Road Trip: Coastal Maine and Acadia

DAY 1 About 20 miles north of Boston, U.S. 1 curves to meet the Atlantic Ocean, teasing you with glimpses of saltwater marshes and pristine beaches as you make your way to Kennebunkport, Maine, a place so tidy it feels like a movie set. Settle in among the grand mansions on Ocean Avenue at the 10-room waterfront Green Heron Inn. It's worth the stay just for the grilled banana bread with lemon curd and fresh berries for breakfast (greenheroninn.com, from $140).

DAY 2 It's 200 miles to Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, and Acadia's northeastern entrance. Make an afternoon tour around the park's 27-mile loop road, which ricochets between lakes, forests, pint-size mountains, and the jagged shoreline. At the century-old Balance Rock Inn, a converted summer home on the water, the innkeeper, Michael, will point you toward a local lobster pound, where fresh lobsters are steamed and served, picnic-style, on the spot (balancerockinn.com, from $125).

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DAY 3 From October to early March, the sunrise hits 1,530-foot Cadillac Mountain before anywhere else in the continental U.S., so it's worth the three-and-a-half-mile predawn drive to its summit. That leaves the rest of the morning open for exploring the park's 45 miles of carriage roads—on a bike (acadiabike.com, rentals from $20) or in a horse-drawn carriage (Carriages of Acadia, 877/276-3622, from $18). In the afternoon, get a whale's perspective of Acadia on a two-hour ranger-led cruise of Frenchman Bay on a 151-foot-long schooner (book at the park's visitors center, 207/288-4585, $32).

DAY 4 Taking the quick route back to Boston doesn't mean bypassing the sights and tastes of New England. Interstate 295 cuts through Portland, Maine's largest city, where an endless string of fishing boats unload their catches at the Harbor Fish Market on the ancient Custom House Wharf, to be shipped around the world or sold in the retail store alongside hundreds of lobsters swimming in massive saltwater tanks (harborfish.com/market).

Stick Around
Acadia extends six miles off the coast to tiny Isle au Haut, home to about 50 residents and accessible by mail boat. A stay at four-room Inn at Isle au Haut is a worthy off-the-grid splurge (innatisleauhaut.com, from $300 with meals).

> This story is excerpted from: National Parks (Minus the Crowds).