1. The Atlantic Birches Inn
City: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (207) 934-5295 or (888) 934-52
Address: 20 Portland Ave.
Description: This attractive Victorian inn, built in 1903, seems a bit above the fray in Old Orchard, more tasteful and refined than most of the area’s hostelries. A five-minute walk from the beach and just around the corner from shops and eateries, the Atlantic Birches has five guest rooms, a heated inground pool, and a very nice wraparound porch shaded by those birch trees. An adjacent cottage has five more rooms, two with kitchen facilities. All of the rooms are chintz and printsy but each has unique decor, private baths, and names like the Old Orchard House, the Velvet, the Fisk, and the Abbot, taken from the grand hotels of the resort’s turn-of-the-20th-century golden age, when this inn was built. You can select among canopied and four-poster beds, king-, queen-, and twin-size, and several rooms are well outfitted for families. A nice escape from the hurly burlesque this town is known for.
2. Ocean Walk Hotel
City: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (207) 934-1013 or (800) 992-37
Address: 197 East Grand Ave.
Description: A big modern motel complex at the north end of Old Orchard Beach, this place presents lodgers with rooms in a variety of configurations. You can get a tiny studio with a double Murphy bed all the way up to an oceanfront suite with a full kitchen and sliding glass doors out onto a deck overlooking the water. The rooms are bright and open and fairly straightforward. The place has recently gone green, so you can feel good about that hot shower—the water’s heated by the sun. Open April through October.
3. Old Orchard Beach Inn
City: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (207) 934-5834 or (877) 700-66
Address: 6 Portland Ave.
Description: This old inn is a recreation of the Ye Old Staples Inn, which was supposedly the first hotel in Maine. Built in the 1730s, it began taking in guests in the 1830s when it was one of four buildings in town. Expanded several times over the centuries, it’s now an 18-room inn, with a lot of history still in its walls. There’s a big porch out front. Some of the rooms have nice beams and old floors, others antique beds and quilts. Each room has the modern conveniences, though—air-conditioning, TV, phone, Wi-Fi, and private bath. The third-floor suite has a full kitchen. As Old Orchard goes, this is a relatively nice, tasteful place, and it’s within walking distance of the pier.
4. Dunegrass Golf Club
City: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Category: Golf
Telephone: (207) 934-4513 or (800) 521-10
Address: 200 Wild Dunes Way
Description: One of Maine’s newest courses, Dunegrass opened in 1998, and it’s very popular. The Boston Globe has called it a “must,” and word of mouth tends to bear it out. The greens fees are pretty steep to play on this 300-acre course, though. The large clubhouse features both a restaurant and a pro shop, and you can even enjoy “play and stay” vacation packages that include time at a two-bedroom condo on Fairway 1.
5. Palace Playland
City: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (207) 934-2001
Address: 1 Old Orchard Street
Description: Palace Playland is Greater Portland’s answer to the boardwalk amusement parks common in southern California and Florida. The Playland offers rides like a 75-foot-high gondola Ferris wheel, a brilliantly decorated carousel, and some robust spinny/flippy contraptions that can promise you’ll lose track of the ground faster than you can say “How many tickets?” The Playland is located along the strip of clubs, bars, and video arcades that line the boardwalk at Old Orchard Beach. For this reason, a nighttime trip to the Playland is more for big kids and adults than the little ones, although a daytime trip can be less rowdy.Still, the Playland offers the best in amusement parks if you’re also looking to wander around and shop for a lobster T-shirt, shoot a round of skeeball, and snag some crab cakes. To sweeten the deal, the Playland launches fireworks every Thursday night at sunset. The Playland is open seven days a week from June 15 to Labor Day. An unlimited-ride pass costs $28.95 for adults and $21.95 for children. Individual tickets are also available. There is no charge to enter the park.
6. Palace Playland
City: Old Orchard Beach, ME
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (207) 934-2001
Address: 1 Old Orchard St.
Description: Palace Playland is a big part of what makes Old Orchard Beach Old Orchard Beach—four acres big—it’s the state’s only beachfront amusement park. Two roller coasters, a log flume ride, a 70-foot-high gondola-style Ferris wheel, and two scary new rides—the Adrenalin Drop Zone, on which you fall 60 feet, and the Cascade Falls, which soars up 50 feet—are available for the high-thrills seekers. And there are a host of teacup-type rides for folks who are smaller or fainter of heart. You can also get your palm read, visit a fun house, and try your hand at a variety of games of chance. This is an old-fashioned seaside carnival on the order of Coney Island, and it has an obvious appeal to kids. Admission to Palace Playland is free, but ride tickets are a dollar; most rides require two to four tickets each.