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I have to admit that I was disappointed at the lack of help here, so I'm posting some notes about our trip in case it may be useful to someone doing a search here in the future. I was looking for a place that would be suited for people obsessed with lobster, interesting to kick around in, reasonably accessible without a car. No one (including Maine tourism offices and a Maine travel writer) was able to offer any constructive comparisons of towns, but we eventually chose Boothbay Harbor, which turned out to be ideal.
The most problematic aspect is getting there without a car, but the Concord Bus, which seems to have extraordinarily nice staff, goes to Wiscasset, coincidentally right by the Sea Basket, so you can stop for lunch, and then there's taxi service to Boothbay Harbor.
We stayed at the Sprucewold Lodge, which was a lovely fake-rustic place in the woods bordering the town center, serving a generous buffet breakfast, also with lovely staff. It's about a 25-minute walk up/down the hill, but there's lobster right at the bottom! There are tons of places to stay, notably, for us:
-an astonishingly cheap motel called the White Anchor, if you have a car
-the reasonably priced Pond B&B which has a spectacular back-garden view
-if you can afford a little more, the Blue Heron Inn, which caught my eye because of the colorful flowers, but is equally beautiful inside
There are boat-trips you can take, but we mostly just walked and ate. The center of town is very small, and there's unfortunately an excess of tourist shops. The one that I preferred for buying little Maine gifts was called Maine Made, where I bought some blueberry jams and such. Also a lovely housewares/gifts store, called, appropriately, the Village Store. Luckily, there's a large supermarket about a 20 minute walk from town, which was handy to buy fruit after it seemed like the only vegetable we'd had for days was potato chips. Also a movie theater which is open weekends.
There are a surprising number of restaurants in town. The two major lobster places are the Lobster Wharf (which seems to be slightly cheaper and usually involves standing around aimlessly waiting for the food) and the Lobster Dock (which prides itself on having a hot lobster roll as well as a cold one). Both places are terrific. There is a roadside stand on the way into town called Bett's, known for fish sandwiches, but we couldn't get there without a car. I didn't have breakfast, but if I did, I'd probably choose the Ebb Tide, small and homey. There's also sort of a local version of Starbucks, though better, since it's an independent business, with various coffees, pastries and such, the Moosehead Cafe. Great pie. There are a few ice cream places, but the one we gravitated to was Downeast, which is actually more of a parlor, which I liked because they had the option of small cones.
Unfortunately, you really have to work to find things. There is no tourism office, only the Chamber of Commerce, and, like all Chambers, it only promotes members. (Also confusing because there seems to be a Boothbay Region office and a Boothbay Harbor office.) But it's certainly worth it.
Excellant information, thank you. I was unable to give you much to go on as I'm not familiar with Boothbay Harbor, I'm in the "highlands" sounds like you had a wonderful time.
I really like the idea of a vacation without having to rely on a car!
Prefer flying somewhere and not renting a vehicle - avoids stress that comes with driving in an unknown place,exorbitant rental car costs, parking issues, e etc. Nice to use public transportation and legs to get around and really get a feel for a locale.
I had visited boothbay when I was about 11 or so...I loved it then but I didn't think an 11 yr old perspective was a reliable one! Thank you for the info so now when I go back to visit again I have some reference...Did you go candlestick bowling?
That's funny to me, to think of going anywhere without a car. I've never ridden a city bus and wouldn't even know where to begin! It's a cool thought to ride a train - the train from Portland to Boston sounds like a great day trip idea to go down and shop and sightsee. We don't even have passenger trains here. Can't wait to try that one!
We visited Boothbay Harbor last March when everything was just starting to melt and all the shops were closed. It was like a little ghost town! Still beautiful, though. I'm anxious to go back during the "live" season.
cida, I'm sorry you feel as though you didn't get a lot of help here from us, and I wanted to take a minute to explain why that may be true.
There are over 30,000 square miles in Maine...with a population of around 1,300,000...not every resident of the state is a member of the forum, in fact, as you may notice, the Maine forum is relatively small as far as posting members compared to other forums on this site...it is very likely that we will have threads on the Maine forum that ask about areas and none of our posting members have valuable information to provide. (ref: 30,000 square miles in the state) I love the Boothbay area, but couldn't really provide answers to your questions, and honestly it seems silly to run around to the threads I can't contribute to just to say "sorry, wish I could help, but...."
I hope that helps you understand WHY you may not have gotten the information you were looking for, and I hope it helps you see why now you have valuable information to offer.
Sounds like you had a really nice trip. Just wondering though, how come you didn't rent a bicycle? There's one rental shop just up the hill from the Christmas Shop that I can't remember the name of and another one at the other end of the long pier.
Thank you all for your interesting responses. Corgi, that's a valid idea, but I have to admit that I don't know how to ride a bike! Plus which, though, what would have interested me wouldn't have been nearby bike-able places, but going to more distant other towns, like Rockland.
Mollysmiles, I didn't expect tons of replies orginally, but what surprised and disappointed me was that I didn't get any comparative responses - even, as I said, from people who were Maine tourism professionals. I have the feeling that Los Angelenos, for instance, would be likely to be able to compare the merits of Santa Barbara, San Diego, etc.
Anyway, I'm hoping my narrative might help someone in the future.
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sounds like you had a wonderful time.
