Highlights

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Itinerary

Day 1 – Portland, ME – Free Evening in Old Port District

After a day of travel, arrive in Portland, ME for a two night stay.  Tonight, enjoy an evening in the Old Port District.  This completely walkable district of cobblestone streets features a number of restaurants, shops, and attractions. From locally owned shops to national chains, you will find everything you want (and more) within easy walking distance.  Portland hosts award-winning restaurants throughout the Old Port, Arts District and outlying neighborhoods. From amazing ethnic foods to classic New England offerings, Portland teems with talented chefs and restaurants that are guaranteed to satisfy every palate.

Day 2 – Guided City Tour – Portland Head Light – Casco Bay Lines Mailboat Cruise – Di’ Millos Floating Restaurant

After breakfast, meet your local guide for a Portland city tour.  You’ll see views of sea captain houses and the elegant Victoria Mansion as you drive through historic neighborhoods overlooking the islands of Casco Bay in Portland Harbor. Your tour includes a stop at Portland Head Light. This historic landmark is the most photographed lighthouse in America.

After a break for lunch on own, the afternoon features the Casco Bay Lines Mailboat Cruise. An integral part of the island communities, the Mailboat is a true working boat carrying passengers, mail and freight to the islands of Casco Bay—Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Long, Cliff and Chebeague. As the longest-operating service of its kind, this tour is a wonderful way to see the sights of the Bay on the Mailboat cruise.

Enjoy dinner this evening at Di’ Millos Floating Restaurant.  The restaurant actually floats, and because it is surrounded by water, every table offers spectacular views of Portland Harbor while enjoying your fresh seafood dinner. (B,D)

Day 3 – L.L. Bean – Maine Tasting Center with Cooking Demo & Lunch – Boothbay Harbor, ME

This morning departing Portland, stop in Freeport at the L.L. Flagship Store & Outlet.  L.L. Bean was founded in 1912 by its namesake, avid hunter and fisherman Leon Leonwood Bean in Freeport, Maine. The company began as a one-room operation selling a single product, the Maine Hunting Shoe.  Stop and visit the Flagship Store and just across the street is the Outlet Store.

Next, stop in Wiscasset at the new Maine Tasting Center.  This one-stop shop is for learning, tasting and purchasing Maine made products.  Here you enjoy the Flavors of Maine Cooking Demo. Take your tastebuds on a trip around the state and explore the flavors that make Maine food and drink so special. Participants will be introduced to some of Maine’s largest food and drink industries while tasting delicious products that represent them.  Lunch is also included here today.

Then, head to the Tasting Room to enjoy a Maine-made beverage of choice, chat with your class presenter and travelmates about all that you’ve learned, and browse tasty souvenirs in the retail shop.

Continue travel this afternoon to Boothbay Harbor.  On arrival, check into your hotel for a two night stay.  Dinner is on your own this evening. (B,L)

Day 4 – Maine Puffin Cruise – Bar Harbor – Lobster Dinner

This morning enjoy a Maine Puffin Cruise.  See firsthand the National Audubon Society’s success in reestablishing a puffin colony on Eastern Egg Rock. Truly a magnificent “Seafari” for all nature lovers with seals, blue heron, an occasional whale, and other coastal wildlife along the way.

The cruise is narrated by the National Audubon’s Puffin Project so you get the history of puffins and the Eastern Egg Rock restoration directly from people involved with the project.  You also pass by three lighthouses (Ram, Burnt, and Pemaquid Point), see many islands, coastline, Fisherman’s Island, Ocean Point, Spruce Point, Tumbler Island, White Islands, and much more! This is much more than just a ride out to see the puffins!

Following the cruise and a break for lunch on own in downtown Boothbay, travel this afternoon to Bar Harbor.  Check into your hotel for a two night stay.

End the day with a traditional Lobster Dinner.  Be there with your appetite and camera when the covers are lifted and reveal a colorful blend of lobsters, mussels, corn on the cob and red potatoes amidst a cloud of steam. (B,D)

Day 5 – Acadia National Park – Abbe Museum – Timber Tina’s Great Maine Lumberjack Show

Today you enter Acadia National Park, a 49,000-acre Atlantic coast recreation area primarily on Maine’s Mount Desert Island. Its landscape is marked by woodland, rocky beaches and glacier-scoured granite peaks such as Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the United States’ East Coast. Among the wildlife are moose, bear, whales and seabirds.  A boxed lunch is included here today.

This afternoon you visit the Abbe Museum.  In recent years, the Abbe has grown from a small trailside museum, privately operated within Acadia National Park, to an exciting contemporary museum in the heart of downtown Bar Harbor. In 2013, the Museum became the first and only Smithsonian Affiliate in the state of Maine.

At the Abbe’s downtown museum, you will find dynamic and stimulating exhibitions and activities interspersed with spaces for quiet reflection. The history and cultures of the Native people in Maine, the Wabanaki, are showcased through changing exhibitions.

Also included this afternoon is Timber Tina’s Great Maine Lumberjack Show. Enjoy a re-enactment of a historical lumberjack camp from the era of the 1870‘s, when the Down East Acadia Region was one of America’s largest logging ports, with Maine’s towering white pines providing timber for tall ship masts, as well as board lumber that helped to build our nation.

Hear the big crosscut saws singing in the forest, just as you would have heard in a logging camp competition in the Maine woods over 100 years ago… and you will watch the thrilling lumberjack sports of wood chopping and sawing, tree climbing, ax throwing, and everyone’s favorite… log rolling… all exhibited with a modern twist, mixed with history, comedy, and lots non-stop, razor-sharp action!

Dinner is included at a local restaurant this evening.  (B,L,D)

Day 6 – Gray, ME – Maine Wildlife Park – Ogunquit Playhouse

Departing Bar Harbor today, stop in Gray, ME at the Maine Wildlife Park.  Owned and operated by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, this is a guaranteed opportunity to see a moose; plus white-tailed deer, black bears, bald eagles, mountain lions, porcupines, coyotes, hawks, owls, turtles, trophy trout, and more – over 30 species of native wildlife! The wildlife at the park have been injured, orphaned, or are too dependent on humans to be released back into the wild, so act as educational ambassadors to visitors that want to learn more about them.

Continue travel to Ogunquit, ME for the night.  Dinner is included this evening at a local restaurant.  Following dinner, enjoy a performance at the Ogunquit Playhouse.  Building upon a legacy of leadership in American theatre, the Ogunquit Playhouse produces world-class performances, cultivates new works for the stage, and preserves an iconic and historic playhouse for future generations. (B,D)

Day 7 – Maine Kittery Outlets – Depart for Home

After breakfast this morning, visit the Maine Kittery Outlets.  Shop over 40 outlets stores from your favorite brands including Calvin Klein, Coach, J. Crew Factory, Kate Spade, Tommy Hilfiger just to name a few.

Depart for home this afternoon. (B)

Tour Map