The region around Bar Harbor has hundreds of hotels, motels, inns and B&Bs. On Mount Desert Island are the towns of Bar Harbor and Southwest Harbor. If you don't find whwat you're looking for in these towns, search to the north in Trenton and Ellsworth.

Access...and Traffic!

Be aware, however, that Mount Desert Island, Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are accessed by the two-lane ME Route 3 (map). In high summer, especially on weekends, vehicular traffic on this narrow road can be heavy and slow. If you stay any distance away from your destination, it may take quite a while for you to get there.

This goes for the many motels and camping areas ranged along Route 3. Even though you're on Mount Desert Island, if you are several miles from Bar Harbor and/or Acadia National Park, you may still have a slow "commute."

My advice: check your itinerary and calendar, and calculate the distance from your chosen lodging to the places you'll want to go.

Reserve in Advance!

You'll find all types of lodging in Bar Harbor and surrounding communities: deluxe hotels and inns, cozy B&Bs, highway motels, full-service resorts.... While there are plenty of rooms in and near Bar Harbor to handle the millions of visitors who come here each year, the challenge is to get the room you want rather than one you're forced to take, because most lodgings fill up, especially in summer and on weekends and holidays.

Booking.com

Main Hotel Areas

Bar Harbor Center

In the center of Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Street is dotted with fine old inns (for example, the beautiful Thornhedge Inn), and there are several on Cottage Street as well (map). These are all walking distance to the center, as are the several hotels near Agamont Park, including the prime Bar Harbor Inn & Spa, perhaps the town's fanciest (and certainly convenient) place to stay. For the budget-minded, I like the comfy, aptly-named Central House Inn, also very convenient, and thrifty.

Eden Street & Bar Harbor Road (Route 3)

The access highway to Bar Harbor has dozens of lodgings. The Days Inn by Wyndham Bar Harbor is directly across Route 3 from the International Ferry Terminal from which the car-and-passenger ferry departs for Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

Trenton

Trenton, the mainland town just to the north of Mount Desert Island, has a few lodgings, including the Open Hearth Inn, closest to Hancock County - Bar Harbor Airport.

Ellsworth

The larger town 21 miles (34 km) to the north of Bar Harbor at the intersection of ME Route 3 and US Route 1 (map), has nearly a dozen lodgings, and you can save money by staying here, and perhaps find a room when all othr appear to be booked, though in the high summer season the drive to Mount Desert Island can be slow and long.

—by Tom Brosnahan

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