All Things Bar Harbor Maine – What To Do, East & See

TMPE50
===

Meggan: Hey everyone. And welcome back to another episode of the travel mug podcast.

Your favorite podcast. We know it's true. Um, Jenn how has your week been going? What you've been up to your trip planning for Scotland.

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah. Not much. I feel like I'm not too much doing a little bit of trip planning, trying to nail down some details of stuff we're going to do. I'm pretty heavy into researching what Harry Potter things I can do.

So that's exciting. And my husband's building us a kitchen island, so my house is a mess and full of sawdust, but soon, soon I'll have a kitchen island

Meggan: will be worth it. And you just released a blog post.

Jenn: I know my first blog post in too long, but it's all about Sensea Nordic spa because I did visit them in January. So yeah, if you're interested in that, go and check that out

Meggan: check it out. And also another website you wanted to mention.

Jenn: Yes. So our website, the travel mug podcast has been ongoingly worked on both of us. We've been, updating it and it's, it's done! It's uh, whew. So it's a lot more like interactive you can go on and each episode will have its own page, so you can get a lot more details and links and that sort of thing.

So very exciting yeah. Please go check it out and tell us how much you love it. Cause we worked hard

Meggan: well, Jenn worked really hard and I did some of the writing, but she's the tech wizard here. So we'll give Jenn all the credit. Thank you. So

Jenn: We'll give credit to Jenn's husband who also helps us edit these podcasts

Meggan: that is really exciting.

Jenn: So what are we going to talk about this week Meggan?

Meggan: One of my favorite subjects. So we're going to talk about bar Harbor, Maine, you know, like over the life of this podcast, I haven't been there. So it's unheard of. We've gone yearly or twice a year since like 2013. I know I've mentioned it several times over the life of this podcast.

And I thought maybe it's time to talk about like, why we love it so much. And I do want to say, of course this episode contains, I don't know why I feel like I'm going to hurt people's feelings, but I want to say this episode contains like our favorite spots. We enjoy visiting. You know, there's tons of places, a tons of restaurants, bars, things to do outside of what I'm going to talk about.

Bar Harbor has, it has a ton of things to do. So things that I mentioned are things that we sort of love and to calm everyone's fears. Cause I know you're super concerned. We are booked to go back in may for the long weekend. I know fingers crossed so everybody can relax. Now. It's all good.

Jenn: Yay. So exciting!

Meggan: I know.

So for those who don't know, bar Harbor is a town in Maine on Mount desert island. It's spelled desert we've confirmed. They say desert, I don't, it was an argument one day in our car. Anyway, that's how. I just heard it makes me feel better, I guess. Anyway, then desert. the town itself as a population of around 2300 people has a real small town, America charm, no chain restaurants or shops.

Really. I think the only thing in town like is a Rite aid or a Walgreens or something, but otherwise everything's local. And even though it's small, there's so much to do like in the town and the surrounding areas. So like, let's get into.

Jenn: Let's do it. So talk to me about where to stay.

Meggan: Right. I'd love to give a lot of advice on this. But we've stayed one place, but before I get into that, so bar Harbor in high season, isn't exactly cheap. I definitely recommend booking early if you can, but there are lots of options, like on the outskirts of town, there's lots of camping and motel options as well on the way into town and in town, there are some high-end hotels and resort type options.

So lots of options for budgets and tastes. But again high season is very busy there and apparently the last year was super duper busy as people sort of start gearing up to travel again. So keep that in mind, but for us, we've only ever stayed in one place and that's the central house. So it is located on cottage street.

It is an Inn with a long history dating back to being established in like 1887.

Jenn: Wow.

Meggan: I know, and it was originally called the Briar field and as its name suggest the central house, it is very centrally located and has 14 rooms on three floors. And you have to keep in mind as well. Those there's lots of stairs, so it isn't necessarily an option with an elevator or anything, but there are first floor rooms and they do have a ramp into the building, right? So there's still an option for people that need that. And it is so central in town and they have area downstairs where you can actually store things in a small fridge. There's a coffee maker and a microwave. They usually have a little tin of cookies there, but you can get stuff at the grocery store and bring it, bring it back and have a place to eat it, which is really nice.

And so central that even if you go there, you could just park your car. And if you just wanted to remain in bar Harbor, you literally never have to get in your car again until you go home. So talk about being central and the innkeepers are lovely. They're helpful with information and our favorite features, definitely the large veranda that sort of runs in the front of the building.

They have comfy cozy like patio furniture. And you can either have a drink in the evening or a meal that you get at the grocery store and just sort of like watch the town go by. So that's probably one of my favorite spots and really, I couldn't recommend it enough and we just randomly found it on Google when we decided to go to. On a whim in 2013 and it turned out to be like the place for us.

Jenn: That's so funny. I was going to ask how you found it and then why you kept booking the same place, but you just love it so much

Meggan: Yeah, well location, location, location. Like, we're not returned travelers. I get bored easily of places. I don't like to go multiple times but there's just something about this spot. So eating and drinking is definitely a part of, you know, the places that I love there as well. So let's dive into that a little bit.

Jenn: Yes I love talking about food

Meggan: she loves to talk about the food on the podcast. So well, let's start with breakfast. So probably the place I would recommend most is thrive juice bar and kitchen. So it is plant-based but not exclusively. It's really healthy eating for everybody. Minimally processed foods and really clean ingredients. It's located on Roderick street. That's about a four minute walk from the central house. And we originally, originally went there. It was very small.

And we had to eat outside, which was fine, but we went for smoothie bowls for breakfast. But since then, they've actually built on, they have a nice sit area. And I'm really expanded menu. So you just feel good about supporting them. The food's really great and you feel good when you leave after breakfast, if that makes sense.

Jenn: Yeah for sure.

Meggan: You're not like Oh, I need to go lay down again, which is usually something Peter would say, so it's not, it's not heavy food. So I would, I would probably recommend that for a light breakfast. Now, if you're looking for something, sort of more americana. I would say, I definitely want to honorably mention two cats restaurant also located on cottage street.

They have a heartier breakfast options. And if you literally go for nothing else, just go for the amazing biscuits and strawberry butter.

Jenn: That sounds so good!

Meggan: Trust me like I always make sure when I order, no matter what I get, it's usually an omelet or something. I'm like, it comes with the biscuit, right. Yeah,

like I travel far for this biscuit and butter. If you're looking for sort of like supper or lunch options, there's a couple of different places. Highly recommend also on Roderick street is the side street cafe. We usually end there up there for sort of late lunch, early supper. It's very popular. Keep it in mind, you know that when you're going, if you do have like wifi connection or something, call ahead or, or book online, I think that you probably can for a table, but they do have outdoor patios and they've expanded their restaurant size since we started going as well. So there is more. Great food and drink menu. Seafood is obviously a huge deal in bar Harbor. It's very similar to Nova Scotia in that way. But my favorite thing there has to be like this giant soft pretzel with cheese sauce.

Jenn: I love a cheese sauce and a pretzel!

Meggan: I love me itself. So I can't wait to have that. I will take a picture and post it on our Instagram and I'm there.

The other place I would say I recommend is the thirsty whale. You could go for a drink in the evening before we found our go-to. We did do that, but now we pretty much go for lunch. No surprise here. I love the fish burger. I have to say it's so tasty. I get it every single time. And we talked about it before, you know, being scared to revisit restaurants. Cause you're like, well, I should be exploring. I should be going to all the different places. But if you find some that you love, just get it. You know, I think about that fish burger often, so it's worth it.

Jenn: You're going to be like so happy when you have that after like 2 years

Meggan: So happy. I can't wait. And Peter usually gets the chicken fingers. It's because he's 12. Um

Jenn: not actually people he's not actually 12

Meggan: no, he's not just in his eating. And it is a popular spot, especially because bar Harbor is also a popular spot for cruise ships when those run. So plan ahead for that as well. Try to go to all of these places kind of off times, if you can. I think that probably would make the most sense. And then finally, in terms of like, sort of food places, The fin back ale house also on cottage street. So everything almost so far is like on cottage street, except a couple of two minutes away.

So you get to visit, but we've walked by many times, but since we've been there, I was actually purchased by the owners of our favorite pub, which I'll talk about in a bit. Um, So we want to go and support them. And they have sort of like American fair. They have like local beer and also live music. So we really can't wait to try it.

It's going to be something new in a town where we feel like we've tried, you know, most things. I know. And then something you're probably going to do when you're in Scotland. We're probably gonna do when we're in Europe as well. And that's also an option here is the grocery store. If you're not, you know, feeling like a sit down meal, there's a Hannaford's nearby. Also on cottage street um,

So that local grocery store, obviously looking at American food, I just find fun anyway, because they have like so much different stuff, but they also have like a little pre-made meals section. So if we want like cheese and grapes and crackers, or like a pasta salad or something, we just go there and grab that, eat it on the porch and relax because you're not always in the mood to A spend a ton of money or B you're not really that hungry.

So I think that it's a, just a really good option.

Jenn: For sure. Especially like, you know, maybe do like a big supper or a big lunch and then have just kind of a light snack on, on either side of that is, is pretty perfect in my opinion.

Meggan: And that's true because you want to save your belly for some drinks. So if you want to do that our favorite place and we started going 2013, we probably didn't discover cottage street pub also in cottage street until probably 2015, 2016. And like now I can't imagine going to any other pub. It is so central, I'm going to be bold. And like literally say it's probably my favorite pub I've ever been to. Wow. I know that's a bold statement and it isn't big. It's actually quite small inside. They do have a big wraparound bar, tons of barstools to pull up.

There is a tables and chairs on like a small patio for overflow and then right facing on cottage street. There are two seats in kind of like the windows. If you're lucky enough to get those, you can have your drinks and kind of look over the street as you sort of drink Tessa the owner, she's like an amazing mixologist.

Her drinks are potent, but really good. And I hate, I hate the taste of alcohol. Like I, I, as soon as I drink, I'm like, no, no, thank you. And so for me to love, like the drinks that I have there, it is really saying something. And of course, with great quality, you can expect to pay a bit more. And it's a place to be like locals show up there from other bars and restaurants when their shifts are done.

Jenn: Interesting. You know, that's a good spot when

Meggan: exactly, you know, it's a good spot when the locals are hanging out. So there's usually a great playlist, some sports on the TV. There's like a big popcorn machine that you can have popcorn while you're eating. So there's no food served. It's literally just popcorn and drinks, just a great vibe.

And when Peter and I usually come in, although it's been a couple of years, so I will forgive. But when Peter and I usually come in Tessa is usually like Meggan and Peter, and then she like names her drinks off. Like, that's how we don't live. Well, we don't live there, but she knows. I know it's, it's really, really old and it also tells us how long we've been going there.

Jenn: What do you usually get?

Meggan: I know. It was fit. Last time I was there, I was going with watermelon crawl. So it's, I'm really like in a martini glass and this like stip goes across with like a big piece of watermelon and the drink is kind of watermelony grapefruity type flavor. So it's not too sweet. And then there's also Albert Meadows, it's like a strawberry drink and it's named after a street there and it comes with an, a giant ice cube in it that has like a strawberry frozen in it.

When I have that for the evening, I usually make her like trade me out the strawberry. Cause I'm like destined to get to the middle of it. You know, that like baby shower game where there's like those frozen little babies and ice cubes, it's really creepy. Yeah. This is more and more fun. Cause it's like drinking a way to get to the strawberry.

Yeah. Yes. It's a fun, it's a fun game. I always regret the next morning. And then before we move away from food, which is sad, I do want to get to of course, dessert, like I've mentioned having great meals, You need to have dessert. So this is actually located on main street,

Jenn: main street. Wow.

Meggan: Surprisingly, they have one.

So it's called Jordan pond, ice cream and fudge. That really says it all.

Jenn: I'm there I'll go.

Meggan: I know. So we do leave, leave cottage street once in a while. So that's how we found this. And the ice cream is just to die for it. That full-fat good stuff. And I usually get mocha Oreo. Peter usually mixes it up. We take it across the street.

We sit in Agamont park, which is this cute little park that overlooks the ocean. We sit, we eat our ice cream on a park bench. We call it a day, you know,

Jenn: Ice cream, mocha oreos, so delicious.

Meggan: I know it's all the fats. Oh. And they, of course they do have fudge as the name suggests, but I'm not really a huge fudge fan. Are you?

Jenn: I do like fudge. I don't usually get it, especially at this type of place. I prefer ice cream over fudge every time, but if it was just fudge, I'd probably also get some do they, do they make the ice cream? Is my question or is it like.

Meggan: Oh, no, think that's a very good question. I'm going to say, I don't know if they do, but whoever does it, they do it well.

Jenn: Well, it does. It does it good.

Meggan: I'm going to leave it. That's a great question. I'll ask. I'll just do some research when I'm there. So you Google it.

Jenn: Yes. Research,

Meggan: but I'll be like, is this made in house? Cause I'll only eat it. If it's made in house. That's not true.

Um, So shopping, you know, like. I love to shop, but I don't normally do, honestly, when we go there, I guess maybe we've been too many times. I don't do a ton of shopping, but they have like really great local shops, like I said earlier, no chains. So there are lots of souvenir shops as it is, like I said, a popular cruise stop so the people love the souvenirs. Are, there are, there's also some unique shops as well. Some of our favorites being a little mad and the rock and art shop, which is like, Really kind of strange unique items. Artisan items there's like, one of them has like like this giant, like whale penis, and then I think it's that the rock and art shop, they have like little S like different color stones, like robbing stones and all of those, like funky, funky things.

And it's, it's really unique to go in. And then there's in the woods, which is also on Main Street and it, everything in there literally is just a wood product. The wood is local to Maine and they make anything you can imagine out of woods. So again, really a unique store and there's a giant, a rocking horse in there, which is super fun to ride even as.

So there's that giant. I'm going to get on with it. I'm going to get on, even though I am giant, I'll make it happen.

Jenn: Well, I'm a tiny human. So if it's a child size one I could still get on.

Meggan: That is the difference between you and I. But yeah, like if shopping is your thing, there's like a Christmas shop. You know how some towns have a year round Christmas shop. There is tons of shopping.

Jenn: I would be in the Christmas shop and Ryan would have to drag me out.

Meggan: Yes. I understand. We've been in a couple of times just for like Christmas gifts and stuff. So I definitely recommend and so you've eaten, you've had, you know, a drink or two you've you've had a good night's rest. You know, like what do you do in bar Harbor? What do you do around town? So there's some things that we've done that we've enjoyed.

And the biggest attraction I would have to say nearby to bar Harbor is Acadia national park. It is very famous. Uh, There is a park pass required. I wanted to mention you get that at the visitor center. It's $30, but that covers seven days. If you are going for a more extended time, it's not usually worth it for us when we're only going for like an afternoon and you can certainly drive through the park. It's just like, you need it to stop. And I think it's actually like that in Cape Breton as well.

Jenn: It is like that. When you do a. The, oh my God, what is that called? Cabot Trail.

Meggan: We're just going to have to skip that. Yes, the Cabot trail. So Acadia national park is 47,000 acres of trails, hiking, climbing, beaches. Jordan pond is there, which is a really nice a hike around that. And there's Cadillac mountain. Which you can drive up. It overlooks the whole area, including the town of our Harbor, Barack Obama and his family were actually up there once.

Jenn: Well, there you go. Presidential

Meggan: and speaking of presidential fund fact, due to a government shutdown when we went in 2013, it all the national parks were actually closed.

I know. We were only there for a day, our first time. So we probably wouldn't have made it anyway, but they're like, sorry, you can't go to any parks. And we're like welcome to America. So no parks were open, but whatever, we've been back many times and it is worth a day or more. If you have the time, there's just so much to do there.

Probably one of the coolest things is called bar island. So it is an island you can see from the shore of bar Harbor and at low tide, you can actually walk across the ocean floor to bar island. It's uninhabited, but there's great views of Bar Harbor. You can explore around the island, just don't stay too long because you don't want to get caught there.

Jenn: Nope. Pay attention to the tide times people.

Meggan: That is not, it's a do not recommend,

Jenn: but if you do get stuck out there, please contact us and we can have you on a travel fail episode because that's funny.

Meggan: Yes. Do get in touch if you've ever got caught on Bar island. If that would be bad for you, fun for us.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: Puffin and whale watching tours. Of course, there's lots of options from the marina there in bar Harbor. We went on one once. It was really fun. Saw lots of whales. You can also rent bikes in town. There's kayak tours. It's a really big outdoor area. There's even like a Patagonia or a Northface store on like one of the streets. So just to sort of tell you, like, it's that brand and you know, those like puffy coats that people have and like the fall in the spring, we actually call them bar Harbor jackets. Literally, literally every single person that when we're there, like, oh, they've got a bar Harbor jacket as well. Cause it's the only place I've seen every other person have one. And then Peter got one once from Sears when that was still open and we call it his Bar Harbor jacket. Yeah,

Jenn: that's great.

Meggan: I know there's a weekend market, so there's like little local artisans, fruits, veggies. That's a corner of main street and park street, which is right in town. And then my other thing we like to do, it's called shore path. It's very simple, but you started Agamont park, which I mentioned earlier on main street and the shore path kind of takes you along, literally the shore of the town. So it's winding. It's beautiful. It's about. It's 2.4 kilometers and you end up on Wayman lane, which actually is kind of the other end of the town, but it easily joins back up to main street. So you take that, get back onto main and you kind of get to walk back into bar Harbor and a different angle from where you came.

Jenn: Right.

Meggan: So we've actually discovered other places existed just by taking that walk because we don't spend as much time in that area. So the thing about it is it's very topography wise. It's very similar to Nova Scotia. Like you're not going to go there to like, get something completely different here, but when you're in a different country, things just feel different for some reason.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is that Bangor is about an hour from bar Harbor, we do go into Bangor for shopping sometimes. And there is mini golf called Pirate's Cove adventure mini golf. It's about a nine minute drive from the central house. So there are some times that we go and do that as well in terms of like getting in the car and going somewhere.

This time we intend to go to Bangor on the way I want to go to target.

Jenn: Of course you want to go to target

Meggan: I would love to hear some fun facts, like

Jenn: a fun fact for Jenn: Bangor is like the only place in Maine that I've really been. Cause we've driven through Maine to go to other places

Meggan: kind of be, if you, if you don't stay, it can kind of be the new Brunswick of like, like let's just get through this to get to where we're going.

And that's how he honestly used to treat Maine as well.

Jenn: But what's great about this. I'm talking about bar Harbor and talking about thunder bay, which we did a couple episodes back is like, there are so many fun things to do in places that like, you completely overlook, like Maine, like people, especially leaving from Nova Scotia or new Brunswick, you just drive through Maine to get somewhere else. And like, there are so many cool places to go.

Meggan: I know, I know. We just sort of like, okay, we have this one destination in mind, but now this can be its own destination.

Jenn: Very fun. Okay. Fun facts. Bar Harbor got its name from the sand bar that connects Bar Harbor to Bar island at low tide.

Meggan: I didn't know,

Jenn: you didn't - yeah it's bar from sandbar

Meggan: right

Jenn: now. You know,

Meggan: there's a harbour there so

Jenn: they were very creative with the name

Meggan: I love, I love that.

Jenn: Cadillac mountain in Acadia national park is the highest point on the United States east coast.

Meggan: I mean, that's why Barack and Michelle went

Jenn: when maybe this is funny. So each year bar Harbor visitors consume roughly 5,316,000 lobsters, which are caught directly off of the beautiful rugged coast there.

Meggan: Oh, my God. That is crazy. I've never eaten a lobster there in all my years, but I, I, they are everywhere. So I'm not surprised. There's there's those lobster like bake places all along like the steaming pots. I swear as you drive into bar Harbor. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Jenn: And speaking of lobster, Ben and Bill's chocolate Imporium, which is on main street they have a lobster flavored ice cream.

Meggan: I tasted it.

Jenn: How was it?

Meggan: I love, I love ice cream, although it was vanilla. It's not my fav and I love lobster like I do, but they should never, ever be consumed as one. Like, and I mean, I even like salty sweet, like I'm, I'm still okay with that, but this was not okay. I mean, I can say I ate it and it's a fun trivia fact.

It's not consumed as a leisurely. Let's sit in the park and have an ice cream.

Jenn: Well, I'm going to trust you on that one. Cause I don't eat lobster. So \

would not recommended

Meggan: not going to do it.

Jenn: And my last fun fact is the Wabanaki Indians who were the original inhabitants of the north east shore of Mount desert island or desert island. If you will.

Uh, they called it. Pemetic, which means the sloping land.

Meggan: Awesome. A little bit of history,

Jenn: and that's what I found for fun facts on Bar Habor

Meggan: well, that's awesome. I actually learned something and I mean, thank you too, for like indulging me to be able to, to like talk about one of my favorite places. I figured it was probably time and we're getting ready to go.

And obviously for social media, I got tons of pictures.

Jenn: Yeah, it's really exciting. And I like that both of us kind of have, you know, our favorite places, you with bar Harbor and me with Disney, but then we also like go out and do other things as well. I think it's a really nice balance of travel. To, to your favorite places in some, you feel really comfortable and that feels like second home almost. And then also getting out there and seeing new things. And, well, I can't wait to start going places again.

Meggan: I know I will let you know if Tessa recognizes us when we get to the bar, I'll have to let the central house has new innkeepers. Normally it was Beth and Dave and they've retired and Phil and Doreen have taken over

we'll have to make new inroads with Phil and Doreen they seem lovely by emails. I know. Well, thank you so much, everyone for joining us. Listening to me, ramble about bar Harbor. I appreciate it. I love it. And hopefully, maybe you'll go someday because of this, because it isn't far, especially if you live in Atlantic Canada and it's worth a visit and it's just across the border pretty much.

So. Make sure you check us out on all of our social media accounts, Instagram, Facebook, our new website to visit that. Leave us a review on apple podcasts or Spotify. Share the show with a travel loving friend, and you can always find us at travel mug podcast.

Jenn: Yes, you can buy us a coffee, travel mug with some coffee and support the show. And we will talk to you next week.