The towns of Maine’s MidCoast region, just a day's drive from the busy tri-state metroplex, offer a surprising mix of New England tradition and modern eclecticism, all within easy reach of the nation's premiere road trip passage: Route 1. The region extends from Brunswick, approximately 20 miles north of Portland at the southern end, along the coast northeast to Searsport on Penobscot Bay.
Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, a museum honoring Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain, a renowned summer-stock theater and an international classical music festival.
Traveling eastward is Bath, a shipbuilding community where the bustling yard of the Bath Iron Works, and the historic premises of the Maine Maritime Museum overlook the Kennebec River. A Victorian era downtown of shops and restaurants and graceful ship’s captain’s mansions line the riverfront to the north.
In Boothbay Harbor, the boatbuilding and commercial fishing industries blend well with boutiques, galleries, a terrific old opera house and good restaurants. Nature lovers will find bird watching and whale watching tours, hiking and kayaking opportunities, or wander the paths of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.
Nestled along the Damariscotta River, the town of Damariscotta is home to galleries, shops, a variety of good restaurants, nature preserves, and a number of historic points of interest including the colonial era Fort William Henry.
Continuing north to Rockland visitors will find two nationally recognized institutions, the Maine Lighthouse Museum and Farnsworth Art Museum, a vibrant shopping district, coffee roaster, award winning chefs, and ferry service to North Haven and Vinalhaven, small island communities with large summer populations.
Nearby, the charming town of Camden lies between Camden Hillls State Park and Penobscot Bay, where modern sailboats glide past 19th-century windjammers. In the picturesque village waterfront restaurants and small shops meet white picket fence lined streets under a canopy of green. A Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist resides here and Julia Child was once a frequent guest.
A 20-minute drive north from Camden past art galleries and through the rolling countryside where farmers tend their crops leads to the town of Belfast, a fast growing art community with homegrown foods and mom-and-pop businesses. For an applause-worthy end to a day of traveling, sit in on a performance by the Belfast Maskers, a renowned community theatre group that has been providing high quality entertainment for over two decades.
Route 1 continues northeast along the rocky shoreline to Searsport, a town best known as a once prosperous shipbuilding community and now home to The Penobscot Marine Museum, Maine’s oldest maritime museum, and many antiques shops.