Exploring Cape Elizabeth: Iconic Lighthouses and Lobster Rolls


Date Published: Oct 29th, 2024 | Last Updated: Oct 29th, 2024
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: Oct 12th, 2024

Cape Elizabeth is a quiet coastal town located just south of Portland, Maine. It’s home to a few lighthouses, including the most iconic and famous lighthouse in Maine: Portland Head Light. Between Portland and Cape Elizabeth sits Bug Light, a uniquely small lighthouse that’s also worthwhile a visit. But apart from lighthouses, there are a couple of popular places to get lobster rolls along the coast. I’d recommend spending half a day exploring both of these lighthouses and snacking on some lobster!

Contents:

  1. How much time will I need?
  2. Portland Breakwater Light aka “Bug Light”
  3. Portland Head Light – the iconic lighthouse
  4. Bite Into Maine 🍴 (food truck within Fort Williams)
  5. Lobster Shack at Two Lights 🍴
  6. Some Final Thoughts
  7. Need more travel recommendations for Maine? Check out these other places!

I’ve made a map below to outline the main places to see in this area to get your bearings:

An overview of the most popular places in Cape Elizabeth

How much time will I need?

You can visit both lighthouses and lobster roll places in half a day. The lobster roll places don’t open until 10:30/11am, so if you’re coming from Portland, I’d recommend starting at Bug Light first then work your way down the coast. You only need 5-10 minutes at Bug Light since there’s not much else to do here other than snapping some photos of the lighthouse. From there, it’s a 15 minute drive to Fort Williams Park where the Bite Into Maine food truck is and Portland Head Light. Try to get to Bite Into Maine right as they open at 10:30am, before the lines start, then afterwards head over to Portland Head Light and check out the museum and do the Cliff Walk. Lastly, drive another 15 minutes south to Lobster Shack at Two Lights Park and enjoy a second lunch (or dinner, depending on how long you’ve taken at Fort Williams) to finish off the trip.

Portland Breakwater Light aka “Bug Light”

Located in South Portland, outside of Cape Elizabeth, “Bug Light” is a small lighthouse that sits within Bug Light Park. There’s not much else here other than the lighthouse but this uniquely small tower was worth a stopover. Parking here is free and is only a few minutes walk to the lighthouse. Like Portland Head Light, the lighthouse tower is only open once a year on Maine Open Lighthouse Day. You can see views of the Portland in the distance and there’s a Liberty Ship Memorial here as well, commemorating the 274 Liberty Ships that were built in South Portland during WWII that carried important supplies across the Atlantic. You can read more about its history here.

Path from the parking lot to the lighthouse
Views of Portland from beside the lighthouse
Views of Portland in the distance
Bug light
🙆🏼‍♂️
View from the lightouse

Portland Head Light – the iconic lighthouse

Located in Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth, Portland Head Light is the oldest, most popular and iconic lighthouse of Maine. It’s the lighthouse you see in all the ads of Maine. This lighthouse was commissioned by George Washington in the 1770s to warn citizens of incoming British attacks.

Portland Head Light attracts a lot of visitors daily, but thankfully the Fort Williams grounds are large with multiple parking lots available (see map). Parking is $5 for 2 hours, paid through a machine. From the parking lot, it’s a short 2-3 minute walk to the lighthouse. You can also book a trolley tour from Portland to get here instead of driving yourself.

Short walk to the lighthouse from the parking lot

Here’s an overview map that shows where the parking lots are, the cliff walk (highlighted in orange), the view points, Portland Head Light, and the popular Bite Into Maine food truck.

Map edited from: https://www.mainetrailfinder.com/trails/trail/fort-williams-park-cliff-walk

When you reach the lighthouse, you’ll see that it’s made up of the lighthouse tower itself, the keeper’s house beside the tower, and another small building beside it that’s the gift shop. The lighthouse tower is only open one day a year, on Maine Open Lighthouse Day where lighthouse towers across the state are open to the public. More information here: https://lighthousefoundation.org/maine-open-lighthouse-day/. The keeper’s house is a museum with more information of this historic landmark. Entry into the museum is $2.

Just before you reach the lighthouse, you’ll see some signs that point towards a Cliff Walk where you can follow the coast and enjoy views of the lighthouse and the rocky coast from different view points (see map).

We only had time to do the start of the Cliff Walk to snap some photos of the lighthouse from the side.

It was a SUPER windy day!

As you can see from the map below, there are multiple walks you can around Fort Williams Park, but the most popular is the Cliff Walk.

The walking paths at Fort Williams Park – the Cliff Walk is the most popular. Flip this map 90˚ to match the satellite map above.

Bite Into Maine 🍴 (food truck within Fort Williams)

Address: 1000 Shore Rd, Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107

Bite Into Maine is a VERY popular food truck that is parked near Portland Head Light, beside one of the parking lots (I’ve circled it on the map above). This place was featured on an episode of ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ where he highlighted the curry lobster roll and the picnic style lobster roll (drenched in butter 🤤). When we drove past it looking for parking, there was a HUGE line of people around the truck. Unfortunately due to our tight schedule and the fact that I had no idea the line would be so long, we didn’t have time to wait.🙁 The menu looked pretty good. 💔

Lobster Shack at Two Lights 🍴

Address: 225 Two Lights Rd, Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107

At the Southern end of Cape Elizabeth lies Two Lights State Park. This coastal park offers views of the ocean with a rocky waterfront terrain. The most popular part of the park is the Lobster Shack, which is a seafood restaurant located right beside the waters with views of the rocky beach from their abundant red picnic tables.

There’s free parking available here and plenty of seating, but it definitely gets busy. We arrived around 12:40pm and luckily we caught a gap in the lunch rush and only had 1 person in line ahead of us. By the time we finished ordering, there were at least 15 people lining up out the door.

The Lobster Shack is known for their lobster roll, fried clams, and clam chowder – of course we ordered all 3. The lobster roll was fresh and generous with the lobster meat, but at the end of the day it was still just lobster and mayonnaise – good, but nothing too special from other lobster rolls. The clam chowder was average, but the fried clams were great (get the medium size, they really pack it on). It was our first time trying fried clams and we surprisingly liked it way more than we expected!

Apart from the food, the main attraction of this place is the location with a view of the beautiful calm coast right beside you. The seafood is just a bonus!

Some Final Thoughts:

  • Prepare to wait in line if you want to dine at Bite Into Maine food truck.
  • Start your day hungry so you have space to try out both lobster places.
  • Bug light is super cute.

Discover Acadia National Park: Your Guide to Mount Desert Island


Acadia National Park is the “Crown Jewel” of the North Atlantic Coast providing breathtaking coastal views, mountainous hikes, scenic drives, beaches, and a town with no shortage of restaurants. This national park is a must-do in Maine!

Hiking Acadia’s Beehive Trail: A Complete Overview


The Beehive Trail in Acadia National Park is one of the most popular hiking trails known for its stunning panoramic views and challenging vertical climbs. This guide has all the information you need to tackle this trail.

Exploring Cape Elizabeth: Iconic Lighthouses and Lobster Rolls


Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is a serene coastal town featuring iconic lighthouses, including the famous Portland Head Light and the nearby smaller Bug Light. Visitors can explore both lighthouses and enjoy renowned lobster rolls at local spots like Bite Into Maine and the Lobster Shack at Two Lights, all in half a day.

Top Things to Do in Portland, Maine: Eat, Shop, Explore


Portland, Maine, is a charming coastal city known for its vibrant shops and seafood, particularly lobster rolls. Visitors can enjoy its historic streets, numerous dining options, and attractions, including the iconic Portland Head Light. A few hours is sufficient for a quick visit, but extending to a few days allows for deeper exploration.

Mount Battie and Megunticook: Your Camden Hiking Guide


Camden Hills State Park sits just outside the small coastal town of Camden, Maine. This park has a number of hiking trails with the most popular ones being Mount Battie and Mount Megunticook. Both of these trails offer panoramic views of the ocean coast and sweeping colourful fall foliage trees below. If you’re driving through the…

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Top Things to Do in Portland, Maine: Eat, Shop, Explore


Date Published: Oct 22nd, 2024 | Last Updated: April 22nd, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: Aug 5th, 2025

Portland is the largest city in Maine, full of cool shops and endless lobster rolls. Spend an afternoon here walking through the old streets, sample the abundant seafood, and take a tour around town.

Fun fact: Although Portland is the largest city in Maine, the capitol is actually Augusta!

Contents:

  1. How long do I need in Portland, Maine?
  2. Where do I park?
  3. What to do in Portland: Shop, Eat, and Explore!
    1. 1) Shop
      1. Commercial Street
      2. Exchange Street
    2. 2) Eat
      1. Portland Lobster Co.
      2. Luke’s Lobster
      3. Highroller Lobster Co.
      4. Duckfat
      5. The Holy Donut 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️
    3. 3) Explore
  4. Some final thoughts
  5. Need more travel recommendations for Maine? Check out these other places!

We originally did this trip in August 2024 on our way up from New York to Rockland for the lobster festival (you can read about the lobster festival here). We stopped by Portland on our way home and spent the afternoon here walking through the streets and perusing through the variety shops ranging from cool hipster vibes to fancy boutiques. There’s a LOT of restaurants here, not just seafood. Sadly, due to our short time here and limited stomach capacity, we were only able to hit up a few places, but the next time we come back I’ll definitely be crossing more off my list!

Below is a map of downtown Portland divided into 4 regions: the arts district, government district, old port district, and waterfront district. The majority of the shops and restaurants are in the old port district (in red).

https://www.portlandmaine.com (image edited)

How long do I need in Portland, Maine?

You really only need a few hours to explore downtown Portland. Even though it’s Maine’s largest city, it’s not actually that big. It’ll take you about 20-30 minutes to walk up and down the main street of Old Port (Commercial Street) and Exchange Street, then add in a couple extra hours for shopping and eating. There are a couple of museums and points of interest you can hit up as well to fill out the day and some microbreweries to check out in the evening. We didn’t have time to do these, but I’ll include it below.

There are also harbour cruises and island-hopping ferries you can take as well to explore more outside of Portland. Therefore, if you want to just do the city itself, an afternoon will be enough (or stay longer so you can fit in more meals in a day 😜) but you can easily stretch it out to 3-4 days if you want to take it slow. Portland is a nice place to be.

Also, Cape Elizabeth is 15 minutes south of Portland and is home to Maine’s oldest and most iconic lighthouse: Portland Head Light. I’d recommend spending a couple hours here as well to check it out, do the cliff walk, and also have a look at Bug Light (the cutest smallest lighthouse I’ve ever seen). There’s also more seafood options here in case you haven’t gotten your fill of lobster rolls yet.

Where do I park?

Your best bet is to park in a city-operated parking garage in Portland. The rates are reasonable and some of them are very central and within short walking-distance to the centre of downtown Portland.

Here is a list of city-operated parking garages with the parking rates: https://www.portlandmaine.gov/296/Parking. I’ve made a map of the most central city-run parking garages below along with the most popular eateries and walking streets to give you an idea of the best location to be.

We parked in the Elm Street garage, which was $28 max per day and $4 per hour. It was easy to get to and pretty central, only a short walk to Exchange street which leads right to the harbour. We found this rate pretty reasonable (especially coming from NYC), but there are cheaper lots further away that have $15 all day parking (check the website).

Some people also say there’s free unrestricted parking on Somerset Street by the Whole Foods but we didn’t investigate this because it was too far for us to want to walk (it was also a really hot day).

I’d avoid parking in private lots since it can get crazy expensive (some up to $40-50 per day). You can also do street parking which is about $2.50-$3.00/hour, but it fills up quick and most streets have 2 hour restrictions.

Map of downtown Portland highlighting the closest parking garages and the most popular eateries. The highlighted yellow streets are the most popular for shopping.

What to do in Portland: Shop, Eat, and Explore!

We only had an afternoon here and from my research on Portland, we’ve hit up the most popular places. We do plan to come back again in the near future and explore some more, so I’ll be updating this post when we do – keep watching this space!

Some sights around downtown Portland

1) Shop

Commercial Street

Walk along Commercial Street and you’ll find many cute boutique and souvenir/gift shops lined up one after another. This street is right by the harbour and is one of the busiest touristy streets for shopping. It’s highlighted in the map above.

Exchange Street

Exchange Street is another street full of shops. This street is more tucked away compared to Commercial Street but I found the shops here to be a lot more interesting with a cool hipster vibe. There’s restaurants along this street as well with some nice coffee shops. I found this street to have more character compared to the more tourist-y Commercial Street. This street is also highlighted in the map above.

2) Eat

When in Maine…eat Lobster Rolls! There is no doubt an abundance of seafood in Maine and we had nothing but seafood on our brains so that’s what we focused on, but there were tons of other non-seafood restaurants that looked amazing as we walked by. In my research, the consensus for the top 3 places for lobster rolls were: Luke’s Lobster, Highroller, and Portland Lobster Company.

Portland Lobster Co.

Address: 180 Commercial St, Portland, ME 04101

Portland Seafood Co is a small shop on the harbour with limited seating inside the restaurant, but there’s a huge open back patio by the water where you can easily grab a seat. We went right when they opened and there were already a few people there. They have a decent sized menu and the prices were fair. They’re well known for their lobster rolls, but Toby really wanted to try the Lobster BLT since we had never seen it before – it was REALLY good and they were generous with the lobster meat. I had a classic steamed lobster. Unfortunately I had a bad time with gastro from an earlier donut shop (more on that later) so I couldn’t fully enjoy the extent of the meal, but from the bites I had, it was delicious. Toby was more than happy to help me finish my lobster.

Luke’s Lobster

Address: 60 Portland Pier, Portland, ME 04101

Everyone was going to Luke’s or talking about Luke’s. It’s probably the most popular lobster roll spot in Portland and it’s also situated right on the water. We didn’t end up coming here because we’ve had Luke’s in NYC (it is indeed damn good) and wanted to try something new. If you’ve never had Luke’s before, I’d highly recommend coming here.

Highroller Lobster Co.

Address: 104 Exchange St, Portland, ME 04101

Highroller Lobster Co. had really cool vibes and it was super busy. We needed to get on the road and we were still full from Portland Lobster Co. so we decided to grab takeout instead of sitting down in the restaurant. The takeout menu was much smaller, but we were mainly here to try out their lobster roll anyway so we didn’t mind (although there were some amazing looking dishes on the full menu – I’ve included photos of both the dine-in and the takeaway menu). We ordered two 2oz lobster rolls that was $17 each. Super pricy and it was also SUPER TINY 💔. The bread was good and it was a decent lobster roll, but for the long time we had to wait and the small portion, it wasn’t THAT good. Next time maybe we’ll go for dine-in and get more variety.

Duckfat

Address: 43 Middle St, Portland, ME 04101

Not seafood, but I thought I’d include it due to the sheer popularity of this place and how every single travel blog mentions it. This place was even featured on an episode of ‘Somebody Feed Phil’. Duckfat is known for their Belgian-style french fries that are cooked in, you guessed it, duck fat! Their poutine is the go-to most popular item. Unfortunately we did not get to try this place because when we arrived, the line was super long and it would’ve been at least an hour wait. We were still full from all the lobster rolls anyway and we also still had a 7 hour drive ahead of us, so we didn’t wait. They don’t take reservations, it’s walk-in only, but you can pre-order and have it as takeaway – something we didn’t realize until we got there.

They do have a second location that only does takeaway called Duckfat Frites Shack (43 Washington Ave, Portland, ME 04101) that may have faster service. It’s another 10 min walk that we didn’t take because by then we would’ve been too far from our car. Womp womp.

Duckfat
The Holy Donut 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️

Address: 177 Commercial St, Portland, ME 04101 (there are 3 locations in Portland, but this is the most central)

I don’t get it. I honestly don’t.

The Holy Donut is a donut shop that specializes in potato-based doughnuts. Their google reviews are off the charts. Every single travel blog says to come here and they say to come here first thing in the morning before they run out and have these doughnuts for breakfast. So we did. They open at 7am and we arrived just after 9am and there was a line of about 10 people in front of us, but the line went quick. We ordered 3 donuts (at $4.50 – $5 each): the blueberry glaze (most highly recommended), the blueberry lemon, and maple bacon. There was nowhere to sit so we ate it outside.

I was so excited to try these. After having a bite of each one… I was disappointed. I don’t get the hype. The potato-based doughnut made it really dense like a heavy cake and I felt like there was too much cake to the topping ratio so you get a small amount of flavour, then the rest of the time you have a mouthful of dry dense cake. Toby liked it, but he likes dense cake.

The aftermath was what made me curse this place. We hadn’t eaten anything apart from these donuts that morning (and I only ate a total of 2/3 of a donut to save room for lunch) but I started to have the worst acid reflux I’ve ever had (and I’m not a person that gets reflux issues!). Maybe it’s the empty stomach or the dense carbs in the donut, but after 40 mins of walking, I was sweating up a storm and vomited up acidic fluid multiple times (so glad I was able to find a restroom in time). Not appetizing, I know, but this messed up my stomach for the rest of the day which was quite upsetting because I was ramped up for more lobster meals in Portland. Never again shall I come here.

But, as much as I dislike this place, there are many more that love this place so I’ve included it in this post so you can make the judgement yourself. If you do go, I’d recommend not being on an empty stomach and bring some Tums or Pepto just in case. We struggled to find a pharmacy within walking distance.

3) Explore

We pretty much just ate and walked around town looking into the shops during our afternoon in Portland. Due to the donut incident, my stomach bothered me for the rest of the day so we didn’t do much else, but here’s a list of things I found that seemed cool for our trip next time:

Some final thoughts

  • I don’t get the hype with Holy Donuts.
  • Portland is a cute town with tons of boutiques and cool shops.
  • You only need a day to explore the city, but if you want to add on island-hopping, boat cruises, and museums, you can easily spend at least 2-3 days here.
  • Try all the lobster rolls!

If you’ve been to Portland before, I’d love to hear about your favourite places or other places you’d recommend!

Abby2 Comments

Mount Battie and Megunticook: Your Camden Hiking Guide


Date Published: Oct 21st, 2024 | Last Updated: Oct 21st, 2024
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: Oct 12th, 2024

Camden Hills State Park sits just outside the small coastal town of Camden, Maine. This park has a number of hiking trails with the most popular ones being Mount Battie and Mount Megunticook. Both of these trails offer panoramic views of the ocean coast and sweeping colourful fall foliage trees below. If you’re driving through the area, these hikes are definitely worth making a stop for!

Contents:

  1. Camden, Maine
  2. Camden Hills State Park
  3. Mount Battie Trail
    1. Driving to the summit
    2. Hiking to the summit
  4. Mount Megunticook/Ocean Lookout (via Tablelands Trail)
  5. Some final thoughts
  6. Need more travel recommendations for Maine? Check out these other places!

Location: Camden Hills State Park, Camden, Maine
Park opening hours: Open daily, 9am until sunset (some roads may be closed due to weather conditions, check the park website for more information.
Park website: https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/trail_activities/camden_trail_conditions.shtml
Park fees: $6.00 per adult ($4 for Maine residents), collected at the park entrance toll booth

Camden, Maine

Camden is a cute small coastal town roughly 1 hour 45mins north of Portland, ME. I came across Camden Hills State Park while doing my research for the best hikes in Maine, and the town of Camden sits just outside of the park. Exploring this town wasn’t on my itinerary at all and we were on a bit of a time crunch due to driving 7 hours from Brooklyn that morning. However, we had forgotten to stock up on water before we left home so we stopped in a local grocery store to pick up a couple jugs before hitting the trails. Once we drove into town, we realized how quaint this place is and instantly regretted not allowing more time for us to explore this town. If you’ve got the time, I’d definitely recommending setting aside a few hours (or stay overnight) to explore Camden.

Downtown Camden (it looks cooler in person but we didn’t have time to explore the town properly so this was a quick snap from our parking spot)

Camden Hills State Park

Located just outside of the town of Camden, there are multiple trails to follow at Camden Hills State Park. The two most popular are Mount Battie and Mount Megunticook for the their panoramic views of the town below. I’ve also included the Maiden Cliffs Trail on the map as well since it came up frequently in my research, but it didn’t look as scenic as the other two trails and we wouldn’t have had time to complete the trail before sun down anyway. Perhaps next time. More info on the Maiden Cliffs Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/maiden-cliff-trail.

One thing about the park that I did find disappointing is their lack of signage at the start of the trails. For a park that collects a fee, I was expecting it to be more organized. I’d recommending downloading or screenshotting a park map before you go.

You can find the full park map on the park website here. I’ve highlighted the three trails in this image below to make it a little more clear on the path of these hikes since there are a few intersecting trails. Each hike starts at their own parking lot.

Highlighted map of the 3 most popular trails

You can also connect all 3 hikes together in a loop and start at the Camden Hills State Park Campground, but it will take about 5 hours to complete, covering 13.8km (8.5mi). I’ve hightlighted that trail in green below. Here’s more info on this hike if you’re game: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/mount-megunticook-maiden-cliff-and-mount-battie-loop

Mount Battie Trail

Mount Battie summit is the most popular summit in Camden Hills State Park because you can drive right up to the summit and enjoy the views without any effort, which is exactly what we did to save time in our packed schedule.

Length: 1.8km
Elevation Gain: 180m
Trail type: Out & back
Difficulty/Terrain: Moderate, rock scrambling and can be slippery
Estimated duration: 2 hours total
Starting point: Trail head is in downtown Camden on Megunticook Street (57 Megunticook St, Camden, ME 04843)
Things to bring: water bottle, sunscreen & hat (most of the trail is shaded with exposure at the top), good hiking shoes, tick/insect repellent depending on season, screenshot of the trail map
More Trail info: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/mount-battie-trail
Driving option?: Yes! Set the maps to “Camden Hills State Park” (280 Belfast Rd, Camden, ME 04843) and there will be an entry with a manned toll booth. Hours are 9am until sunset, daily.

Driving to the summit:

To drive to the summit, set the maps to Camden Hills State Park (280 Belfast Rd, Camden, ME 04843). Do not set it to Mount Battie like we did because it will take you to a closed entrance with a sign that redirects you to the correct place. Once you reach the state park entrance, there will be a small manned toll booth to get on the auto toll road (Mount Battie Road). It’s $6 per person ($4 if you’re a Maine resident). Pay attention to the gate closure time on the way in. They close the gate at sunset every day, so make sure you’re back down the mountain before then!

It was about a 10 minute drive to the top of Mount Battie with enough parking for about 30-ish cars. We arrived around 4pm and didn’t have any trouble finding parking. There’s no sign that says you’ve arrived, so when you’re at the top where the road ends and there are a bunch of other cars, you know you’re in the right spot. The views are only a few steps from the parking lot and you’re instantly rewarded with a beautiful panoramic view of the trees and the town of Camden below. There’s also a small tower that’s a WWII memorial that you can go inside, but when we were there it was under construction.

The drive up the toll road to the top of Mount Battie
Parking at Mount Battie

You really only need a couple minutes here, but it’s so lovely that you may want to spend longer just sitting and enjoying the views.

WWII memorial tower under construction
View of Camden town from Mount Battie Summit
Coastal views of Maine from Mount Battie Summit
Mount Battie Summit

Hiking to the summit:

If you want to hike to the summit of Mount Battie, the trailhead starts in downtown Camden on Megunticook Street (maps to 57 Megunticook St, Camden, ME 04843). Although it’s only 1.8km, it’s a pretty steep ascent with scrambling rocks. If it has rained recently, it can get pretty slippery especially if there are leaves on the ground. Make sure you have a pair of decent hiking shoes with good traction! We drove and didn’t do the hike ourselves, but there are plenty of information and reviews on this trail on Alltrails.

Also an added bonus of doing the hike: because you’ll be parking in downtown Camden rather than driving up the auto toll road, you can avoid the park fees (however I’m not sure if there’s a fee to park in downtown Camden).

There is also an alternate route of hiking from the Camden Hills State Park Campground (where the toll road starts), however it will be a longer hike compared to starting in downtown, but less steep.

Mount Megunticook/Ocean Lookout (via Tablelands Trail)

Mount Megunticook is the highest peak in Camden Hills State Park. The hike is just over 4km and the average estimated time to complete this out and back loop is 1 hour 38mins. We arrived at Camden much later than expected and although we were lucky enough to unintentionally catch the sunset at the lookout point, we sadly had to hike back down in the dark scrambling through rocks and sliding on leaves which made it a 2 hour round trip hike for us. If you plan to catch the sunset here, make sure you bring a headlamp and definitely have a decent pair of hiking shoes with good traction to prepare for hiking back down in the dark. Hiking sticks won’t hurt either to help with balance getting back down the mountain over the uneven rocks.

Length: 4.3km
Elevation Gain: 250m
Trail type: Out & back
Difficulty/Terrain: moderate, lots of annoying rock scrambling and tree roots, can be slippery esp if wet
Estimated duration: 1 hour 38mins (we took a full 2 hours due to hiking back in the dark)
Starting point: Tablelands parking lot (the one right before the Mount Battie parking lot)
Things to bring: water bottle, sunscreen & hat (most of the trail is shaded with exposure at the top), good hiking shoes, tick/insect repellent depending on season, screenshot of the trail map
Could my mom do this?: with difficulty, lots of rocks to scramble and can be slippery
Driving option?: No
More Trail info: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/tablelands-trail

Note: Although we are hiking Mount Megunticook, the views are at Ocean Lookout, not the actual summit. Therefore you can end your hike once you reach the views, but if you want to get to the summit, it’s an extra 500m (0.3mi) walk and you will be met by a pile of rocks with a sign that indicates you’re at the summit. There are no views here, you’re amongst the trees – wasn’t worth the extra walk to us. I’ve marked the summit walk on the map in purple to give you an idea of where the summit is.

Yellow: Mount Battie drive from the park entrance; Red: Tablelands Trail to Mount Megunticook; Purple: small trail to the summit

There are multiple trails you can take that will lead you to Ocean Lookout, but the fastest and most direct one is via the Tablelands Track (highlighted in red on the map). You will start at the Tablelands parking lot (there’s not much signage here so it’s easy to miss – it’s the next parking lot from the Mount Battie lot). There’s enough parking for about 10 cars, we arrived at 4:30pm and there were only 2 other cars here.

Parking lot at the Tablelands Trail head

At the trail head, you’ll see a small wooden sign that says Tablelands Trail along with a small laminated inkjet printed paper map that has seen better days stuck to the post of the trail. It was disappointing that there wasn’t a larger map available and there were also no signs that pointed towards Mount Megunticook. At the time I didn’t know that the trail to Mount Megunticook was called Tablelands Trail, so we spent a good couple minutes squinting at the tiny paper map to figure out that we were on the right path. If you’re doing this hike, I highly suggest you either bring a map or a screenshot of the map and remember the trail names so you don’t get lost. You want to start at the Tablelands Trail –> Ridge Trail to Ocean Lookout. There is still wooden signage along the way, but the printed maps seemed to get more worn and illegible as the trail continues. There are blue and red trail markers along the way to follow.

The entire hike is mainly shaded amongst the trees and opens up when you reach the views at Ocean Lookout. It starts off relatively flat for the first 10 minutes, then gets increasingly more steep with large rocks and boulders to hop/climb over. The ascent isn’t sharp but it is constant uphill near the second half of the hike.

Relatively flat at the start

I’ll be honest and say that the hike itself wasn’t too enjoyable for me because most of it was on uneven ground with rocks and tree roots everywhere that were also partially buried by fallen leaves so we really had to watch our step. Rather than enjoying the hike, I was constantly watching the ground so I don’t trip or step on an uneven rock. I would highly recommend wearing a good pair of hiking shoes with ankle stability for this hike.

Stepping over rocks and half buried tree roots
Some red marker signs along the way as you ascend
There are also blue markers as well (which made it a little confusing, but just keep following red)
Never ending rocks to climb
Lots and lots of tree roots – gets a little slippery on the way down

However, as annoying as the terrain was, the view was definitely worth it. We finally reached Ocean Lookout after about an hour of hiking. It was beautiful! The views of the orange and red fall foliage below us and the extending coastline in front of us in the distance. The pictures just don’t do it justice. We would’ve stayed here longer to take in the views if we had more time, but the sun was starting to set and we were frantically trying to not hike down the mountain in the dark.

Nearly there
The view at Ocean Lookout!
We did it!
We did it!

We took a few photos and continued to follow signs to the summit, hoping for even better views (although they’d be hard to beat). The summit was another 0.3 miles away. It took us 15 minutes and disappointingly, it was just a pile rocks that marks the summit. No views, nothing. Buried amongst trees. Bah! This was extra time we could’ve used to get down the mountain before dark. </3

The sign to the summit
Mt Megunticook Summit – no views here

As we hiked back down towards the car, the sun was setting. When we reached Oceans Lookout again, we had unintentionally arrived exactly at sunset. The orangey/pink colours of the sky over the coastline was mesmerizing. I wanted to stay longer, but it was getting increasingly dark.

Sunset at Ocean Lookout

We tried as best as we could to get back to the car before the dark but we failed. It was a really annoying hike back. All the steep steps and boulders with slippery dry leaves that we dodged going up became hidden in the dark and we had to take our time being careful with our foot placement over the downhill descent of uneven rocks. It took us another hour to get back to the car even though we were going down hill. If you’re going to do this, bring a headlamp and maybe some hiking sticks for stability. It was 6:30pm by the time we reached the car and got down the mountain before the gate closed at 7pm. After this strenuous hike, we went to Claws in Rockland for dinner (our favourite lobster restaurant) then headed to our BnB for the night near Acadia.

Some final thoughts:

  • I’d recommend driving up to Mount Battie and paying the toll rather than hiking up.
  • Save your energy to hike Mount Megunticook for the views at Ocean Lookout.
  • Don’t bother hiking the extra bit to the summit of Mount Megunticook – it’s a bunch of rocks.
  • The signage at this park sucks. Bring a map or screenshot one on your phone.
  • Have good shoes with ankle support.
  • There’s always time for a lobster dinner.

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Maine Lobster Festival & Rockland, ME


Lobster Festival

Date Published: Oct 7th, 2024 | Last Updated: April 22nd, 2025
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: Aug 3rd – 5th, 2024

Contents:

  1. Lobster Festival
  2. How many days do I need?
  3. Where to stay
  4. Where to park
  5. Rockland
  6. Final Thoughts on the Maine Lobster Festival & Rockland:
  7. Need more travel recommendations for Maine? Check out these other places!

How many days do I need?

One. The lobster festival was a lot smaller than we had expected. It only took us about half an hour to walk through everything + an extra half hour to eat. The town of Rockland is also quite small with a few cute boutique shops. It takes about 15 minutes to walk from one end of the main street to the other. You could do both the festival and walk through the town all in one morning.

If you’re planning a weekend getaway, I’d recommend spending a day in Portland, the largest city in Maine and it’s only 1.5 hours away.

Lobster Festival info: https://mainelobsterfestival.com/

Cost: Free admission

I’m a BIG seafood lover and of course 99% of the time you hear about American lobsters, they’re from Maine. So of course when I found out that there is a lobster festival held in Maine once a year, we just had to go! This will also be our first time in the state of Maine.

Side note: Since moving to NYC, we’ve noticed that the most popular way to eat lobster meat (and most easily available) is in a lobster roll. Served either warm doused in butter or cold mixed with mayonnaise, you can’t go wrong with either option. During our travels around the Australian coast, we’ve had our fair share of lobsters (they have the ‘rock lobster’ species there) but lobster rolls are not a common food item you’d find anywhere in seafood restaurants. They’re usually served either steamed with a side of butter or ‘lobster mornay’, covered in a cream sauce and baked with a layer of cheese on top. My best guess of why lobster rolls aren’t common in Australia is because rock lobsters in Australia don’t have the big claws that American lobsters do and the claw meat is most often used in a lobster roll. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Whatever the reason, we’re so happy to have lobster rolls so accessible in this part of the country and one of our hopes for this trip to eat delicious, fresh, (and hopefully cheaper lobster meals) – what better place than Maine, the lobster capital!

The lobster festival is held annually in Rockland, Maine, a small town 1.5 hours North of Portland (the largest city in Maine). I was actually surprised it wasn’t held in Portland, considering Maine is the lobster capital of the country.

We left Brooklyn on a Saturday morning and drove 7.5 hours to reach Rockland. As we drove up the coast towards Maine, we passed by plenty of restaurants advertising their lobster rolls, some with huge lines out the door – there is definitely no shortage of lobster in this part of the country!

We drove past this place that claims to have the record for the longest lobster roll!

We arrived in Rockland around 4pm and after checking in to our hotel, we headed straight to the festival for some long-awaited seafood.

Where to stay:

Rockland is a small town so hotel options can be limited, so I’d recommend booking early. I had originally booked a room 6 months early at a hotel right in front of the lobster festival, but a few weeks before the festival they messaged us to say that they were still undergoing renovations and had to cancel our booking. It was annoying, but luckily managed to get a room at Glen Cove Inn & Suites Rockport, 7 minutes drive away from Rockland. It wasn’t anything fancy and it was a bit weird that our room was right beside the swimming pool, but apart from that our stay was fine.

Where to park:

The lobster festival offered free parking at a school parking lot with shuttle busses every 20mins, but since it was later in the day, we tried our luck and found a spot on the street for free right across from the festival. We did this again the next morning when it was much busier and again got lucky with free street parking. Therefore, if you’ve got the time, I’d recommend driving around before heading straight to the school lot.

Rockland is a very small but cute town with lovely boutique shops and cafes on their Main Street that were unfortunately all closed when we arrived on a Saturday night, but no matter, our eyes were targeted for the Lobster Festival that was held at the waterfront!

I expected a HUGE festival with tons of lobster area in a bustling town, but it wasn’t quite that. The size of the Maine Lobster Festival was a lot smaller than expected, with maybe about 30-40 vendors.

First views of the festival from the entrance

There are various events throughout the day including lobster trap racing, live music, and tours of a real Navy destroyer – see the schedule of events on their website for more info.

Everyone gathering around to watch the lobster trap race
It’s crazy how well some of these kids do!
Big turn out to watch the race

Our main goal for this trip was to eat some good lobster, but sadly there wasn’t nearly as much lobster as I was hoping for. I was expecting food vendors everywhere with all kinds of different ways to showcase lobster, but I was disappointed to find that the only place to get fresh lobster at the festival was at the main food tent run by the festival. It was a cafeteria/Ikea-style set up where you go to different stations and pick up what you want onto your tray then check out at the cashier. It wasn’t anything fancy, but I’ll admit it was a pretty efficient system and the people serving were so lovely.

The path leading up to the food tent
The menu available
Cafeteria-style service. Everyone was really lovely!
So many cooked lobsters!
The food tent

The main seafood items on offer in the food tent were a full steamed lobster, mussels, native clams/steamers, chowders, lobster bisque, lobster mac & cheese, and some desserts.

We got a bit of everything! Native clams/steamers, clam chowder, lobster bisque, mussels, and lobsters x 2!
Suited up and ready!

Seeing as how this was the only place to get food in the festival, we ordered a bit of everything: 2 steamed whole lobsters, native clams, mussels, lobster bisque, and clam chowder ($111, tax included). I’m going to be super honest here: apart from the steamed lobster and the sweet corn on the cob that came with it, everything else was a let down. The flavour of the mussels weren’t bad (white wine broth with some veg), but the mussels itself were sandy as hell and the actual mussels were quite small. Neither of us have had native clams before and unfortunately we couldn’t even get past 2 of them, and I hate wasting food. The lobster bisque tasted like it came from a can but the clam chowder was actually good – however, as we walked past the stand, we saw them open up multiple plastic bags of the soup into the warming pot so it also wasn’t made fresh. 😦

Toby also got a $30 lobster roll and it was the tiniest thing. It lacked seasoning and he finished in 3 bites. It was sad to say that we came all this way for our first lobster roll at the Maine Lobster Festival but the ones in NYC are cheaper, larger, and tastier 💔.

$30
The tiniest lobster roll!

However, the highlight for me was the steamed lobster. It was so fresh and sweet but also on the salty side – perhaps they over salted the water when cooking or didn’t replace the water in between batches so the salty sea water made it salty? Not sure. Either way, despite the salt, I thought it was still good and there was tons of butter available for dipping. The placemat had instructions how to break down a lobster and by the end of the weekend, Toby was a pro 😎. The corn on the cob that came with it was also great – but then again, I really like corn. 😬

The food tent was right next to the water for some beautiful views while you eat.

After eating, we walked through the rest of the festival grounds which was mainly tents of local-made goods and a handful of food trucks that sadly didn’t really serve lobster-related things.

Although it was a small festival, there was no shortage of fantastic live music – there were performers in the food tent, beer tent and also on the main stage. Julia Gagnon (an American idol contestant) performed on the main stage the next morning and blew everyone away – what a voice!

The entire festival took us about half an hour to walk through everything + an extra half hour of eating time, then we then sat and listened to the live music while enjoying our giant lemonade and delicious fried dough from a food truck for dessert.

Overall it was a cute little festival with good lobster, however I’m not sure it was worth the 7.5 hour drive just for this festival. If we lived closer to the area, I’d come by again just to check out the live music scene and a walk-around.

Rockland

When we arrived in the evening the day before, everything in the little town was closed so there wasn’t much to see. The next morning we took another stroll through town and sadly about 1/3 of the stores were still closed, including some really cute cafes and bakeries that I was eyeing the day before – perhaps because it was a Sunday, but I had hoped that they’d have adjusted hours due to the increased tourism from the festival 🤷🏻‍♀️. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from one end of the main street to the other, with some extra added time for stopping in cute little boutique shops.

Due to the disappointment of the seafood at the festival the day before, we decided to find a nice restaurant for lunch in hopes of a better seafood meal in Maine. After a little Googling and reading through online reviews, we decided on Hillside Seafood Company. This restaurant was right in front of the Lobster Festival with views of the waters and the reviews were good. It was decently busy when we arrived so I was excited for a good meal. Sadly when we sat down outside to enjoy the views, a big ass tour bus parked right in front of the restaurant and blocked the entire waterfront view for everyone. This was a prelude to what was to come. We ordered a mix of items people raved about in the reviews as well as what the waitress had recommended: lobster stew, lobster pie, crab cakes, and broiled haddock with crab topping. I wish I could tell you that this was a redemption meal for Rockland seafood, but it was really bad, y’all. The $30 lobster “stew” was essentially warmed milk with lobster meat (although they were quite generous with the lobster meat portion), the $42 lobster “pie” was lobster meat and breadcrumbs with old bay seasoning on top (again, very generous with the lobster portion), the flavour of the crab cake wasn’t bad but it wasn’t crispy like a traditional crab cake – the texture was more like a dense pancake with old bay seasoning, and finally the most disappointing and the most recommended by reviews and the waitress was the $24 broiled haddock with crab topping. The crab topping was an extra $3 and it tasted just like the breadcrumbs in the lobster pie (but somehow worse) and the haddock was super dry. Overall it was about $130 for the meal and it was pure disappointment. I wish we had just went back to the festival for the steamed lobster instead. 💔💔💔 /rant

Lobster stew
Lots of lobster though
Crab cake
Lobster pie
Which was just lobster + breadcrumbs
Broiled haddock (they forgot the crab topping and added it on later)
The tour bus that blocked the waterfront views </3

Claws – so good that it deserves its own heading!

Claws is a Rockland restaurant that we drove past multiple times between the Lobster Festival and our hotel. Each time we drove past there was a huge line. We decided to give it a go for our final meal in this town, and I’m so glad we did! This was the redemption meal.

We came at 4pm and luckily there was barely anyone in line!

Claws was exactly what we were looking for and wish we had all of our meals here from day one. They get all their seafood fresh from the boats daily and they’re served with unique flavours, tons of options, and also very reasonably priced!

For reference, a 1 1/4 lb lobster at the festival was $32 and $41 in Portland, but only $28 here. For 2+ lbs, it’s only $38 and some of these big boys that came out of the kitchen were HUGE!

We got there around 4pm and luckily there was only 1 person in line (by the time we left, the line was super long again). We ordered at the counter then took a seat on their beautiful patio that opens up to the waters. If it weren’t for how busy they get, it’d actually be quite a peaceful place to be with views of the open still waters.

We ordered the lobster donut (essentially lobster with a cheese sauce inside a sweet bun and topped with syrup – a savoury sweet combination – it was SO GOOD), the famous award-winning clam chowder (can confirm, probably the best we’ve ever had!), and a lobster roll with old bay honey butter sauce (I thought the sauce was amazing, but Toby thought it was overpowering and preferred a plain lobster roll instead). I wish we were hungrier so we could’ve ordered more, but we were sadly still so full from the disappointing lunch at Hillside because I hate wasting food 🙁.

Lobster donut
Award-winning clam chowder
Lobster roll with old bay honey butter sauce

We had a great time here and moved from our table to the water-side seats when they were free and just drank our blueberry lemonade and chatted the evening away. As it got closer to dinner time, it got REALLY busy with tons of people standing around waiting for a seat to open up. I’d recommend going early or grabbing a table first before ordering because it gets packed – and for good reason!

You can’t tell, but there are about 20 people lining up by the time we left

Edit: We came back here again Oct 2024 and it was still as amazing as ever. This time we saved room to get the lobster. *chef kiss*. It was a lot more chilly this time. There were some heaters going, but it was still pretty cold, so rug up if you’re coming here later in the season!

Final Thoughts on the Maine Lobster Festival & Rockland:

1) The Lobster Festival was smaller than expected but had great live music. The food was subpar and for the size of the festival, we didn’t feel like it was worth the 7.5 hour drive to come here, but if you live nearby, it’s definitely a neat and lively festival to check out.

2) I have no idea why Hillside Seafood Company restaurant is so popular.

3) You MUST go to Claws. I’d come back to Rockland just for Claws. I’d make a detour just for Claws. I’d come here everyday if I lived in the area.

4) You can do everything in 1 day. Even half a day. We originally planned to stay 3 nights here, but checked out early because there wasn’t much else to do, so we headed to Portland.

* One thing we didn’t get to try was ‘Wasses Hotdog’ because we didn’t have the stomach space and this weekend was focused on seafood, however this palce had great reviews and there were often many people lining out the door for it. Maybe next time!

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