A Long Weekend in Acadia

3 day itinerary

Fancy taking the Friday off work and heading northeast to the Crown Jewel of the Atlantic Coast? Acadia awaits for a weekend of coastal exploring intertwined with rocky climbs!

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Day 1

Start the trip off with one of the best hikes of the park. The Beehive trail is a challenging hike/climb, which doesn't require any special equipment but does require a good deal of care! The hike is dotted with metal rungs to help climb up the steep slope, and a small boardwalk section provides great views of Sand Beach (on a clear day, which can be a bit of a rarity in Acadia...!) The hike returns back to the parking lot via the Bowl trail, and will take anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on your pace, and the amount of people on the trail at the time! That's why we think it's great to start off with this hike in the early morning!

From here, stop off at Thunder Hole to listen to the roar of the ocean as it crashes against the rocks, and you start to get an understanding of the relentless forces that have shaped the coast of Maine. Continue around Park Loop Road to eventually reach Jordan Pond house, where you can grab some lunch. This will be the focal point for the rest of the day, with plenty of hikes of varying length and difficulty branching off from here!

A particularly good, but challenging 5 mile hike is the Jordan Cliffs Loop, giving great views of a number of ponds and lakes that are scattered across Desert Island. However, given this would be the second hike of the day, feel free to leave it for another day and continue driving along the main road of the park. There is parking available at Bubble Pond and Eagle Lake, to the north of Jordan Pond, so take your time to enjoy the views and decide which picturesque location is your favourite of the day!

End the day in Bar Harbor, the main town of Desert Island, and explore the roads and shops which managed to survive the huge fire of 1947 that destroyed many mansions of the wealthy who had holiday homes on the island. The town is a perfect opportunity to try the famous Maine Lobster! If you have time before dinner, you can walk across to Bar Island when the tide is out, not something you can do everywhere!

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Day 2

Explore the south of Mount Desert Island today! Bass Harbor is situated around a delightful inlet that opens directly into the wide-open Atlantic Ocean. As a result, it is the site of one of a number of lighthouses which aimed to protect ships from crashing into the rocky Maine coastline.

Bass Harbor lighthouse is one of the most picturesque and iconic in the park, and is pretty easy to view via a short hike across some rocks. The parking lot gets quite busy, especially at sunrise and sunset, so plan accordingly if you did want to view at one of these times.

The village itself is heavily orientated around the fishing industry, with plenty of photo opportunities of classic lobster boats, plus their traps stacked on the shore. If you head west, you can visit Southwest Harbor, which has a seasonal ferry to reach the Cranberry Islands. While there is not too much on the islands, they do provide great views of the mountains of Acadia NP, as well as being a quiet retreat - which may well be ideal after a busy day on the Loop Road and Beehive Trail yesterday!

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Day 3

Start early to be one of the first in America to see the sun rise today! Drive up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain in the darkness of the early hours and get yourself in position. The highest point in the park, Cadillac Mountain provides an amazing view of Bar Harbor and Frenchman Bay, which contains the small Bar and Porcupine Islands.

If you have time to enjoy more of the park today, you can catch the summer ferry to Winter Harbor, a small part of the Schoodic Peninsula. Alternatively you can drive an hour, or 45 miles, to reach the small, more isolated section of Acadia National Park, rarely visited by most visitors. Here, you can see square rock formations formed by ancient magma, and ascend to the highest point of the peninsula - Schoodic Head.

Or if you want to stay in the main hub of the park for a couple of hours before you head back home, visit Sieur de Monts Nature Center, which details the "Science behind the Scenery" of Acadia. The wild gardens here are also worth checking out, offering a slightly different experience to the rest of the park. The Abbe museum also teaches the history of the Wabanaki - natives of Maine.

From the Sieur de Monts complex, you can head north to Bar Harbour, or join the one way road back through the park to stop off at any points you missed, or would like to revisit, from day 1 - to round off your trip!

If you want to explore more of Acadia, check out our full national park guide! Or have a look at our one day itinerary if that's all you have time for in your schedule!