Spending a weekend in Acadia National Park? This guide tells you everything about what to eat, where to stay, what to do and hike in Acadia National Park.

Acadia National Park located in Maine is a really popular choice of hiking and eating if you are visiting the East Coast. Or if you live in New York and want to find a long weekend getaway, this is, in my opinion, an amazing choice.

Is Acadia National Park worth visiting? Definitely yes! Acadia National Park has amazing hiking trails, driving tours, and amazing lobster rolls. Even if you are not a lobster fan, there are also good crabs and blueberries here.

Things To Know Before You Go to Acadia National Park:

• Best time to visit Acadia National Park is late May – September because of warmer and dryer weather
• Temperature drops at night, so bring layers to change
• There is a parking pass you need to purchase from the visitor’s center in Acadia National Park
• There is a beach in Acadia National Park, so pack your best swimsuit
• Lodging is limited near Acadia National Park especially for holiday weekends, so book at least a month in advance
• Pack hiking boots with you
• You will need a car to get around the park
• Good food takes a long time (especially brunch)
• The town you will most likely staying in next Acadia National Park is called Bar Harbor.

How to get into Acadia National Park

• Drive: You can always drive from Boston, Portland, or New York to Acadia National Park. But traffic going in/out can be pretty bad on long weekends
• Fly to Acadia National Park: You can fly into Portland and rent a car to drive over (~3 hours) or fly into Bangor and drive over (~1 hour)
• Tourist bus: I’ve seen some tour companies now operating in Acadia National Park if you want to do a bus tour, but you won’t have the flexibility to hike and eat there

Best Places to Eat in Acadia National Park

• Lobster/ Lobster Roll: I can go on forever about how amazing and cheap the lobsters are in Maine. There are a number of places I’d recommend for Lobsters/Lobster rolls near Acadia National Park:
  • Red’s Eats: This is probably my No.1 spot for Lobster Rolls near Portland. It’s a little out of the way (~2.5 hours from Acadia National Park). But if you are driving up from Portland to Acadia then it’s definitely worth trying. Their lobster rolls is probably the best value for money and the most tasty. Go early, they tend to sell out really early and usually there’s at least a 45 minute line, but sooooo worth it!
    

    

    
  • Thurston’s Lobster Pound: It’s a restaurant by the water about 1 hour from Acadia National Park. It’s quite a large place and you wait to order. Once you order you can find a table inside. The lobster rolls here are okay, but their steamed lobster are amazing! You can order a combo for steamed lobster with mussels, corn, bread, and blueberry cake. The blueberry spiced cake with ice cream is amazing. 
    
    
    

    View from the restaurant

  • Eagle’s Nest Restaurant: This compact joint is near Bangor Airport. Their lobster roll is pretty fresh and tasty and comes in good portion size. They also have these combo meals like fried shrimp and fried scallops. If you are landing in Bangor, definitely should stop by
    

    
• Brunch in Acadia National Park
  • 2Cats: This is a bed & breakfast but serves brunch. It’s probably the best brunch place in Bar Harbor. We had to stop ourselves from going everyday. Their specialty is probably anything blueberry related (pancake, muffins, etc). Other breakfast items are equally as amazing. Go early as the line is usually an hour after 10am and then food takes another hour to come out but it’s worth the wait
    

    

    

    

    

    
  • Cafe This Way: This is another good brunch place that we found in Bar Harbor. It was also about an hour wait to get the food.
    

    

    
• Other Food Near Acadia National Park
  • Morning Glory Bakery: really really good blueberry pie that melts in your mouth in Bar Harbor
  • Side Street Cafe: It’s a pretty popular restaurant near Acadia. We had to wait for about an hour while the BBQ restaurant next door was empty. They have all sort of food, from steamed lobster to pasta to sandwiches. Food was ok but the desserts are to die for. We had the blueberry pie with ice cream and this amazingly rich Chocolate bread pudding with ice cream. They also have a few blueberry flavored drinks that were really good.
    

    

    

Things To Do in Acadia National Park

Hiking in Acadia

Hiking is probably the most popular activity in Acadia National Park. There are numerous hiking trails throughout the park, ranging from easy to strenuous. We did a couple of relatively easy hikes with great views

I used a couple of websites to find the hikes I wanted to do. So if you are thinking about hiking and not sure which one to do, check them out:

http://www.acadiamagic.com/acadia-hiking-trails.html

https://www.citrusmilo.com/acadiaguide/recommend.cfm

Biking in Acadia National Park

Biking is another popular thing to do in Acadia. We rented a bike from Bar Harbor (there are a couple of bike rental shops). The bike shops give you a map and tells you the different routes. We have biked the harder routes before and they were pretty tough, with a lot of up hills. The easier loop we did around Jordan Pond took about 2 hours and it was relatively flat with a few uphill rides going counter clockwise. 

Watching Sunset in Acadia National Park

About an hour from the park, there is a famous light house called Bass Harbor Lighthouse. A lot of people drive here to enjoy the sunset. It’s also located really close to the restaurant Thurston mentioned above. However, you should aim to get here at least an hour before sunset because parking is crazy.

*image source: http://www.thegreatestroadtrip.com

Another great spot to watch the sunset in Acadia National Park is from the top of Cadillac Mountain. You can either hike up or drive up. We drove up and found parking quite easily since we went 30 minutes before sunset. The view was truly breathtaking.

Otter cliff is another spot that’s great for sunset. You can get there through driving (more below).

Sunsets are always beautiful but so are the stars. Since Acadia National Park is so far from light pollution, on a clear night you can see all the stars and even the Milky Way.

Explore Acadia National Park With A Car

Do you need a car in Acadia National Park? The answer depends on what you want to do. But for convenience, I highly recommend renting a car to tour Acadia National Park.

Where do rent a car in Acadia National Park? There are two ways you can get a car. One option is to rent a car from Portland or Bangor airport after you land then drive over to Acadia National Park. It makes exploring the park much easier and you will have access to many places that someone without a car cannot access.

Most people don’t know that there is a small beach in the Park. It’s called Sand Beach, accessible via the Park Loop Road. It’s a really small but cute nevertheless.

If you don’t want to hike or bike, you can drive around Park Loop Road and see a lot of sights without hiking in Acadia National Park. One famous thing to do is to visit the Thunder Hole. It’s a naturally formed inlet that makes a thunder sound when the right conditions are met. You can read more about it here.

Otter Cliff is another area right by the Park Loop Road that’s beautiful and easy to visit and apparently great for sunsets.

Acadia National Park is a truly beautiful and relaxing place, that’s why we kept going back there. Follow this travel guide and you will see all the things that will make you love this national park.