47 Fabulous Things to Do in Maine

Thickly wooded coniferous forests full of moose, one of the oldest national parks in the east, uninhabited wilderness, quaint seaside towns, and 5ooo miles total of coastline- there is a lot to explore in the state of Maine in New England, USA. Maine is the state that I vacation to the most, living just a few hours away. It is a wonderland for people who love the ocean and nature. Read on for my list of the best things to do in Maine to plan your trip to New England or a day trip within Maine.

What to do in Maine

  1. See the sunset from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.
  2. Enjoy a popover at the Jordan Pond House in Acadia.
  3. Go on a moose hunt. If you don’t see a moose in the wild, don’t fret. You can see Maine wildlife at the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray.
  4. Take a sailing cruise.
  5. Take a walk over to Bar Island while it is a peninsula, but make sure to get back before the water comes in, and you are stuck on the island overnight.
  6. Explore the interior forests with a seaplane tour. As well as seeing many lakes, you may see a moose.
  7. Ride any of the many ATV trails through the mountains of Maine. Check out a map of the trails.
  8. If you visit in winter, take the trails on a snowmobile!
  9. Get onto a lobster fishing boat and see the fishermen hypnotize a lobster. I did this in Portland with Lucky Catch Cruises, and it was a very cool experience. You can buy the lobster you caught and have it cooked at the restaurant at the end of the dock.
  10. Explore any of Maine’s 65 lighthouses.
  11. Take a picture at Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, the most photographed lighthouse in Maine.
  12. Visit an alpaca farm.
  13. Fish for small-mouth bass in the rivers of western Maine.
  14. Hike Maine’s Appalachian Trail. This 2,200-mile hiking trail starts in Georgia and ends in Mount Katahdin, Maine.
  15. Fly Fish in Maine’s western mountains.
  16. Try a whoopie pie, Maine’s state treat. The classic is thick vanilla frosting between two pieces of dense chocolate cake cookie, but you can now find many variations such as blueberry or red velvet.
  17. Experience Maine’s Maple Sunday and see how maple syrup is made by touring sugar shacks throughout the state.
  18. While at a sugar shack buy some maple cream, otherwise known as maple butter.
  19. Hike to the tip-top of Tumbledown Mountain. The views of the surrounding lakes and expansive forests are incredible!
  20. Have a Maine baked potato.
  21. Or, better yet, have a potato donut in Portland at The Holy Donut! The food scene in Portland is world-class.
  22. Visit The County, the largest US county by landmass on the border of Canada. Its real name is Aroostook County, and you can experience US Acadian culture there. I wrote about this French-derived culture in my post about New Orleans. Before you go, read   which is about local painter Andrew Wyeth.
  23. Bike around Peaks Island off Portland.
  24. Alternatively, you could rent a golf cart to tour Peak’s Island. Be sure to visit Battery Steel, an old military bunker.
  25. Be sure to visit the unique Umbrella Cover Museum while you are there.
  26. Speaking of museums, the International Cryptozoology Museum is in Portland. It is worth a few hours to question whether or not Bigfoot exists.
  27.  
  28. Visit the house of the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in Portland.
  29. Drink a bottle of Moxie soda cooled with snow. This sweet brown soda has an odd bitterness, which not all people love as much as I do. If you want to really get your Moxie on, drink it in Lisbon, its birthplace.
  30. Stay overnight in a yurt at Maine Forest Yurts in Durham.
  31. Maine is famous for its lobster. The claws are large, and the meat is soft and sweet. Travel along the whole state, searching for the ultimate lobster roll. Should it be cold or hot and buttered?
  32. Go ice fishing.
  33. See Stephen King’s spiderweb gate in front of his house at 47 W Broadway in Bangor. You can also search out the settings of his books, such as Lisbon and Durham.
  34. Visit the Maine statehouse building, which is made of Maine granite in Augusta.
  35. Go camping in the treetops at the hammock camping area at Fox Carleton Pond Sporting Camp.
  36. Speaking of camps, do you know most Mainers have “a camp,” which means a place they go to get away from it all. A camp could mean a luxurious house on a lake, a rustic cabin in the woods, or even a shack without electricity. Check Airbnb to rent a Mainer’s camp.
  37. Learn to fly fish at Fox Carleton Sporting Camp.
  38. Go to a Mud Run in Avon.
  39. Visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. Along with gardens, this 128-acre preserve has walking and hiking trails.
  40. Make your own chocolates at Wilbur’s Chocolates in Freeport.
  41. Mountain bike in Carrabassett Valley.
  42. See the world’s biggest globe at Garmin in Yarmouth.
  43.  White water raft down the Kennebec River. Look for your perfect tour company.
  44. Kayak around one of Maine’s harbors. A few to try are Southwest Harbor, Wells Harbor, and Casco Bay.
  45. If you want to get onto the water, but don’t want to put a lot of effort into paddling, try lazy tubing down a Maine river. A few places to try are the Androscoggin River in Bethel, Royal River in Yarmouth, and parts of the Kennebec River.
  46. Visit a desert at The Desert of Maine in Freeport.
  47. Visit one of the nation’s top 25 beaches – Ogunquit Beach.
best hikes in Maine
Chilling at the top of Mount Tumbledown, Maine, my favorite east coast hike.

What are your favorite things to do in Maine? I would love to hear them in the comments. If you haven’t visited, what do you want to do first?

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3 thoughts on “47 Fabulous Things to Do in Maine”

  1. I only spent a very short time in Maine about ten years ago and I really would love to go back. I remember doing an evening tour on a boat on the lake trying to see Moose. They have a very high rate of seeing moose there but that evening, I saw none. I was so upset. That was Millinocket Lake (I think the name was). I think I stayed in the city of Augusta but there was nothing there to see apart from the state house. I did Portland as well and enjoyed the seafood there. But there is so much landscape and nature I want to see in Maine, I need to return!

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