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Maine is the north-eastern corner of the United States, a long coast of granite headlands, lighthouses and lobster harbours with forest and lakes behind it. Its one national park, Acadia, had 4,079,318 recreation visits in 2025, the seventh most of any national park. Portland, the largest city, sits an easy drive north of Boston.
The season is short and sharp: most of what a visitor comes for runs from late May to October. We read the figures below on 27 October 2026 on the National Park Service's pages, Maine Revenue Services', Baxter State Park's, the airports' and NOAA's.
What do visitors come to Maine for?
Visitors come to Maine for the coast first: Acadia's mountains above the sea, Portland and its lighthouse, and the harbours along Route 1. Katahdin, the mountain at the northern end of the Appalachian Trail, is the inland trip.
| Place | What it is | Entry |
|---|---|---|
| Acadia National Park | Granite mountains, lakes and shore on Mount Desert Island, with Bar Harbor as its town | $35 a car, plus $100 a non-resident |
| Portland Head Light | A lighthouse first lit in 1791, owned by the town of Cape Elizabeth | Park free; parking $6 |
| Pemaquid Point | A lighthouse of 1827 on the coast road, run by the town of Bristol | Open mid-May to October |
| Baxter State Park | Katahdin, 5,268 feet, and the northern end of the Appalachian Trail | $20 for visitors from outside Maine |
| Katahdin Woods and Waters | A national monument 1½ hours north of Bangor, a certified dark-sky sanctuary | Free |
Visit Maine counts more than 60 lighthouses on the coast, and Route 1 is the road that links most of them. Acadia is the only park in Maine on the 2026 list with a $100 surcharge for non-residents.
How do you get to Maine from abroad?
No airport in Maine has scheduled international flights. A visitor from abroad lands in Boston Logan, which flies nonstop to about 60 international destinations, or connects through a US hub. Portland's Jetport has seven airlines and Bangor five. Their route lists are all domestic.
From Boston, Portland is about 106 miles and two hours by road. The Amtrak Downeaster makes five round trips a day from Boston North Station to Portland and Brunswick. The trip to Portland takes about two and a half hours. Every seat must be reserved. It does not leave from the airport or from South Station, about a mile away.
For Acadia, Cape Air flies from Boston to Hancock County–Bar Harbor Airport all year, about 10 miles from the park. Bangor's airport is about an hour from it.
What is there to see in Portland?
The Old Port in Portland, Maine is the old commercial waterfront, burned in the Great Fire of 1866 and rebuilt almost at once in Victorian style. METRO's Route 1 runs from the train and bus station along Congress Street to Munjoy Hill and the Eastern Promenade.
Portland Head Light stands in Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, about five miles from the city centre. It was first lit on 10 January 1791 and is owned by the town. The 90-acre park is free and open from sunrise to sunset all year. Parking costs $6 for the first two hours, by card only. The tower opens to the public on one day a year. The small museum, $2 an adult, is open from Memorial Day to mid-October.
How do you climb Katahdin?
Katahdin, 5,268 feet high on the park's new summit sign, stands in Baxter State Park, a state park of 209,644 acres run by its own authority. The Appalachian Trail ends on its summit.
From June to October, parking at the three Katahdin trailheads needs a $10 Katahdin Trailhead Pass, bookable from 1 April. A pass is void if the car is not in line at Togue Pond Gate by 7 a.m. Visitors from outside Maine also pay a $20 entrance fee.
No pets are allowed anywhere in the park. In 2026 every Katahdin trail closed for the season on 13 October. From 23 October the gates opened for day use only, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Millinocket, the town nearest the park, is about two hours and 50 minutes from Bar Harbor and an hour and a half from Bangor.
When does Maine's season run?
Maine's travel season runs from late May to October, and October is nearly as busy as summer on the coast. Acadia had 599,253 visits in October 2025, close to June's 631,333. Autumn colour reaches the coast from mid-October to the end of the month, according to the Maine Forest Service.
A lobster boat and its traps in Boothbay Harbor; Maine landed 78.8 million pounds of lobster in 2025, by the state's preliminary count.
The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for three stations: Portland, Bangor and Acadia National Park.
| Month | Portland | Bangor | Acadia |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32°F / 16°F | 28°F / 9°F | 33°F / 15°F |
| April | 54°F / 35°F | 53°F / 32°F | 53°F / 35°F |
| July | 80°F / 61°F | 80°F / 59°F | 79°F / 60°F |
| October | 60°F / 41°F | 58°F / 38°F | 59°F / 43°F |
Figures are average highs and lows. Portland averages 69 inches of snow a year and Bangor 75. By November most seasonal services close: Acadia's Loop Road shuts on 1 December, and its free bus stops in mid-October.
How do you drive the Maine coast?
Maine's coast is a series of peninsulas, so distances along it are longer than they look. The figures below are our own routing, without summer traffic.
| From | To | Distance | Drive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Logan Airport | Portland | About 106 miles | 2 hours 10 minutes |
| Portland | Portland Head Light | About 5 miles | 15 minutes |
| Portland | Pemaquid Point | About 67 miles | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| Portland | Camden | About 81 miles | 2 hours |
| Portland | Bar Harbor | About 159 miles | 3½ hours |
| Bangor | Bar Harbor | About 48 miles | 1 hour 20 minutes |
| Bar Harbor | Millinocket, for Katahdin | About 119 miles | 2 hours 50 minutes |
Maine's transport department says May and June are the peak months for collisions with moose, which are most active at dawn and dusk. Deer collisions peak in November. Maine has the highest moose population in the lower 48 states. For road conditions, use New England 511.
What taxes do visitors pay in Maine?
Maine Revenue Services charges four rates a visitor meets: 5.5% general sales tax, 8% on restaurant meals and prepared food, 9% on hotel rooms and other lodging, and 10% on short-term car rental. A $200 hotel night carries $18 in tax, and a $50 dinner $4.
Maine is on Eastern Time, the same as Boston and New York. Its clocks went back an hour on 1 November 2026. Our guide to sales tax in the USA explains why prices are shown before tax.