Bar Harbor Inn

As part of our Maine Vacation, after my cousins wedding, we took a trip to Bar Harbor much like we did last year. This year however, instead of staying at the Ledgelawn, we stayed at the Bar Harbor Inn. Below is the video I took of our rather messy room.


I will be reviewing our fine dining experiences we had at Bar Harbor Inn, which included two dinners and two breakfasts, in another post on Thegrubhound.com.

Lizzie purchased a package which included two nights, two dinners, two breakfasts, and the cruise on the Margaret Todd, which is the four mast schooner that resides at Bar Harbor.

Bar Harbor is a great Maine tourist town which you should visit at least once. Bar Harbor is located on Mt. Desert Island and is surrounded by Acadia National Park. No trip to Bar Harbor is not complete with out visiting Cadillac Mt and Thunder Hole.

Things we Liked about Bar Harbor Inn

1. Great food. The crab cakes at Bar Harbor Inn got rave reviews from Lizzie and were named the best Crab Cakes for 2007. I myself will recommend any of their lobster dishes.
2. Cozy robes to sit on the patio while sipping wine.
3. Heated pool(didn't use, but its a great feature)
4. Spa(again didn't use, but if we stayed longer we surely would have loved a couples massage)
5. Beautiful view of Bar Harbor.
6. Large modern bathrooms.
7. Extremely helpful staff.

Things to Work On

1. Wifi was not free. tsk tsk.
2. TV was not a flat screen and very small...sorry we are so spoiled.
3. Other than those two, I can not say anything else that we didn't find acceptable.
   

The Bar Harbor Inn is a great nostalgic place to vacation, and if you have the opportunity, we both highly recommend it the next time you are looking for lodging in Bar Harbor.

Auburn Hilton Garden Inn

This morning I awoke in our Hilton Garden Inn room around 730am wonderfully rested and ready to go. After going down to the ultra clean work out room where I did a measly 15 minutes on the elipitical trainer, I headed up to the room for a shower.

We arrived in Lisbon, ME Friday morning at 515am, after my bro drove the night through with only one stop outside of Boston for a facilities break and gas. Being it was so early, none of our relatives were awake so we headed down to the the T&A for some breakfast. Yea, you got to love the name...it doesn't stand for what you think it does. T&A's is a relatively new general store/dinner that is located in the old NAPA building in Lisbon. I chose to eat some of their fabulous blue berry pancakes and Lizzie had the regular pancakes. After we had just gotten our grub, my cousin Gary, who works at a Lisbon, ME Landscape Company, was up early to get some work done, showed up for some grub before heading off to work.

The primary purpose for our trip was for the Wedding of my cousin Scott's wedding. Since the reception was being held at the Hilton in Auburn, guests were encouraged to spend the night. Lizzie, just loves Hilton, so we reserved a room for both Friday and Saturday nights.

Impressions of the Auburn Hilton

Lizzie:
great view, clean room, comfortable...slept better at this hotel than any hotel in a very long time. excellent cookies at the front desk. Good shower...wonderful water pressure(oh she likes a minimum of 4 large towels and we only had three)...kitchenette was really nice to have in a hotel room.

Emperor:
Love the desk chair...comfortable bed...great shower...very happy with the exercise facilities.

Both: Had great sleep. Food was ok, but you would do better to go out in the surrounding communities for some fabulous local fare. Lobster anyone? Both glad that the WiFi was included which made keeping up with Plurk and email a breeze.
Two thumbs up.

Next Trip - Bar Harbor Inn

In just a few days we'll be heading up to Maine for a family wedding. We'll be driving through the night and arriving in the Lewiston/Auburn area on Friday morning. We are staying at the Hilton in Auburn ME with the rest of the out-or-town wedding guests. The wedding in on Saturday morning; the reception is immediately following the wedding.

Sunday morning, we'll be heading up to Bar Harbor for a mini-vacation. We went to Bar Harbor last summer in the height of the tourist season. We stayed at a bed and breakfast - the only one in the area that had a room. This year we'll be staying at the Bar Harbor Inn.

The Inn is right on the water. It's old and majestic. We did have dinner there last summer. They won the 2007 award for the best crab cakes!

When making our reservations at the Inn, I decided to do the Autumn Special. After I did the math, it appears that it will cost us far less with the special. It includes 2 nights lodging, 2 full breakfasts, dinner one night at the Terrace restaurant, a lobster bake the following night; then a choice of a 2 hour boat tour of the Harbor, a half day bike rental or bus tour of Acadia National Park; and $20 to spend at the gift shop. This package includes all taxes and gratuities!

Ledgelawn Inn of Bar Harbor

Lizzie and I really had a wonderful time in Bar Harbor last week. It was a welcomed get away, even though we were already away. Just under a 3 hour drive from Lisbon, Maine where we were staying, the drive was very relaxing.
The Ledgelawn Inn is a huge old mansion that now serves as a Bed and Breakfast. Lizzie was not anticipating a great place, because it did have a vacancy when so many other places had none.
The bed in our Puffin room was very uncomfortable. It seemed like a really old mattress that they had placed a feather bed upon. Not having WiFi was another let down, but it did give us more of a reason to be out checking out Bar Harbor and the rest of Acadia Park.
Below is a video of me walking to get coffee in the morning. The outside of LedgeLawn Inn is visible at the beginning. I had made several other videos but this is the most suitable for the blog.
Our general opinion of the Ledgelawn Inn is that we would not stay here again because there are so many other places to stay.
Next time, Lizzie says she will not make reservations ahead of time if we are just coming up for a day or so, but will wait until we are in Bar Harbor to find lodging.
I myself would like to stay at the Bar Harbor Inn or one of the other places that are down closer to the water.

Maine Vacation:Bar Harbor

Lizzie was online for almost half an hour looking for places up north, and she finally found a place for tomorrow night at a Bed n Breakfast in Bar Harbor, which is about a four hour drive from our present location in Lisbon, Maine.
She was not able to use any of our affiliate programs(darn) because they don't have bead and breakfasts listed.


We are staying in the Puffin Room of the Ledgelawn Inn in Bar Harbor. I am sure we will have more to say about it, but Lizzie does not have high expectations, because it was available when nothing else was vacant.

Well anyways, we are looking forward to the drive north to Bar Harbor, and will certainly have a wonderful time.

Check out our Maine Vacation Pics on Flickr

Maine Vacation | Lobster Feast

Our weeklong vacation in Maine is halfway through, and we have had sea food of one type or another almost every day.
One night my bro and I went down to Lewiston and bought lobsters and clams at Gendrons Seafood. Altogether, we got 17 lobsters and 17lbs of clams.
It was some good eating for sure. I had not had lobsters for quite a few years, and was only able to eat a little under 3 before stopping. I also was a bit rusty on what parts to eat and what not too eat. I did remember not to eat the brain, but cleaning the tail slipped by me on my first one.
The steamers, which I polished off a couple of plates worth, were quite tasty as well. Once I remembered to rinse them in hot water I was golden.

Lizzie, who is not a seafood fan, had a taste of my lobster, but was happy to eat crab cakes. She did have half of a lobster roll, which is lobster and mayo on a toasted roll.
Other Seafood meals other than lobster included haddock platters at LL Beans in Freeport, and Fish n Chips, and clam chowder at a place in Portland. But the Lobster feast tops the meals that we have had since being here in Maine.

Maine Vacation

Lizzie, my brother, and myself are heading to Maine on Saturday night to visit relatives and check out the scenery. My brother talked us into going, since I have not been up to see my Dad's side of the family in quite a few years.

While there, we are also planning on attending the Great Falls Balloon Festival
which starts on the 18th and runs through the 20th.

Other activities include working(we will be bringing computers), swimming, eating lobsters and clams, and visiting the LL Bean outlet. We may do a few other things while there, but this is going to be an unorganized vacation.

Further Maine Vacation postings will follow.