Cornelius Amann
October 06, 2026
5/5
Maine Coast: Portland, Camden and Acadia
6 days from Portland: two nights by Casco Bay and its lighthouses, a night in Camden under the Camden Hills, and two nights in Bar Harbor for a Cadillac Mountain sunrise and Acadia's carriage roads.
6 days · Round trip from Portland · up to 12 guests
Jordan Pond and the Bubbles, where we stop for lunch on day 5 Photo: Thomsonmg2000, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jordan_Pond_Maine.JPG)
The facts
At a glance
- Length
- 6 days, 5 nights
- Start and end
- Round trip from Portland
- Group size
- 7 to 12 guests
- Longest drive
- 3.5 h on day 6No drive day is longer than 4 hours.
- Activity level
Moderate
Mostly easy walking of 3 to 7 km a day on paved paths, cobbles and granite shore, plus one fuller day in Acadia with a pre-dawn start, about 13 km by bike on gravel carriage roads and about 3 km on the Ocean Path. You can walk instead of ride, and skip the sunrise or any walk.
- Meals included
- 5 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 1 dinner
- Room of your own
- + CAD 735 (estimated price)
- Season
- June to October
Highlights
Why this trip
- Cadillac Mountain at sunrise, with the summit road reservation handled for you
- Acadia's car-free carriage roads by bike or on foot, with lunch at Jordan Pond House
- Portland Head Light before the coaches arrive, then a lobster shack lunch on the Cape Elizabeth shore
- A Casco Bay ferry out to Peaks Island, past a Civil War-era fort in the harbour
- Pemaquid Point Lighthouse on its striped rock ledges
- Mount Battie above Camden harbour in the late light, then a two-hour schooner sail on Penobscot Bay
- The Ocean Path to Thunder Hole and Otter Cliff, and a farewell lobster dinner in Bar Harbor
What makes this trip different
Short drives, all published
Every drive is listed day by day, and none is longer than 4 hours.
Free time is part of the plan
Free time and choices are marked on the days they fall.
Solo without the penalty
A room of your own is + CAD 735 (estimated price).
Day by day
Itinerary
The longest drive is 3.5 h, on day 6.
Tap any stop on the map to open that dayClick any stop on the map to open that day
Arrive in Portland
Portland International Jetport to the Old Port
- Welcome dinner
- Stay in Portland
- Drive about 15 min
Fly into Portland International Jetport (PWM), about 5 km from downtown, and plan to land by about 3 pm; a driver meets you and takes you to your hotel near the Old Port. Portland sits on a hilly peninsula in Casco Bay, and its waterfront still works for a living: fishing boats, lobster wharves and the island ferries share it with cafes and shops. Much of the brick downtown was rebuilt after the great fire of July 1866, which is why so many Old Port streets look of a piece.
Evening
At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week, then leads an easy hour on foot through the cobbled lanes and along Commercial Street to the wharves, so you have your bearings before dinner. The welcome dinner is at a restaurant in the Old Port, with Maine seafood on the menu and other choices for anyone who does not eat it.
Included
- Pick-up at Portland International Jetport (PWM)
- Welcome briefing with your guide
- Old Port orientation walk
- Welcome dinner
Free time: Free until the 5 pm briefing
Activity: About 2 km on foot, on cobbles in places.
Cape Elizabeth lighthouses and the Casco Bay islands
Portland to Portland Head Light and Two Lights, then the ferry to Peaks Island
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Portland
- Drive about 1 h
Morning
We drive out to Cape Elizabeth after an early breakfast and reach Fort Williams Park at about 8:30, ahead of the tour coaches. Portland Head Light, first lit in 1791 and the oldest lighthouse in Maine, stands white on a ledge above the surf; there is time for the cliff path, the ruins of the old fort and the small museum in the keeper's house once it opens. A few minutes down the shore are Two Lights, the pair of towers that gave the state park its name, of which only one still shines.
Afternoon
Lunch is lobster or a lobster roll at a lobster shack on the rocks, with chowder and other choices for those who prefer them. In the afternoon a Casco Bay Lines ferry takes us from the Portland waterfront past Fort Gorges, a granite fort built on a harbour ledge during the Civil War years, to Peaks Island, about 20 minutes out. Walk the quiet back shore of the island with your guide, or sit by the water, then ferry back.
Evening
The evening is free in Portland.
Included
- Portland Head Light and Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth, with the lighthouse museum
- Two Lights, Cape Elizabeth
- Lobster shack lunch on the shore
- Casco Bay Lines ferry to Peaks Island and back
- Walk on Peaks Island with your guide
Easier option: Stay on the Portland waterfront for the afternoon instead of the ferry, with time for the Portland Museum of Art (entry paid on the day).
More active option: Rent a bike on Peaks Island and ride the road around the island, about 6 km (rental paid on the day).
Free time: Evening free
Activity: About 5 to 7 km on foot over the day, on paved paths and a quiet island road.
Pemaquid Point and up to Camden
Portland to Pemaquid Point, then Rockland and Camden, with Mount Battie in the Camden Hills
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Camden
- Drive about 3 h
We leave Portland at about 8:30 and follow the coast road north and east through Brunswick and Wiscasset, then turn down the Pemaquid peninsula to Pemaquid Point, about two hours from Portland. The lighthouse, built in 1835, stands above ridges of dark and pale striped rock that run straight into the surf; it is the one on Maine's state quarter. In season you can climb the tower, and the old keeper's house holds a small fishermen's museum.
Afternoon
Lunch is a sit-down meal in Rockland, a working harbour town on Penobscot Bay. Camden is twenty minutes on, and we arrive by about 2:30 to check in and catch our breath. In the late afternoon, as the light warms, we drive the road to the top of Mount Battie in Camden Hills State Park, about 240 m above the harbour. From the stone tower on the summit you look down on Camden's masts and out over the islands of Penobscot Bay, the view Edna St. Vincent Millay put into a poem in 1912.
Evening
The evening is free in Camden.
Included
- Pemaquid Point Lighthouse and the fishermen's museum, with entry
- Sit-down lunch in Rockland
- Mount Battie in Camden Hills State Park, with park entry
More active option: Walk up Mount Battie from the edge of town on the Mount Battie Trail, a short, steep climb of about 1 km over rock, and meet the group at the top.
Free time: Evening free in Camden
Activity: Short walks only; the Mount Battie Trail option is steep and rocky. The Pemaquid tower is open to climb from late May to about mid-October, run by volunteers.
A schooner sail, then on to Bar Harbor
Camden harbour under sail, then by road to the Penobscot Narrows and Bar Harbor
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Bar Harbor
- Drive about 2.5 h
Camden's harbour is home port to traditional schooners that take guests out on Penobscot Bay.
Morning
After a slow breakfast we board one at about 10 am for a two-hour sail: the crew may ask for hands on the halyards, and on a clear day you look back at the Camden Hills rising straight from the water, with lighthouses, islands and lobster buoys all around.
Afternoon
Lunch is ashore in Camden. Early in the afternoon we drive north along the bay through Belfast to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, where an elevator inside one of the bridge towers rises to an observatory about 128 m above the river, looking up the Penobscot and down the bay. Fort Knox, a granite fort begun in the 1840s, stands beside it and is on the same ticket. From there it is about an hour and a quarter to Bar Harbor, where we stay two nights. The rest of the day is yours: walk the Shore Path along Frenchman Bay from Agamont Park, or, if the tide is low, cross the gravel bar to Bar Island with your guide's tide times.
Included
- Two-hour schooner day sail from Camden harbour
- Lunch in Camden
- Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory and Fort Knox, with entry
Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Bar Harbor
Activity: Sails depend on wind and weather, and the Camden day-sail season usually ends in early to mid October; if the schooner cannot go out, we swap in another boat trip or a coastal walk. The bar to Bar Island is passable on foot only for about an hour and a half either side of low tide.
Cadillac at sunrise and a day in Acadia
Cadillac Mountain, the carriage roads to Jordan Pond, then the Park Loop Road and the Ocean Path
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Bar Harbor
- Drive about 1.5 h
Morning
An early start for first light from Cadillac Mountain, at 466 m the highest point in Acadia National Park. Cars need a timed reservation for the summit road for most of the season, and we apply for ours the moment the slots are released. We leave Bar Harbor about an hour before sunrise: about 4:00 am in June and July, nearer 5:45 to 6:00 by mid-October. We wait on the pink granite as the sky lightens over Frenchman Bay and the Porcupine Islands, and are back for breakfast and a rest. Mid-morning we head for the carriage roads John D. Rockefeller Jr. built between 1913 and 1940: about 45 miles of broken-stone roads closed to cars, with granite bridges over the streams. Ride a bike around Eagle Lake and on to Jordan Pond, about 13 km, or walk a shorter stretch with your guide.
Afternoon
Lunch is at Jordan Pond House, looking up the water to the two rounded hills called the Bubbles. In the afternoon we drive the Park Loop Road to Sand Beach and walk the Ocean Path past Thunder Hole to Otter Cliff.
Evening
Tonight is the farewell lobster dinner.
Included
- Cadillac Mountain at sunrise, with the summit road reservation
- Acadia National Park entry
- Bike rental for the carriage roads, or a carriage-road walk with your guide
- Lunch at Jordan Pond House
- Park Loop Road, Sand Beach and the Ocean Path to Thunder Hole and Otter Cliff
- Farewell lobster dinner
Easier option: Sleep in and skip the sunrise, then join the group after breakfast; on the carriage roads, walk a flat 2 km to the nearest stone bridge and wait for the riders at Jordan Pond House.
More active option: Instead of the bike, hike from Jordan Pond up South Bubble to Bubble Rock, about 3 km round trip with a short, steep scramble, before lunch.
Free time: Rest after the sunrise, until mid-morning
Activity: The fullest day: a pre-dawn start, about 13 km by bike on gravel carriage roads with gentle climbs, and about 3 km on the Ocean Path over uneven granite. Fog can hide the sunrise; your guide checks the forecast the night before.
Bar Harbor to Portland
Bar Harbor to Portland International Jetport, by way of Bangor
- Breakfast
- Drive about 3.5 h
Morning
A last morning on Mount Desert Island. Early risers can walk the Shore Path once more before breakfast, when the harbour is quiet and the lobster boats are heading out to their traps. We leave Bar Harbor at about 8:30 for the drive back to Portland, about 285 km and three and a half hours on Route 3 and Route 1A to Bangor and then Interstate 95 south, with a coffee and stretch stop on the way. It is the longest drive of the trip, so we keep it to the morning and you are at Portland International Jetport (PWM) by about 12:30 pm, or at an Old Port hotel if you are staying on. If you are flying home from Bangor International Airport (BGR) instead, we drop you there as we pass, about an hour from Bar Harbor. Your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you want more time on the coast, we can add hotel nights in Bar Harbor or Portland before or after the trip.
Included
- Drop-off at Portland International Jetport (PWM) or an Old Port hotel, or at Bangor International Airport (BGR) on the way
Optional experiences
- Extra hotel nights in Bar Harbor or Portland (priced at booking)
Free time: Early morning free
Activity: Book a flight leaving Portland after about 3 pm, or Bangor after about 11:30 am.
- Portland2 nights
- Camden1 night
- Bar Harbor2 nights
- Portlandend
- Overnight stop
- Day trip
- By boat or train
Wildlife and weather: June brings long days and fresh green but the foggiest mornings; July and August are the warmest months, with coastal highs often in the low to mid 20s C, and the busiest in Acadia; September is usually clearer and quieter; by early to mid October the hardwoods on Mount Desert Island turn and the days are cool. Fog can hide the Cadillac sunrise on any morning. Harbour seals, cormorants and eider ducks are often seen from the boats; whales and puffins need separate trips from Bar Harbor, which we can add.
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Before you book
Right for you?
Good for you if you want
- Travellers who want the Maine coast at an easy pace, with two nights in Portland and in Bar Harbor
- Walkers and casual cyclists: the carriage roads are car-free gravel with gentle grades
- First-time visitors to Acadia who want the sunrise reservation and the park logistics handled
- Solo travellers who would rather not drive the coast alone
Not for you if you want
- Serious hikers after a full week on Acadia's harder trails
- Step-free access: the lighthouse grounds, the schooner's gangway and the Ocean Path have steps and uneven granite
- Travellers chasing peak autumn colour across New England; see our fall foliage trip
- Anyone set on whales or puffins; neither is included, though both can be added in Bar Harbor
Book flights after we confirm your seat.
5 nights
Where you'll stay
Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.
- Portland2 nights
- Camden1 night
- Bar Harbor2 nights
One price
What's in the price
Included
Accommodation
- 5 nights: 2 in Portland near the Old Port, 1 in Camden by the harbour, 2 in Bar Harbor within walking distance of the waterfront
- Central hotels or inns of a 3-star-plus standard, named when we confirm your dates
- Rooms shared, or your own for a supplement
Transport
- Pick-up at Portland International Jetport (PWM) on day 1 and drop-off there, at an Old Port hotel or at Bangor International Airport (BGR) on day 6
- A private vehicle and driver for the group, with seats to spare
- Casco Bay Lines ferry to Peaks Island and back
- A two-hour schooner sail from Camden harbour
- Bike rental with helmets for Acadia's carriage roads
Your guide
- A See Sight Tours guide for the whole trip, with the schooner's own captain and crew on the Camden sail
Activities
- Old Port orientation walk, Portland
- Portland Head Light, Fort Williams Park and the lighthouse museum, Cape Elizabeth
- Two Lights, Cape Elizabeth
- Peaks Island walk, Casco Bay
- Pemaquid Point Lighthouse and the fishermen's museum
- Mount Battie, Camden Hills State Park, with park entry
- Schooner sail on Penobscot Bay, Camden
- Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory and Fort Knox
- Acadia National Park entry
- Cadillac Mountain at sunrise, with the summit road reservation
- The carriage roads by bike or on foot, Acadia
- Park Loop Road, Sand Beach, Thunder Hole and the Ocean Path, Acadia
Meals
- Breakfast daily (5)
- 4 lunches: a lobster shack in Cape Elizabeth, Rockland, Camden and Jordan Pond House
- 2 dinners: a welcome dinner in Portland and a farewell lobster dinner in Bar Harbor
Not included
- International flights to and from Portland, Maine
- US entry documents (ESTA or visa)
- Travel insurance
- Meals not listed, including dinners on days 2, 3 and 4
- Drinks, including alcohol with included meals
- Tips for your guide, driver and the schooner crew
- Optional activities such as the Portland Museum of Art, bike rental on Peaks Island, whale watching or puffin cruises
- Personal expenses
Extras
- Room of your own
- CAD 735 (estimated price)
When you can go
Dates and prices
Pick your start date when you request to book. We check that date and confirm it in your quote.
Prefer to travel without a group or guide? Ask us about arranging hotels, transport and city tours for you to travel independently.
Before you book
Booking terms
Nothing is charged now. Full terms and the cancellation schedule come with your quote, before you accept.
Business addresses
See Sight Tours Trips (USA): 3172 N Rainbow Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89108, United StatesSee Sight Tours Trips (Canada): 5305 50 Avenue, #1091, Red Deer, AB T4N 4B6, Canada+1-888-961-6584Guest reviews
What guests say
Reviews from guests on our day tours.
Jane
October 06, 2026
5/5
Susan
October 06, 2026
5/5
Tom L
October 05, 2026
5/5
MandL83
October 05, 2026
5/5
Darren O
October 05, 2026
5/5
Good to know
Questions
What does the price include?
Five nights in central hotels or inns, breakfast daily, four lunches and two dinners, airport transfers at both ends, a private vehicle and driver, your See Sight Tours guide throughout, the Casco Bay ferry, a two-hour schooner sail, carriage-road bike rental, the Cadillac sunrise reservation and every park, lighthouse and observatory entry on the day plan.
How big is the group?
The small-group trip runs with 7 to 12 guests, in a vehicle with seats to spare. That is small enough to fit around one table at a lobster shack, board a schooner together and ride the carriage roads as one group.
Who leads the trip?
A See Sight Tours guide is with you from the welcome briefing in Portland to the airport on day 6, with a local driver. On the Camden sail, the schooner's own captain and crew run the boat while your guide comes along.
How fit do I need to be?
Moderate. Most days are easy walks of 3 to 7 km. Day 5 is the full one: a pre-dawn start for the sunrise, about 13 km by bike on gravel carriage roads and about 3 km on the Ocean Path. You can walk instead of ride, skip the sunrise, or sit any part out.
I am travelling solo. What does a room of my own cost?
A room of your own is from CAD 735 more, about 18 percent of the price, in the same standard of room as everyone else's. We do not yet offer roommate matching on this trip; ask when you book and we tell you whether a shared room is possible on your date. The shared meals make it easy to meet the group.
When is the best time to go?
June to October. June has long days but more morning fog; July and August are warmest and busiest; September is often the clearest and calmest; early to mid October adds autumn colour. The schooner sails, the Pemaquid tower climb and the Cadillac reservations run for most of this window, and we confirm them for your dates.
Is the Cadillac Mountain sunrise guaranteed?
No. We apply for and book the summit road slot for the group as soon as slots are released, and confirm it before you travel. The view is never certain either, because sea fog can sit on the summit on any morning. Your guide checks the forecast the night before, and the full Acadia day follows either way.
Will there be lobster, and what if I do not eat shellfish?
Yes: a lobster shack lunch in Cape Elizabeth and a farewell lobster dinner in Bar Harbor. Every included meal also has other choices, such as chowder, fish, chicken or vegetarian dishes. Tell us about allergies or diets when you book and we pass them to each restaurant.
How long are the drives?
No day goes over four hours. Portland to Camden by way of Pemaquid Point is about three hours in three legs, Camden to Bar Harbor about two and a half with the observatory stop, and the last morning back to Portland about three and a half hours with a coffee stop.
Do I need a visa?
It depends on your passport. Visitors from Visa Waiver Program countries need an approved ESTA before flying to the United States; Canadian citizens need only a valid passport. Other nationalities may need a visa. Check your own rules when you book.
Can I travel privately or on my own dates?
Yes. Besides the small group, the trip comes as a private trip for your party only, on a date you choose, with your own guide and vehicle. If you would rather travel independently on your own dates, ask us from the dates section and we will quote the same route for you.
How does booking work?
Choose a start date and send a request to book. We confirm your place within 24 hours, and no payment is taken when you send the request. The small group starts from CAD 4,085 per person sharing, with taxes included.
See Sight Tours has been providing travel services across North America since 2006. Operating in 20 cities across Canada and the USA, the company specializes in small group tours that offer personalized, high-quality experiences for travelers.
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