1 Week Near Bangor, ME: Here’s What We Did

After a week in Kokadjo, we moved a little further south in Maine to Eddington, a town that’s a short drive to the larger city of Bangor.

We picked this location because it was as close as we could (affordably) stay close to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Although Kokadjo was my favorite place we stayed in Maine, I did enjoy our stay near Bangor as we had another nice waterfront cabin, there were some beautiful sights, tasty food and more.

Here’s a round up of what we did during our week near Bangor, ME.

Where We Stayed

Similar to Kokadjo, we stayed in a waterfront cabin booked through Vacasa (this one). There were four of us staying there (my parents were with us), but we only booked a one bedroom property.

The reason for this is because you can book Vacasa properties with Wyndham Rewards points, with it costing 15,000 points per night per bedroom. A loophole with this is that some one bedroom houses and cabins can sleep more than two people, whether that’s due to sofa beds in the living room or, as was the case with this cabin we booked, a separate mezzanine floor with beds that’s not officially a bedroom for points booking purposes.

Shae and I each have Wyndham credit cards and those give us a 10% discount on points redemptions. That meant we only had to redeem 13,500 Wyndham points per night for this property which was excellent value considering how expensive waterfront cabins in New England in the fall can be.

The cabin also came with kayaks, canoes and tubes for us to use, but we didn’t end up going out on the water that week.

The downside with the property is that the internet connection wasn’t great. The speed was OK, but it would cut out for 5-10 seconds every 15 minutes or so. That was frustrating, especially because it would sometimes cut out for longer than that which was problematic when I had meetings or Shae was teaching as it would kick us out of Zoom too.

What We Did

Acadia National Park

The main reason we wanted to stay in the southeast part of Maine was to be close to Acadia National Park. We’d heard great things about the park from people who’ve visited, so we were looking forward to checking it out.

Acadia National Park is on Mount Desert Island (which is a cool name!) which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. It features mountains, forests, lakes, streams and more. Although you don’t need a timed entry permit to get into the park, there were timed entry permits needed to visit the Cadillac Mountain summit by car. Thankfully I’d found that out somehow a few months beforehand (if it was a reader giving us that tip, thank you!), so I booked us a timed ticket for late one morning to ascend to the top of the park.

It’s easy to see why that part of Acadia is so popular and why they need timed tickets. The parking lot at the summit isn’t huge, while the views you get from the spacious rocky area at the summit explain why people want to check it out.

Most National Parks in the US aren’t very pet-friendly. While they allow dogs in cars, at some overlooks, in paved areas, etc., they’re rarely allowed on hiking trails or in wider parts of parks. Acadia is a rare exception though as it’s very pet-friendly. Dogs are allowed with you at the summit as well as on many of the hiking trails in the park.

One of those pet-friendly hiking trails is the 3.1 mile long loop trail around Jordan Pond. After wandering around at the summit for a while, we went and hiked that loop trail, stopping for lunch along the way.

Similar to the other “ponds” we encountered in Maine, Jordan Pond was more like a lake than what I’d consider to be a pond.

With it being a loop trail, you can take the path in either direction. We set off around the pond counter-clockwise, with the trail being mostly dirt/gravel along the first two-thirds of the way.

The last third of the trail or so was along boardwalks. While these were fairly narrow, there were wider sections quite frequently which made it easy for people hiking in opposite directions to pass by each other.

About halfway around Jordan Pond there was a side trail heading up to Bubble Rock. This is a huge rock at the summit of a mountain which seems somewhat precariously balanced based on pictures we saw. The trail marker at the base of that side trail made it look like it was only half a mile up there, so we decided to give it a go. However, after half a mile we realized that the sign had seemingly been directing us to the start of the trail.

It had already been a steep uphill path and another trail marker said it would be another half mile. We chatted to a couple of hikers on their way down and they made it sound like Bubble Rock was even further than that additional half mile, so we decided to give up as we didn’t have the inclination or energy to add a ~1.5+ mile hike uphill, only to have to hike another 1.5+ miles downhill, then finish off the ~1.5 miles remaining on the Jordan Pond Path trail having already hiked ~1.5 miles.

Bar Harbor

Also on Mount Desert Island (and not far from Acadia National Park) is the cute town of Bar Harbor. On a different day to our trip to Acadia we made a day trip to Bar Harbor.

Much of our day in Bar Harbor involved eating and drinking at various locations, so those are listed in the food and drink section later on. We did wander around a fair bit though and it’s not surprising that so many people become enamored with this quaint town.

Fort Knox & Penobscot Narrows Observatory

Fort Knox in Maine was a fort named after the same general for whom the more famous Fort Knox in Kentucky is named after. It was constructed in the 1800s due to concerns about Great Britain trying to regain land, but never saw any action.

Despite not being a famous battle site, it was a surprisingly interesting place to visit as there was still a lot to learn there.

Next door to Fort Knox is the Penobscot Narrows Observatory – Maine’s tallest building which is part of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. There’s an observatory at the top providing 360° views of the river, Fort Knox and more. Check out this post for even more about both the locations.

Stephen King’s House

Stephen King and his wife Tabitha live in Bangor, ME. They have a beautiful-looking – yet very much Stephen King-esque – house in the Whitney Park Historic District that you can stop by to look at. There’s a fun cobweb-style gate which someone had adorned with red balloons a la It.

There’s a beautiful wooden sculpture in his front yard. Based on a local news report, this was added in the last few years and has creatures and features from some of his stories.

Lake St George St Park

At the end of our stay, we stopped off at Lake St George State Park on our way down to the Portland area. It was a quick but pretty stop; not only did the picnic area give scenic views of the lake, but visiting there in October meant we got to enjoy the fall colors. I imagine it’s a lovely place to visit in the summer too as there’s a beach area where you can go swimming.

It was also the perfect spot to get a cute photo of Truffles with the fall leaves behind her.

Hussey’s General Store

When in Kokadjo the previous week, we’d met up with someone who’d got in contact with us through our website after seeing it on the back of our car. He suggested that we should check out Hussey’s General Store in Windsor, ME because it’s a general store that’s so comprehensive that they sell guns, wedding gowns and more (perfect for a shotgun wedding – credit to Shae’s aunt who came up with that joke!).

Sure enough, in addition to an already wide range of items sold by the general store there were guns…

…and wedding gowns.

Maine State House

Also on our way to the Portland area we stopped off in Augusta to quickly check out the Maine State House.

Maine’s state capitol building is more understated than many we’ve seen, with a less ornate dome than some.

We did a quick self-guided tour, then continued on our way.

Where We Ate & Drank

Gifford’s Famous Ice Cream

Shortly before arriving at our cabin, we saw a long line outside an ice cream stand to the north of Bangor. When there’s a long line like that, it tends to be a good sign that there’s some good food there and so we turned around and drove back to stand in line ourselves.

That ice cream stand was Gifford’s Famous Ice Cream. As it turned out, they didn’t actually have Gifford’s ice cream in stock at the time; there had been a fire at their manufacturing plant, so they were sourcing their ice cream from a different family-owned ice cream company at the time.

We therefore can’t attest as to how good Gifford’s is, but the ice cream they were stocking that day was very good nonetheless. Shae got a banana split, my mom got chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream, I forget what my dad got, while I ordered Caramel Caribou which was caramel ice cream and chocolate caramel chunks. All of us enjoyed the ice cream, so it was definitely worth the stop, especially because the line didn’t take too long to get through.

Atlantic Brewing Company

On our way back from our trip to Acadia National Park, we stopped off at Atlantic Brewing Company for a quick drink.

I like getting flights at breweries in order to try as many of their beers as possible, so that’s what I got. My parents had never had a beer flight before, so they ordered their first ever flight which was fun.

The beers I got were:

• Dad Jokes
• Blueberry Ale
• Leaf Peeping Ale
• Real Ale
• Coal Porter

Coal Porter and Real Ale were my favorites and it was nice to be able to choose a flight of five beers seeing as most beer flights elsewhere are only for four beers.

S’mores

Not only had my parents never had a beer flight, but they’d never had s’mores either. In case you weren’t aware, I’m from the UK and s’mores aren’t really a thing there, so it’s not surprising that my parents had never had them.

Our cabin in Eddington had a fire pit, so I got s’mores stuff from the store and one night I got a fire going. I’m not always the most patient of people, but when it comes to toasting marshmallows I’m the master of patience to get them perfectly toasted rather than burned.

Graffiti Donuts

Our day in Bar Harbor included lots of food and drink. We started off at Graffiti Donuts which had a bunch of tasty-looking donuts, even if they were only cake donuts (Shae and I both prefer yeast donuts).

I got their maple bacon donut which was fine, but not life-changing. Shae went all-out and ordered their blueberry pie donut which has wild Maine blueberries, graham cracker crumbles and whipped cream over a blueberry donut. I tried some of hers and it was very good, especially thanks to the blueberries that were on it in addition to the blueberry donut.

Ivy Manor Inn Garden Bar

While walking down Main St in Bar Harbor we spotted a really cute bar right there at the side of the street. This was the Ivy Manor Inn Garden Bar and had lots of outdoor seating.

The bar had a selection of local beers and hard seltzers, as well as spirits and more.

Despite being right there on Main St, it was a relaxing place to stop and have a drink. It also gets bonus points for being pet-friendly as we had Truffles with us.

Side Street Cafe

We then went for a late lunch at Side Street Cafe. A friend of ours had suggested that we stop by there, specifically recommending their blueberry margarita and lobster stew.

Shae ordered both of those and loved them both. The lobster stew was more watery than we were expecting, but despite that it was very flavorful.

While Shae went for the lobster stew, I went for a lobster roll seeing as we hadn’t had one in Maine yet. It was good, but I’m not sure it was $40 good. That said, it did come loaded with lobster meat.

My parents ordered the sweet chili chicken skewers and brussels sprouts. The brussels sprouts came covered with the chef’s spice rub and maple bourbon sauce; these were very tasty and had a kick to them, but were smothered with the rub and sauce far more than we’d been anticipating.

Side Street Cafe has a pet-friendly patio, so that’s where we sat along with several other pet parents.

Lobster Ice Cream From Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium

As we were walking back to our car, we spotted Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium. While I waited outside with Truffles, Shae went inside with my parents to get some ice cream.

I wasn’t particularly hungry, but Shae surprised me with some dessert when she emerged from the store. It wasn’t just any dessert either – it was lobster ice cream!

Yes, you really can get lobster ice cream in Bar Harbor. I was a little apprehensive about trying this because, y’know, it’s lobster ice cream. I was pleasantly surprised by it though as it was quite tasty. The ice cream was creamy and there wasn’t really much lobster flavor which was probably a good thing, although I guess it does negate the purpose of lobster ice cream.

What We Missed

We didn’t have time to do everything we had on our list of potential things to do in the Bangor/Bar Harbor area – here’s what we missed out on.

• Eagles Nest Restaurant – they had a sign saying they have the Best Lobster Roll, so I’m curious if that’s true or not
• Blaze Bangor – someone recommended we get poutine there
• Camden Hills State Park
• Egg Rock – there are seals
• Birch Point State Park