“Be sure to visit the Abacus Gallery in Freeport if you go there.”
The original store is in Boothbay and there are stores in Portland, Ogunquit, and Kennebunkport as well.
@entertainersmom We go to Harpswell every summer and we love Brunswick! Last summer someone on here mentioned that Libby’s place and we stopped there on the way to the airport - those were some of the best rolls we had and we eat a lot of them. :x
I’m skipping most of the thread to post this, since I just got back from a week in the Chicago area and am late chiming in.
My (somewhatidiosyncratic) advice on visiting Mt. Desert:
Don’t center your visit to Acadia on Bar Harbor. By all means, go to Jordan’s for breakfast at least once, take a stroll around, it is mostly a tourist-ville.
Find a place to stay on the other side of the island if you can. Northeast Harbor is gorgeous. Southwest Harbor is fine.
Don’t confine yourself to walking or biking on the carriage roads, which have little or nothing in the way of great views and really aren’t that interesting.
DO pick one or more mountains to hike. I’d suggest Penobscot followed by tea and popovers on the tea lawn at the Jordan Pond House. There are spectacular views from the top of Penobscot, which is bare. You will see vistas of islands and ocean with every step once you are above the tree line (which is not that high). Those views from the bare summits of the hiking trails are the real glory of Acadia. If you don’t think you can manage that, at least try the Bubbles before you have your tea and popovers. Just please don’t let driving to the top of Cadillac Mountain be your only experience of the mountains of Acadia.
Walking along the cliffs around Thunder Hole is nice. Getting out on a boat somehow is nice. You could take the regular boat out to Little Cranberry, where there is a small museum, and back if you want something modest. I know there are other options that are specifically for sight-seeing. Somebody mentioned the gardens, which are also lovely. There used to be a good, authentic kind of lobster pound in Southwest Harbor, which is most likely still there.
Sleep with the windows open. It’s a treat to feel the cool night air and smell the trees.
Agree about not just centering on Acadia. I do not know the name of the lake at Jordon Pond?
We did have a good walk/hike around the lake. It was a nice work out.
We were there in late Sept. and it was too windy to go our on a boat (ours was canceled).
Yes to Libby’s in Brunswick! (#81) Extremely casual, extremely good lobster rolls, possibility for good people watching but definitely not “cute” ambiance. Very authentic in that sense. Next to a railroad bridge and picnic tables next to a parking lot. Dogs allowed.
It’s a small convenience store, slightly off the beaten path.
For Freeport parking, park in the structure below the Bean’s Outlet Store for easy in and out. The shopping plaza above has public restrooms :). My mother had a cottage on Bailey Island, part of Harpswell. Definitely visit the Giant Stairs as mentioned before, and Land’s End for the views and the store.
@oregon101 You may be thinking of Eagle Lake
@inthegarden It will likely be less crowded (and possibly less expensive) to have popovers at the inn near Asticou Gardens than Jordan Pond. A former Jordan Pond chef works at Asticou so the popovers are said to be the same.
If you are OK with exposed ledges, the hike up Beehive (steep but relatively short) offers a superb view over a sandy beach. The Bubbles near Jordan Pond also affords lovely views as @Consolation has already mentioned. Trails that have exposed spots generally have iron bars embedded in the rocks for extra security.
I find Bar Harbor a bit touristy for my taste but still fun. Take the shore walk which is quite lovely. There is also a spit of land that is exposed during low tide that takes you to a small island. It is fun and safe to walk along (assuming you check the tide tables) but I forget what it’s called.
There is also a quite good local theater group in Somesville (first village you encounter after crossing the bridge) - check to see if they have anything running when you arrive.
There is an annual juried craft fair at Mount Desert Island that is well worth the modest entrance fee. This year it’s July 27-29.
http://www.mainecraftsguild.com/fine-craft-shows/
Have fun!
Eagle Lake is surrounded by a 6 mile carriage road loop. The pond at Jordan Pond is called Jordan Pond (!!!) and is circled by a 3.2 mile trail. The trail up the east shore is gravel and easy. The trail on the west shore is rocky in places, but has a long wooden boardwalk over the non-rocky section.
The island accessible by sand bar during low tide is called Bar Island, which gives Bar Harbor its name.
^yes, we hiked the Jordon Pond and enjoyed it a lot. We had a little too much wind during our visit so this was
more protected and worked out great.
We also walked to Bar Island. I needed to turn back as it has little pieces of gravel that
got into my hiking sandles. Wear Sneakers.
The Penobscot hike starts at the Jordan Pond House area, and is not dangerous. (I don’t do anything that involves rock climbing or steel ladder climbing or the like!) It does take several hours, and I personally would recommend light hiking boots for it, although plenty of people do it in their usual athletic footwear. We normally took our favorite hiking lunch with us: Wasa wholegrain crackers and a couple cans of Underwood chicken spread/deviled ham plus some fruit, and of course water. Having a light knapsack is really helpful if you are planning to do any hiking or serious walking.
When you get to the top, which is big and gently slopes in all directions, you can sit down, eat your lunch, marvel at the views, and take pictures. 
To get back, you can either take a trail that goes pretty much straight down to the Jordan Pond trail along the shore–that’s what we do–or retrace your steps.
BTW, be aware that the term “mountain” is relative. 
We are not talking the Rockies, or even the White Mountains here. These are dramatic because they seem to rise almost directly from the ocean, but they aren’t that high. You can get a hiking map of the island. This book looks really good, and the photos will make you salivate!
Sorry to disagree with you. But it was a bigger region than just the Canadian maritimes. It included parts of eastern Quebec and Maine to the south. The park is named for the same group. Reference citation below.
“Acadia (French: Acadie) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine to the Kennebec River.[1] During much of the 17th and early 18th centuries, Norridgewock on the Kennebec River and Castine at the end of the Penobscot River were the southernmost settlements of Acadia.”
I’m glad so many people have taken advantage of my recommendation for the unassuming Libby’s in Brunswick. 
For those contemplating eating lunch in Freeport, I say instead continue on up Rte 1 to Brunswick, have a lobster roll with warm butter on a grilled bun at Libby’s, then go to Maine Street (yes, really!) and have dessert at Gelato Fiasco. If you are in need of coffee, their God of Thunder brew will wake you up. (The Harraseeket Lobster Pound in South Freeport Village is a good place, though, if you want a whole lobster.)
While you’re in Brunswick, you might want to check out the art museum at Bowdoin, which is quite good and often has great exhibitions. Bowdoin also has the Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum, which is quite fascinating. Both are small, and so you won’t have to spend hours or suffer from “museum torpor,” as a friend of mine calls it.
@entertainersmom , Howdy, Neighbor! I live in Cumberland.
The Harraseeket lobster place (not to be confused with the Harraseeket Inn) is great, even has the buoys hanging on an outside wall. College roomie then living in S.Freeport took us. I discovered Gelato Fiasco in containers, sold at various places along the coast. Apparently at Whole Foods, too.
One of my pleasures in Brunswick was the crowd of protesters in the park on Maine St. Apparently the park is well used for activities.
This thread has really taken a life of its own and I’m amazed (yet not really surprised) at all the enthusiasm it has generated! Maine seems to be well-loved so I’ll take it as a sign that we’ve chosen a great destination.
Sorry that I’ve gone a little AWOL for the last couple of days…as excited as I am about the trip I had to take a break and think about something else for awhile (we went hiking/kayaking a bit in my neck of the woods to take advantage of beautiful weather here.) I’m sure the info given here will be useful to lots and lots of people.
I’m going to take notes on every single suggestion here and plot them out in an itinerary to try as many as we can. I used to use TripAdvisor forums for planning trips but this is way better! I’ll have to return the favor and do a detailed trip report when we get back
I am not sure if it has been mentioned, but if you want a traditional lobster experience, check out Five Islands Lobster. It is not too far from Reid State Park which has lovely beaches and not far from Bath and Wiscasset (home of Red’s Eats – another popular choice)
A new suggestion: we had dinner on Saturday night at a really great restaurant in Brunswick that was new to me: Enoteca Athena. You could call it an Italian/greek farm-to-table wine bar. The food was truly inventive, and the service was lovely. Dishes such as the Patzaria Salata were surprising and delicious. The Carciofini Fritti to die for. Nothing was ho-hum. I am definitely going back!
Parent Cafe seems to be a fantastic place to get travel information!