Things to Do in Maine 2 guides

For most visitors, late June through early October. Summer brings warm days and every coastal town, lobster shack and boat tour fully open, though it's the busiest and priciest window. Many locals prefer September and early October, when the crowds thin, the weather stays crisp and clear and the inland forests turn spectacular colours. Winter is quiet on the coast but prime season for skiing inland at Sugarloaf and Sunday River.

A focused trip works well in three to four days — Portland and the southern beaches, or Bar Harbor and Acadia on their own. A week lets you drive the coast from Portland up Route 1 through the mid-coast to Acadia at a relaxed pace, and ten days or more opens up the western mountains or the North Woods around Baxter State Park as well.

Yes. Maine is large and spread out, and its coast, mountains and North Woods are thinly served by public transit, so a rental car is essential for almost any trip. Most visitors fly into the Portland International Jetport and drive from there; Bangor's airport is the more convenient arrival for Acadia and the north. Once you reach a hub like Portland or Bar Harbor you can get around on foot, but you'll want the car to explore.

Maine is famous for lobster, its rocky lighthouse-dotted coastline and Acadia National Park — the only national park in New England — on Mount Desert Island. It's also known as the terminus of the Appalachian Trail atop Mount Katahdin, for L.L.Bean and outdoor gear in Freeport, for wild blueberries, and for the vast unspoiled North Woods that cover much of the interior.

It's one of the best in the country. U.S. Route 1 runs the length of the coast, hugging every bay and peninsula from the southern beaches through Portland and the mid-coast harbours of Rockland and Camden up to Acadia and beyond. Because the coastline is so crinkled, distances take longer than the map suggests, so allow more driving time than you'd expect and plan to stop often for lighthouses, lobster and harbour views.

Maine has some of the best autumn colour in the United States, and it usually peaks from late September in the far north and western mountains through mid- to late October along the southern coast. The inland forests, the Rangeley Lakes and the Camden Hills are prime leaf-peeping country. Colour moves from north to south and from higher elevations downward, so the exact timing shifts each year — check a foliage tracker as you plan.

Sometimes. Acadia has used a timed-entry vehicle reservation for the popular Cadillac Summit Road during peak season in recent years, and details change from year to year, so always check the National Park Service site before you go. General park entry is by the standard park pass, and much of Acadia — including the carriage roads and most trails — needs no reservation at all. Bar Harbor makes an easy basecamp just outside the gates.

Lobster is everywhere along the coast, but the classic experience is a no-frills lobster pound or shack right on the water, where you eat a whole steamed lobster with drawn butter at a picnic table. The mid-coast and Downeast harbours are especially good, and Portland's waterfront is a hotspot for both traditional shacks and inventive lobster rolls. Peak season for soft-shell 'new-shell' lobster is roughly summer into autumn.