Carriage roads, a land bridge, and a pond with two hills behind it
Bar Harbor, Maine · 3 nights · June–October · up to 8
Acadia has forty-five miles of carriage roads built for horses and closed to cars, which makes it the best place in the northeast to spend a day on a bicycle without thinking about anything. The land bridge out to Bar Island appears at low tide and disappears again, and people do get caught, so read the table. October is the best month and the busiest; September is nearly the same weather with somewhere to park. Three nights, one of them kept back for weather.
The ending
A pond at the foot of two matched rounded hills, with a path of flat stones and bog bridges running down the quiet shore away from the tea lawn.
That is Jordan Pond South Shore, Acadia National Park. See how private it is and when it’s open.
Do
- Acadia carriage-road bike ride
- Bar Island low-tide land-bridge walk
- Frenchman Bay sea-kayak tour
- Schooner sunset sail
Eat
- Side Street Cafe
- Havana
Stay
- Harborside Hotel, Spa & Marina
- Mount Desert Island cottage
Cadillac Mountain or Jordan Pond?
Cadillac needs a vehicle reservation for sunrise and it is the busiest square acre in the park. The south shore of Jordan Pond is a twenty-minute walk from a car park and you can have it to yourselves.
How early does the season end?
The carriage roads stay open later than the restaurants do. By late October the town is closing down around you, which some people prefer.
The planner doesn’t build Bar Harbor, Maine yet — we can name the places here but not yet enough of them around it to fill 3 nights without repeating. Read this one, then build your own somewhere we can.