the hike from Jordan Pond House

Cute little boardwalk

The water here is drinking water, so no swimming or wading is allowed. After the boardwalk section are some rocky areas. The kids really liked this. And then we came to a cute little bridge. After the bridge was mostly flat walking path. Hope spotted a tree that a beaver maybe bit up. We asked a ranger later and she agreed.

Rocky section

Cute bridge

Beaver marks

We forgot to bring water on the hike, so we were all happy to be back. It took us about 2 hours to do the hike. We took our time. We then headed to Hull Visitor Center to turn in their Junior Ranger booklets and get their badges.

Junior Ranger badges Acadia Nat Park

We then thought about going to Sand Beach or the other loop road, but decided to go back to the hotel for some pool time. The kids loved it. We had dinner reservations that night at the hotel at The Reading Room. We had a great window table. The view was beautiful and they had a piano player. My dinner was honestly just okay. I had the filet and it was average. It was still a great way to end this portion of the trip. We of course had s’mores to end the night.

Pool time

Reading Room

S’mores table

S’mores

We loved Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park. Things we missed - Sand Beach, Schoodic Peninsula/ other loop road, carriage roads (we spotted them, but didn’t bike or ride a carriage). We didn’t do a whale watch here, but did in the next portion of our trip.

The next part of the trip we drive from Bar Harbor to Wells, Maine, making several stops. We then go on to Gloucester, Massachusetts and on to Boston where we return the rental car.