Here is a quick trip report from Acadia.
We went for 3 nights and 2 days. We had intended on also having 2 half days, but things changed and those went away. I would have liked to have a little more time, but we had fun with our 2 days.
We stayed at the Quality Inn in Bar Harbor. We are 5, which gets tough. And I wanted to be able to walk into Bar Harbor. The location of the hotel was fine – about 10 minutes to the Village Green. And the hotel itself was fine – clean, comfortable, etc. But the room was really too small for 5 of us. It had a pull out chair bed that had to be angled in a corner and then the bed hit both the wall and one of the queen beds, leaving the chair bed person to climb out over the end of the bed. And there was just no walking room or places to sit. We did have 2 chairs outside the door and that was nice.
We arrived about 8:30 pm and unloaded into our room and then walked to Bar Harbor to look around and have ice cream at MDI ice cream. It was fun to pick a flavor and we all enjoyed our snack. The next day we slept in a little and didn’t leave the room until 10am. We walked to town and had breakfast at Jordan’s, which was very good and quick. It was right across from the bar to Bar Island, and the timing was right, so after breakfast we walked to Bar Island. Mostly we were just on the bar and looking at the sea life. We then took the park bus to Sand Beach. The kids walked in the water and had fun. We walked up Ocean Path to Thunder Hole and watched the tide come in with the big waves hitting. We enjoyed that. We took the bus back to Bar Harbor and had dinner at the Side Street Café, which was good. After, we did some shopping in town and then walked back to see where the bar to Bar Island was and verified it was totally underwater 😊.
The next day, DH and DS1 were up early to go hike the Beehive. They said it wasn’t too crowded and it was a good hike. DS1 said DS2 would not have enjoyed the heights and cliffs. I took DD and DS2 to the College of the Atlantic museum. It was a well done, but very small, museum. We all then met at the Village Green and hopped a bus to Northeast Harbor. This took a chunk of our day, but way back in 2002, DH and I had margaritas at the Kimball Terrace overlooking the harbor. Since this was DH’s 50th birthday trip, he wanted to do that again, so off we went. We ended up having lunch there too. It was actually a nice, relaxing part of the trip. After, we went back to the hotel and DS1 wanted to nap a bit, so the rest of us went back to Sand Beach because DD and DS2 wanted to play in the ocean. They had fun, but we forgot water shoes, which was a bummer. Later in the evening, we went back to Sand Beach again for the ranger program about stars. It was really a great program and we are all glad we went. DS2 was not excited to go and said it was definitely worth it. There was no moon and no clouds, so it was a perfect night for learning about the stars. We drove back into town for a late night ice cream again!
The next morning was up and out at 7am. I would have liked to rent bikes or done a carriage tour on the carriage roads. We skipped Jordan Pond area, and I would have liked to do that. But, we all had fun, had some good relaxation time, and it was a good vacation. Sometimes I pack too much in and I tried to go with the flow this time and I think it worked well.
Thanks for the input on my vacation planning! It was helpful to have the ideas to make it flow well.
