2025 DownEast Acadia Region Guide with Inner Map | Page 12

BAR HARBOR
Bar
Harbor
Events on Mount Desert Island
Bar Harbor Music Festival, Various Locations, June
Flamingo Festival, Southwest Harbor, July
Dawnland Festival of Arts + Ideas Campus of College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor – July
Bar Harbor Fine Arts Festival, Bar Harbor Inn, August
Acadia’ s Oktoberfest, Bass Harbor, October
Mount Desert Island Marathon – October see all events on page 25
Bar Harbor
Bar Harbor, on the northeastern shore of Mount Desert Island offers a wide variety of amenities and experiences to visitors.
Artists from the Hudson River School, attracted by Acadia’ s natural beauty, helped popularize the area in the 1850s through their paintings. As the number of visitors grew, so did the need for more elaborate lodging— the grand hotels. By 1880, there were 17 hotels in Bar Harbor along with piers built to welcome guests arriving by steamboat.
The Shore Path
Today, walking is an ideal way to take in Bar Harbor. Stroll the famous Shore Path along the waterfront from the Town Pier to Wayman Lane, with lovely views of the Porcupine Islands en route.
Explore a wide variety of specialty stores, antique shops, boutiques, outfitters, t-shirt shops, and other retail shops. Take your time and browse the stores to your heart’ s content. Enjoy the area’ s many galleries filled with paintings and prints of island landscapes, Wabanaki art, Maine-made crafts, and much more.
When it comes to dining variety, Bar Harbor offers visitors a wide range of choices, from lobster rolls to steak to ethnic cuisine and lots of local favorites. Enjoy fine dining, casual eating, pubs, cafes, and craft breweries.
On the town green, stop in the Abbe Museum which tells the captivating 12,000 + year history of the five tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
With the Kids
Young kids will enjoy playing in a lobster boat and touch tank full of creatures at the Oceanarium and Education Center.
Timber Tina’ s Great Maine Lumberjack Show in Trenton will thrill the whole family.
Journey to the bottom of the sea without getting wet at Diver Ed’ s Dive-in Theater.
Join a scenic cruise departing from the harbor to spot whales, seals, puffins, bald eagles, and lighthouses.
Learn more at VisitBarHarbor. com.
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