Bar Harbor
Last edited by:
- Jane Babbitt
- February 4, 2025
- 6:18 pm
- 0 comments
Region:
Photo: Christian Collins
For decades we have passed by Bar Harbor, choosing to access the Hannaford grocery store and pharmacy by using the Acadia National Park/L. L. Bean bus from Northeast Harbor or Southwest Harbor. When Covid stopped the bus, we gave Bar Harbor a try, and found that Bar Harbor offers a host of services, including a well-staffed hospital emergency room, a well-organized harbor with municipal moorings and a friendly harbormaster (Chris Wharff--isn't that a great name for a harbormaster?!), and even some WiFi wafting out from the resorts and town park complementing strong cellular service. If you want a gazillion shops, restaurants, great provisioning, and the iconic Acadia National Park, give Bar Harbor a try.
Approach & Cautions
Photo: Google Earth
The most straightforward approach is to round Bald Porcupine Island and enter the harbor. The anchorage and town moorings are south of the fairway to the town landing and marina. One can also enter to the west of the breakwater (awash at high tide).
Docking, Anchorages, or Moorings
As mentioned above, there are municipal moorings in the main harbor as well as room to anchor, and a large dinghy dock and trash dumpster at the town landing. Be advised that while there is a no wake zone, there is the occasional tour boat, yacht tender or lobster boat that might be a bit discourteous. You can reserve a town mooring or dock space on Dockwa.
Harbormaster monitors Channel 9, 16, and 68. 207-288-5571, Email: [email protected].
VHF
Harbormaster - Channel 9, 16 and 68
FUEL
Bar Harbor Whale Watch dock
WATER
Contact Harbormaster.
ELECTRICITY
At town slips
SHOWERS
At the YMCA, 21 Park St.
LAUNDRY
Bar Harbor Laundromat, open 24 hours 6 Pleasant St (207) 288-2824
WIFI
From Agamont Park, good with booster antenna, also 4 bars of Verizon LTE. Jesup Memorial Library, 34 Mt Desert St, (207) 288-4245
PUMP OUT
Town dock
SERVICES
NA
TRASH
Dumpster on town pier.
MEDICAL
MDI Hospital 10 Wayman Ln, (207) 288-5081
MORE BOAT AMENITIES
For regular hardware needs, there’s an Ace Hardware at 31 Holland Ave., just off Cottage Street near Hannafords.
Getting Ashore
Photo: David Wilson
The town’s dinghy dock is on the west side of the town pier, behind the dock where commercial fishing boats unload.
Photo: A&B Naturals
Provisioning
Hannaford Supermarket, 86 Cottage St., (207) 288-3621, has a pharmacy.
A & B Naturals, a terrific natural food store with fresh produce and baked goods, is perhaps the only place on MDI to buy whole bean coffee and grind it. There’s a little café and an organic juice and smoothie bar. Kitty-corner from Hannafords at 101 Cottage St., (207 288-8480).
Walgreens, 34 Cottage St., (207) 288-2222, is a good-sized drugstore/pharmacy.
Photo: MDI Ice Cream
Dine Out
Bar Harbor has enough restaurants to meet just about any craving–wander up and down Main Street and the side streets. TripAdvisor can help you choose. After you’ve chosen where to dine, be sure to go to Mt. Desert Ice Cream, 7 Firefly Lane, across from the village green, for dessert, or mid-morning snack, or mid-afternoon snack…you get the idea. But of all the ice cream shops in Bar Harbor (a gazillion at last count), we have yet to be disappointed.
Photo: Paul VanDerWerf
Hikes
Acadia National Park has magnificent hiking trails. Catch a bus at the village green.
Photo: Abbe Museum
Other Things To Do
Of course one of the main attractions of Bar Harbor is its proximity to Acadia National Park. The buses that line up at the village green also go to other locations on the island, so it’s a great way to explore.
In Bar Harbor, don’t miss the Abbe Museum, a contemporary museum that is the first and only Smithsonian Affiliate in the state of Maine, with a special emphasis on the history and culture of the Wabanaki people, on whose land Maine has been built.
OUR REVIEWS
What CCA Members are saying:
A visit to Bar Harbor has always been part of our trips to MDI, but pre-Covid we would take a mooring in NE Harbor and take the Island Explorer bus over for our regular stops at Mt Desert Ice Cream and Hannafords Supermarket. With the buses not running, however, we decided to try sailing to Bar Harbor, and will now make it a regular stop! It's a great town with lots of fun shops and great provisioning.
Jane Babbitt
