Speaking of ice cream, my favorite place is John’s Ice Cream on Route 3 between Augusta and Belfast. DH and I will split a pint with 2 or 3 flavors. Many people I see order a whole pint for themselves !!
Chiming in as a student from a family of displaced Mainers…
If you’re wanting to visit sand beaches at all, a lot of the state parks on the coast have lovely, well-kept sand beaches that you can enter for a small fee. My family loves Popham Beach in Phippsburg (on the end of a point about 30 minutes’ drive from Bath). You can also purchase a seasonal state park pass at any state park entrance for the cost of about 4-5 individual entrance fees, which will give you access to lots of the state parks and preserves. Another great free beach/hiking opportunity is Morse Mountain, a land-trust preserve where you walk a mile-long trail across a salt marsh and over a small ridge to a secluded beach. For more classic rocky coast and a great mini road-trip from the Bath/Brunswick area, consider the Giant Stairs on Bailey Island, either by ferry across Casco Bay from Portland, or by car across bridges. The ferry stops at a really famous lobster restaurant up there.
Seconding a stop in Camden on your way up the coast–pretty much every movie you see that takes place on the New England coast was at least partially filmed in Camden because it’s ridiculously picturesque.
For ice cream–any stand that sells Gifford’s (which is also in most grocery stores) or Round Top ice cream will be awesome.
@cbreeze Ice Cream, try “Fielder’s Choice” in Manchester, Sabbattus or Old Orchard Beach… Beals in Portland; Giffords in Waterville or Skowhegan. Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook. Gelato Fiasco in Brunswick… and there are a few others out there.
Thanks, @GoatGirl19, we’ll likely stop ( at least to dip our toes in the icy water and walk a bit) at Popham Beach on our first full day in Maine, taking a side trip on our meandering way to Boothbar Harbor. The next day (after a boat excursion, and a few misc must-do things recommended here) will feature a long stop in Camden as we’ll spend the night nearby in the Penobscot Bay.
Does anybody actually swim in these waters?
I’m amazed how many CCers have some connection to Maine.
Donuts anyone? Frosty’s in Brunswick. Diners? The Miss Portland in Portland, Becky’s Diner in Portland, Brunswick Diner in Brunswick (shocking), A1 Diner in Gardiner, Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Dysart’s in Hampden…or Hermon not sure.
@inthegarden as a kid I used to swim at Popham Beach until my toes and fingers turned purple from the cold! Not many people swim but people do fish, paddleboard, and occasionally kite or wind surf. Popham is a nice broad, flat beach at low tide and shrinks to 20 ft wide at high tide, so make sure you keep an eye on that! But at low tide you can also walk down a sandbar to get to a small, rocky island with some nice views from the top. If you’ll be there at lunch time, Spinney’s at the end of the beach (near Fort Popham) is a beloved year-round restaurant that has excellent seafood and diner dishes.
Belfast is a wonderful coastal town to visit, and fewer tourists to contend with if you need a break from the crowds. I live in Brunswick and definitely recommend a visit if your travels take you this way. I also second the recommendation to visit Popham Beach during low tide to walk across the sandbar to the island. Remember to bring a sweatshirt/fleece or sweater if you go on a whale watch. The current ocean temp. is around 60 degrees, and it my be chilly when the boat is out to sea.
@privatebanker you’re talking about Nova Scotia, not Mount Desert Island. MDI (Acadia) was named after Acadie (Nova Scotia).
Another beach suggestion is Reid State Park (Mile Beach and Half Mile Beach). Combine it with a meal at Five Islands Lobster Co. ()fantastic setting and great food) and you’ll have a wonderful day.
“Does anybody actually swim in these waters?” Yes!
“Donuts anyone?” The Holy Donut in Portland.
Dinner at The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine…possibly the most interesting restaurant in Maine & toughest reservation to get in Maine. Summer dinner reservations start getting booked up in April.
I swam at Ferry Beach in Saco yesterday. It’s considered a “hidden jewel” in the state park system. It’s a very small beach, but lovely. You walk through the woods to get to it. The water was warmer than I expected!
Sorry for this, but it’s honest opinion: Boothbay does attract a lot of tourists, even day busses, Camden is small and has a similar issue, because everyone knows it by name. The answer is Rockland. I just came back, last evening. We’ve been going for 20+ years. Take a look at the working port. See the lighthouse on Owls’Head. See the views of that amazing Penobscot Bay. You can drive in and out of some of the streets that lead to the enclaves (south of Owls Head light) and wish you had a home there. (In fact, in many cute places like Wiscasset or Camden, part of the fun is driving the neighborhood streets.)
But really, the whole trip up Rt 1 is gorgeous. All these years and I still get excited.
Yes, Bar Harbor. It’s not that far, we’ve done it as a day trip. The view from Cadillac Mountain is breathtaking and once in a lifetime quality. (We’ve never had the view be fogged in.) To get around traffic, if coming through Camden, you can leave very early in the morning. In fact, afaiac, coming from Portland, you want to get through Wiscasset before 9am. or later in the day. But it’s not thaaat bad.
Btw, parking in Freeport is a mess. I wouldn’t stop there for the bathrooms.
Does anyone swim? Haha, DH made the girls go in, up to their shoulders, annually. It’s cold by the standards in, say, NJ.
So this trip, I had to stop in Brunswick and did got to Libby"s for a lobster roll, as Consolation previously recommended. Great. If you have time and want a quick winery stop, Savage Oaks, in Union.
If you’re going up 295, there’s a good visitor information center at exit 17. If you stop there, you’ll be about three miles from my house. 
We always stop in Freeport and have no problem parking in LL Bean’s gigantic parking lot (yes it is a bit of a walk to the main street, but it is also very easy getting on and off the highway from there.) We love the lobster rolls at Linda Beans (nice sitting outside upstairs there) and also Azure Cafe (recommended by a CC poster a few years ago). Yes the town is fill of outlet stores but they also have a cute bookshop and a British import store and the storefront for wicked whoopies (yummy - I used to send them to my daughter at college)
Be sure to visit the Abacus Gallery in Freeport if you go there. Nice stuff!
@lookingformore I’d agree with you on Boothbay, Camden & Freeport, lovely, but tough places to manage during the Summer…easier before Memorial Day and after Labor Day, but still worth it. Eastport, Lubec, Machias, Cherryfield, Castine, Blue Hill, Stonington, Damarascotta, Rockport, Owls Head, Port Clyde (US Chief Justice John Roberts has a summer place there), Bath, Brunswick, most of the islands are “less traveled.”
@NewEngParent It’s one reason we go up now, sometimes including the July 4 parade in Thomaston (a real slice of Americana.) We try to beat the rush. And of course, we can go up for a day, off season. (I’m a huge fan of off season, anywhere.)
But if someone’s going up in late July, I think we all agree they should be aware of the larger crowds and plan accordingly. Have back-up ideas, a little off the beaten path. Be willng to noodle around.
I love the Farnsworth Museum and the Portland Museum of Art. Both have wonderfully curated featured exhibits and are small, you can spend an hour and be happy. You can go repeatedly and find something new. Right now, the F has more unseen Wyeth works in an exhibit. And more.
http://mainetoday.com/maine_art/art-exhibits/pair-exhibits-farnsworth-never-seen-andrew-wyeth-paintings-view/
Even if one doesn’t particularly like Wyeth, it’s impressive.
I have to go back up for the F, missed it on this trip. But maybe some of us meet.
^Story about the Farnsworth - back in the '90s, an out-of-state architectural firm designed some renovations for the museum, financed by MBNA, which had moved into town and invested a lot of money in the area. Not long after the renovations were completed, there was a catastrophic collapse of the ceiling in a large exhibition room. The week before that, there had been 200 people in the room, including the governor. Fortunately, there was no art hung in the room at the time or it would have been destroyed. I saw the security camera video of the collapse - wow. No warning, just BANG!!! Any person in the room would have been killed instantly.
My husband’s firm was hired to help figure out what went wrong and to come up with immediate repairs. A large show was scheduled to open the following week and MBNA was adamant that there be no delay, whatever the cost.
DH spent a long week up there, working almost 24/7, literally. He discovered that the engineer for the renovations hadn’t taken into account all the extra stuff the architect added to the ceiling, and it was too much for the existing trusses to bear - that’s what caused the collapse. DH went into high gear, drawing details that were fabricated by wood and steel suppliers within hours, no matter what time of day or night it was. I can’t remember the number of man hours that were expended during that week period, but it was impressive. The show went on as scheduled! It was amazing to see the cooperation and hard work involved.
The other interesting thing was that I never saw a single news account about the event. I guess MBNA managed to keep it quiet somehow.
This story is another example of an owner going with an out-of-state design firm, thinking he or she is getting top people. Ha! To these large firms, Maine is not worth the trouble, so they put their junior architects/engineers on the job.
@NewEngParent: The Lost Kitchen booked up for the entire season within 24 hours of opening the reservation phone line back in April. It is an extraordinary experience to dine there!
If you like the works of the Wyeth family, you should not miss the Farnsworth Museum (Wyeth Center) in Rockland. Also, Rockland is where you can get a ferry to Vinalhaven and North Haven. We went to North Haven for a wedding and stayed at the Nebo Lodge—really beautiful and quiet.