Acadia National Park Top Tips

This summer we traveled to Maine to visit Acadia National Park. Here are a few of our top tips as you plan to visit!

1. Stay in Bar Harbor

We stayed at Hanscom’s Cottages which was only a 3 minute drive to the Hulls Cove entrance to Acadia National Park. It was also only a 10 minute drive to downtown Bar Harbor. This made getting in and out of the Acadia National Park a breeze! The accommodations were recently renovated and they were pet friendly which was a plus!

2. Visit early in the day or later in the evening

Acadia National Park is one of the most visited National Parks. They see about 4 million visitors per year! We found visiting early in the morning, or during dinnertime allowed us the most optimal chances for parking spots and less crowded hikes.

3. Get a sunrise pass for Cadillac Mountain

These can be tough to get, but very worth it. We found waiting until the window opens 2 days before at 10:00 AM is the best time to get tickets. You can get them months in advance, however, you will not know the weather. Weather plays a HUGE factor in seeing the sunrise. We set our alarms for 9:55 AM so we didn’t miss the window to reserve the ticket. You will want to head to recreation.gov to reserve your ticket. They will only allow you one ticker per account. We made two different accounts so that we could reserve two different days. That way, we knew at least one morning would not be foggy! It is truly worth the small fee to see the spectacular sunrise!!

4. Take advantage of sunny days

If you are traveling to Acadia National Park during peak season, the water is cool and the days get warm. This creates a lot of fog. This can ruin views around the National Park, or make them more eerie. We found it best to take advantage of those clear days! Most hikes around the park are pretty short to see some beautiful views. We had one sunny day on our trip and were able to knock out about four hikes that day!

5. Bring your furry friend

Acadia National Park and truly the whole state of Maine was so dog friendly! We were so happy to bring Denali along with us on this trip. Most hikes are dog friendly as long as they are leashed. Also, around Bar Harbor most restaurants have outdoor seating and will bring your dog a bowl of water. Not only that, a lot of the stores allowed pets and even encouraged them to stop in for a treat! One place dogs are not allowed, was in the Acadia National Park visitor center, but otherwise we had no issues!

These are our 5 Top Tips for visiting Acadia National Park! Have you visited this National Park? What is your top tip? Let us know in the comments below! Coming up, we will be breaking down our favorite hikes, favorite spots to eat, and secret gems!

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