Hiking Acadia’s Beehive Trail: A Complete Overview


Date Published: Nov 3rd, 2024 | Last Updated: Nov 3rd, 2024
Author: Abby | Category: Travel, USA
Date of travel: Oct 13th, 2024

If you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s a post of an overview of Acadia National Park if you need more info about where to stay, where to eat, getting around, and other travel recommendations.

The Beehive Trail is one of Acadia National Park’s most popular hikes, offering breath-taking panoramic views. This hike has a reputation for being thrilling and difficult with iron rungs and vertical climbs but we personally didn’t find it bad at all, especially with good pacing. I recommend starting early, wearing good shoes, and dressing in layers. For safety, avoid this hike if it’s raining.

I highly recommend coming during peak autumn foliage season for the gorgeous colourful red and orange leaves.

Contents:

  1. Hike Stats
  2. Is it really that difficult to climb the Beehive Trail?
  3. Map of the Trail/Trail Overview
  4. Ready to hike? Let’s Go! – a more detailed guide to hiking the Beehive Trail with way too many photos
    1. Park at Sands Beach – START EARLY!
    2. Cross the road to the start of the trail
    3. Reach a crossroad and turn right to the Beehive Trail to do the trail clockwise
    4. Continue the climb up, cross a metal grate, and climb iron rungs while enjoying the view
    5. Reach the summit and take in the views
    6. Make your way down the mountain
    7. Reach another crossroad: Continue on to The Bowl or take the shortcut
    8. Get back to the parking lot and be glad you started early
  5. Some final thoughts
  6. When you get back to the parking lot, there are a few things you can do:

Hike Stats:

Length: 2.4km
Elevation Gain: 155m
Trail type: loop
Difficulty/Terrain: difficult-ish with uphill climbs and rocky terrain
Estimated duration: 1-3 hours, depending on the number of people and waiting times (it took us 2 hours starting at 8:15am – 1 hour to get up and 1 hour down, including waiting in line)
Starting point: park at Sand Beach parking lot, then cross the road to the trailhead
Things to bring: water bottle, sunscreen & hat, good hiking shoes, snacks, dress in layers in case it gets cold as you wait
Driving option?: no
More Trail info: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/maine/the-beehive-loop-trail

Is it really that difficult to climb the Beehive Trail?

Not really!

I was a little nervous for the Beehive Trail because I kept reading about how hard it was and there was a lot of climbing. For a person that was not the most fit and with minimal upper body strength, I was anxious to get this hike over and done with. While doing the hike, I kept expecting it to get harder and harder, but it actually wasn’t bad at all. Yes, there are short bursts of vertical climbs and you’re exposed on the side of the cliffs, but there were enough handles to grab on to and good footing to stabilize yourself. It also helps that there was always someone to lend a hand hopping over the trickier bits or climbing up a big rock. At no point did we feel unsafe. We were also moving at a glacial pace near the top where the trickier parts are, so we barely broke a sweat getting to the summit.

If you have a mild fear of heights or if you’re generally a slow hiker, just take it slow and let people pass. The path eventually becomes single-file and the hike may naturally slow down or come to a standstill anyway if it’s busy, due to people taking their time crossing or climbing certain parts. We didn’t mind the slow ascent because the view along the way to the top is AMAZING and gave me ample time to snap (too many) photos. The view gets better the higher you go!

*If you are really terrified of heights, you can try to climb to the first view then decide if you want to turn around. The views at this spot is the same view as you would get at the top, but at a lower viewpoint (see the photos below). I’ve marked this spot on the map here –>

You can also take the Bowl Trail instead where the hike is covered amongst trees until you reach the very top (more on that below). As you can see on the map, it’s not far to backtrack if you decide to take the Bowl Trail instead.

Here’s a comparison of the view from the first view point vs the summit view:

View from the first lookout at the bottom
View from the summit

Map of the Trail/Trail Overview

A Brief Overview of the Trail:

A) The Beehive Loop trail starts just off of Park Loop Road (a 5 min walk from the parking lot).

B) The trail starts covered amongst trees and you’ll come to a fork in the road. The right is the Beehive Trail and the left is the Bowl Trail (circled in white and grey in the map above). Although technically a loop, the Beehive Trail is single-file going up the mountain due to the sheer amount of people and it also gets dangerous if you’re coming down the mountain on the side of a cliff. Therefore, if you want to take the easier Bowl Trail, you’ll have to do an out-and-back hike when you reach the summit.

⭐️ Green star on the map marks the point where you’ll see the first ocean views (more pictures below). The path gets more narrow here and will become single-file, so if you want to turn around, do it here.

C) After some vertical climbs and taking way too many photos on the way up, you’ll reach the Beehive Summit. Take a breather and soak in the views, take more photos, then start to make your way down the mountain.

D) You’ll reach another fork in the road. You can either continue on Beehive Trail to reach The Bowl, or take the shortcut and get back to the parking lot via the Bowl Trail.

Ready to hike? Let’s Go! – a more detailed guide to hiking the Beehive Trail with way too many photos

1. Park at Sands Beach – START EARLY!

If there is one crucial piece of advice I can give you to hike the beehive trail, is to start as early as possible to avoid the crowds and get a parking spot. The Beehive Trail is one of THE most popular trails in Acadia National Park due to its amazing views and adrenaline-pumping hike. As a result, it gets INCREDIBLY busy, especially in peak season (which is when we went).

The closest parking lot is at Sands Beach, which is only a short 5 minute walk to the start of the trail. There’s roughly enough spaces for about 100 cars, which sounds like a lot, but by the time we arrived at 7am, the lot was already 70% full. We started the hike at 8:15am (after visiting Thunder Hole) and by the time we finished around 10am, the parking lot was completely full and there was an incredibly long line of cars parked along Park Loop Road and many people were walking 20 mins+ from their car just to get to the start of the trail. There were also park rangers standing at the entrance to stop people from going in, so you can’t even circle the lot to wait for a spot to open up. Therefore, try to get to Sands Beach before 7am if you’re visiting in peak season like us and driving a car.

The parking lot by 8am with the Beehive Summit ahead
Tons of cars along the side of the road when the lot is full
Sands Beach Parking Lot

If you don’t get here early, be prepared to park far away or consider parking at a different parking lot along Park Loop Road and take the free Island Explorer Bus to Sands Beach parking lot. The bus will drop you off near the public restroom in the parking lot (see map above) and runs every 30 minutes.

Apart from trying to get a parking spot, you want to start the hike as early as possible to avoid the crowds and the line. If you do the trail clockwise via the Beehive Trail (which I recommend for the best views), it becomes single file up the rocks as you scale the mountain. Some people stop to take photos, others who aren’t as confident with climbing or have a fear of heights take it slow, and as a result, you could be looking at a long wait just to get up the mountain when it’s busy. We started the hike at 8:15am and two-thirds up the mountain, we already had to wait in line, taking a few steps at a time until we eventually reached the top (which although was annoying, wasn’t the worst in the world because you’re constantly exposed to the amazing views all the way up and gave me plenty of time to take photos). By the time we finished the hike a couple hours later, the line was much much longer and we were glad we started as early as we did. You can actually see the line from the parking lot. Therefore, I’d recommend starting the hike as soon as the sun comes up or be prepared to wait. Wear layers and pack a snack.

2. Cross the road to the start of the trail

Once you’ve parked at Sands Beach parking lot, make your way across the road to the start of the trail head (there is a public restroom at the parking lot if needed).

Start of the trail

The path starts covered amongst trees and gradually increases in elevation with a rocky terrain – make sure you wear good hiking shoes for this hike.

3. Reach a crossroad and turn right to the Beehive Trail to do the trail clockwise

As you make your way to the base of the mountain, you’ll reach an intersection. When it gets busy, there’s a park ranger there that can provide more information. This is the split between the Beehive Trail and the Bowl Trail (see the map above to see the difference). Although more difficult, I would recommend continuing the hike via the Beehive Trail and doing this loop clockwise for the best views. The Beehive Trail is steep and will lead you to vertical climbs (that aren’t bad at all in my opinion) along the side of the mountain, but you’re faced with the beautiful views the entire time, constantly getting better the higher you climb. There are also rock ledges along the way for some great photo spots.

Park ranger at the crossroads helping people decide which way to go

If you choose to do the trail counterclockwise via the Bowl Trail, the trail is not as steep (although there are still large rocks to climb), but the majority of the trail will be covered amongst trees and you will only get the iconic views of Sands Beach and the surrounding views when you reach the top. This may be a better option if you have a fear of heights. Note: You will not be able to go down the Beehive Trail due to the sheer amount of single-file hikers trying to get up the mountain so prepare for an out-and-back hike once you reach the summit.

4. Continue the climb up, cross a metal grate, and climb iron rungs while enjoying the view

As we continued on, it becomes more steep with more boulders to climb over, and we mentally prepared ourselves for vertical climbs and clinging onto the side of the mountain. This was where the line started for us. It was moving along at a decent pace at first, but it got slower closer to the top. Yes this hike is steep and yes there are vertical climbs, however because we had to wait in line and only moving a few steps at a time and taking a few thrusts up big rocks at a time, this hike actually became a breeze. We barely even broke a sweat! There was always something to hold onto and there were flat parts to stand as you wait. You’re constantly exposed to the amazing views beside you and the waiting gives you more than enough time to get some nice photos on rocky ledges. We didn’t mind waiting at all. It was actually a more enjoyable and fun hike compared to constantly walking uphill.

Here are a bunch of photos of our ascent up the mountain (the view gets a bit repetitive, but when you’re there in person, it never gets old):

Our first views of Sand Beach inlet as we emerge from the trees and up the first set of rocks:

Our first views on the Beehive Trail
As we continue to climb higher, the views open up a little more with fewer trees obstructing the view

*This is the first view of the ocean that you’ll see after emerging from the trees. If you’re scared of heights, there’s still time to turn around at this point before it becomes too difficult to turn back. The views at the top is similar but at a higher vantage point (see the photos below).

As we continue to climb higher, the views open up a little more with fewer trees obstructing the view:

Then the path gets a little more tricky with metal gates and iron rungs. The photos make it seem scarier in photos than it actually was. At no point did I feel like I was going to fall off the side of the mountain or feel like I couldn’t make the climb up. This is where the line started for us as people take they time with the obstacles, but no matter, we’re still loving the views:

Our first metal grate. It did not feel dangerous at all.
Still loving the views

Encountered the iron rungs, which were a lot easier than I expected. There’s never more than 3-4 at a time:

This is probably the most common photo I’ve seen that shows how close to the edge you are, however…

…when taken at a different angle you can see that you’ve got the tree beside you with branches so smooth where thousands have people have grabbed onto for support. It didn’t feel scary at all.

The smoothest tree branch from multiple people grabbing onto it over the years

Still slowly waiting in line to make our way up, but still enjoying the views every step of the way:

As we got closer to the top it became more steep:

5. Reach the summit and take in the views

The final push to the top was just climbing over rocks but the view at the top was absolutely worth it. I can see how it is one of the most popular hikes in this park!

Take a breather and soak in the view. It’s the same view as what you see on the way up, but higher and more grand with sweeping views of the forest and ocean around you.

Plenty of space at the top for a snack or a packed lunch
Summit views

But the views don’t stop here. Continue following the blue trail markers to the other side of the mountain. Here you’ll see a sign that marks the actual summit of the mountain and you’ll get more ocean views with the small islands in the distance.

6. Make your way down the mountain

Continue following the blue markers to make your way down the mountain. You’ll get panoramic views of the beautiful trees below before you reach the trail path again.

As you make your way down, you’ll eventually be amongst trees again and climbing down big boulders, but then it gets easier as the ground plateaus and the path is much smoother.

7. Reach another crossroad: Continue on to The Bowl or take the shortcut

You’ll reach another intersection with trail signs that point to The Bowl. Continue on this path to reach views of The Bowl, or take the shortcut and continue the path back to the parking lot. We didn’t have time to make it to The Bowl so we took the shortcut back.

As you make your way back, you’ll eventually meet up with the original trail again and climb down the large rocks back to the parking lot.

By the time we met up with the starting trail, there were SO MANY more people and the line was MUCH longer. The ranger was telling people to do the loop backwards via the Bowl Trail avoid the line going up the Beehive Trail.

8. Get back to the parking lot and be glad you started early

By the time we got back to the parking lot, the lot was completely full with a very long line of cars parked along the road. You can see the top of the Beehive Trail from the parking lot with the many many single-file people slowly making their way up the mountain. Although we had to wait in line ourselves, we were SO happy that our line was no where as long as the one that was forming when we finished!

Some final thoughts

  • Get here early.
  • Get here early.
  • Get here early.
  • The views are amazing and worth the time and effort.
  • Wear good hiking shoes for good traction getting up rocks.
  • Consider skipping this hike if it’s raining.

When you get back to the parking lot, there are a few things you can do:

  • Check out Sand Beach, a short walk to this beautiful inlet beach
  • Walk Ocean Path – a flat easy path along the coast with beautiful views along the way
  • Thunder Hole – a 10-15 min walk along Ocean Path to this narrow inlet where rushing water creates loud thundering sounds and big high splashes of water into the air (come 1-2 hours prior to high tide for the experience)

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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.

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!

Abby3 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.

AbbyLeave a comment

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!

Abby1 Comment

Our Time Working in Central Victoria: Kilmore, Wallan, Woodend (the start of our working journey through the pandemic)


It was the end of August 2020, smack deep in the pandemic. The state of Victoria had the highest number of COVID cases and everyone was stressed and in lockdown. 8 months prior when there were only whispers of an emerging COVID virus overseas, Toby and I both gave in our notices with big plans ahead, not expecting everything soon to be derailed. We had planned to move out of our apartment in Balwyn in April 2020, live 1 month on Toby’s parents’ farm to prepare for our wedding, then be wed on the farm on Saturday, May 9th, 2020. After the wedding we were going to locum in the UK and travel Europe.

In March of 2020, we were working the final months of our contract. The news got scarier and scarier to watch, with COVID cases climbing higher and higher. Everyone felt a sense of unease and paranoia. Our work started with face shields and masks with social distancing then turned into curb-side/over-the-phone consulting. There was a shortage of masks and hand sanitizer and I was so glad we still plenty of our Costco bulk toilet paper left from simpler times. When they closed international borders, it was clear that our wedding would not go ahead as planned and our overseas plans were in danger. How the near future would play out was uncertain and no one knew how long the pandemic would last. We decided to continue with our plan of leaving our jobs anyway and move on to the farm to wait out the pandemic since neither of us have had a proper break since starting work as new grad veterinarians so this would be a nice extended break. We sold all of our furniture and held a couple Camberwell stalls to get rid of unwanted items, then moved the rest to the farm. We were hopeful the virus would be contained within a few months so we only postponed our wedding to November of 2020.

When we first implemented face shields in March 2020

Moving to the farm was a breath of fresh air. We had 50 acres of land to roam and open-air with cattle, chickens, and the three family dogs. Toby put together a little TV room for us so we can have our own little space and watch our evening Masterchef on TV while his dad watched the evening news. His parents did the weekly grocery shop at Dandenong Market while Toby and I cooked daily with inspiration from Masterchef. Our day-to-day was waking up, cooking, doing the dishes, then going about our own activities until the evening where sometimes I’d be baking something or Toby would be trying out a soufflé recipe (he was really into egg recipes at point to use up the abundance of eggs from the chickens) and we’d eat it together until 7-8pm when Masterchef/the evening news would come on. Rinse and repeat.

After 4 months of this, the end of the pandemic was nowhere in sight and the lack of income and working purpose was gnawing at us. One day I received a random phone call from a corporate company that asked me if I was looking for a job. During the pandemic everyone was home, paying more attention to their animals or people were rescuing animals from shelters and as a result the need for veterinarians were at an all time high. I had never actually worked for this company before, but I did apply for one of their clinics almost a year prior but I never accepted the job – they must’ve kept my information in their file and in desperate times, calling every lead they possibly had. The call came at a good time, when we were getting a little tired of the monotony and yearning for a greater purpose again. We didn’t want to commit to another full time contract job since we still had plans to leave the country when the pandemic blew over (whenever that would be), so we accepted a temporary locum job for 2 months. Within 48 hours we were packed and ready to start a new adventure. Toby stayed at the Kilmore clinic full time and I travelled between Kilmore, Wallan and Woodend.

Map of our travels and work locations
Within 48 hours of the phone call, we were packed and ready to go
Toby was pretty good at packing my little car
Kilmore is only about an hour north from the city and its surrounded by beautiful farm lands
The small town of Kilmore – our first views driving in
They had a furnished room at the back of the clinic all ready for us. There was even a really nice bathroom! This was a lot more modern than we were expecting in this small town.

The communal break room had a full kitchen for us to use. As you can see, the bulk of our things were my cooking tools and we were also loaded up with farm fresh veggies from Toby’s mom before we left <3. Toby is trying to reorganize and figure out how everything is going to fit.

We arrived at the Kilmore clinic while the clinic was closed and the practice manager showed us to our accommodation at the back of the clinic. We were expecting the worst but it was actually a very nicely renovated room with a roomy bathroom. We unpacked and settled into our new home relatively quickly.

A few days later it was Toby’s birthday. He picked out a mini cake at the local bakery.
We also tried out the local pizza, Toby’s favourite food.
I was FINALLY able to get a haircut since being in lockdown
Someone donated adult diapers to the clinic so we were using then instead of urine pads for surgeries 😂
Looks silly but it definitely worked well

After a month the landlord decided that he suddenly needed to replace the flooring of the back of the clinic so they moved us to the trailer park across the street. Looked dodgy, but it was actually quite nice! We got two small bedrooms and a full kitchen. I continued to work between the 3 clinics and Toby crossed the street everyday and continued on at Kilmore.

We had a great time over the next couple months with interesting cases and fantastic coworkers. We were only meant to stay 2 months, but decided to extend our contract another 2 months. Here’s a collection of our day-to-day and some crazy things we’ve seen along the way.

Out and about to local farmers markets on the weekends: They’ve all been small community markets but after so many months of lockdown, it was so nice to be back out in the sun again, supporting the locals.

Tallarook Farmer’s Market
Tallarook Farmer’s Market
Romsey Farmer’s Market
Romsey Farmer’s Market
Lancefield Farmer’s Market

We had some pretty good food during out stay here:

Papa Jim’s quickly became our local favourite. They had a unique salted crust. Sadly they closed down in Aug 2023. </3
We tried to get through everything on the menu before we left. The BBQ and Meat Lovers was our favourite.
Bourkies Bakehouse in Woodend was famously known for their vanilla slice
Bourkies baked goods (Vanilla slice not pictured)
Torng Bai Thai Restaurant, Wallan – AMAZING Thai red curry in this small country town! It was my go-to weekend treat ❤
Checked out Holgate Brewhouse in Woodend
Rose Garden Cafe, Kilmore
Rose Garden Cafe, Kilmore – peaceful setting with great food
The restaurant at Macedon Ranges Hotel & Spa (currently closed) – great views, average food

During our time here we took a few road trips to nearby towns:

Daylesford, VIC


Travel date: October 4th, 2020 Daylesford is known as a spa town in regional Victoria. We made a day trip here after working for 6 days straight for some relaxation. The bathhouses and spas on offer were quite pricey and we didn’t quite feel like having a spa day and bringing a change of clothes so…

Kilmore, VIC and Mount Piper


During our time in Kilmore, we did a couple of day hikes around the area. Mount Piper Situated in Broadford, Mount Piper was only about a 10 min drive from where we were staying Kilmore. There’s no entry fee and you can drive up right to the start. There are two hiking options: either the summit…

Malmsbury & Blackhill Nature Reserve, VIC


Travel Dates: October 2020 Malmsbury and Edgecombe are small towns in Central Victoria. They’re about a 12 minute drive away from each other. It’s the perfect outing to start with an early morning farmer’s market run then finish off with a hike through the Blackhill Nature Reserve in Edgecombe. Malmsbury, VIC Malmsbury Farmer’s Market This was…

Bendigo, VIC


Travel Date: November 5th, 2020 After living in a small country town for a couple months, I was craving a nice ramen or any sort of decent Japanese food, so the next biggest town near us was Bendigo. There were 2 Japanese restaurants in town and sadly the ramen at both places were both disappointing </3.…

We left at the end of December 2020. We had such a great time and met so many amazing people and would have loved to stay longer, however we told ourselves that we wanted to keep travelling Australia and made the difficult decision to say goodbye. 💔 Kilmore will always have a special place in our heart as our first locum experience and it solidified our decision to continue travelling around Australia to have more new experiences and meet more people as we wait out the rest of the pandemic.

Taco, the clinic cat

Since our departure, the company struggled to find a vet to fill the vacant position at Kilmore and last we heard they sold the practice to an independent buyer.

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Kilmore, VIC and Mount Piper


During our time in Kilmore, we did a couple of day hikes around the area.

  1. Mount Piper
  2. Monument Hill Reserve

Mount Piper

Situated in Broadford, Mount Piper was only about a 10 min drive from where we were staying Kilmore. There’s no entry fee and you can drive up right to the start. There are two hiking options: either the summit walk or the circuit walk. When we first came here we only did the circuit walk, but one of our nurses mentioned that the summit walk was well-worth it, so we made a second trip back here!

Circuit Walk

Summit Walk

It was 1 hour of straight uphill climb. It was pretty brutal, but the views were great!

Toby waiting for me on a stump because I was so slow 😅

Monument Hill Reserve

We stumbled upon this spot while randomly driving around one day. There were fantastic sweeping views of the land below – would’ve made a perfect picnic spot.

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Daylesford, VIC


Travel date: October 4th, 2020

Daylesford is known as a spa town in regional Victoria. We made a day trip here after working for 6 days straight for some relaxation. The bathhouses and spas on offer were quite pricey and we didn’t quite feel like having a spa day and bringing a change of clothes so we spent the day exploring this quaint town instead.

Railway Farmers Market

We started off at the Railway Farmers Market which was situated at the Daylesford Railway Station. The market was small but lovely under a lane of trees. We bought some local honey and Toby had a pretty good hot dog. We then checked out the train platform and strolled through Wombat Hills Botanical Gardens (not pictured because it wasn’t that exciting but we went because I was hoping there’d be wombats 😂) before heading to Vincent Street.

Vincent Street

Vincent Street is the main street of the town centre and has a few cute boutique shops, including a unique hot chocolate apothecary called The Daylesford Hot Chocolate Company where they mix different spices and flavours into your hot chocolate. We got a chilli hot chocolate was was pretty good!

Hepburn Regional Park

We finished off with a hike in Hepburn Park. Daylesford is known as a spa destination due to its large number of natural mineral springs. The most popular spring and also easiest to access is Argyle Spring. These mineral springs are famed for their health benefits and everyone says you have to try the spring water when you reach it. It was a short 20 minute walk through a eucalypt forest with an easy walking path to reach the spring. Once you reach the spring, there’s a little pump for the water to come out. We both took a big sip of this magic water after our hike and it was SO COPPERY. It was like the aftertaste from a nosebleed 😖🤢. BLECH. I’m surprised no one wrote it in the reviews how bad the water would taste. One of my coworkers commented that when her and boyfriend went, they were so excited to try the water that they actually emptied out their water bottles to fill it up with spring water and instantly regretted it after tasting it. 😂😂😂

Argyle Spring
How much we loved the spring water

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3 Days in Washington, DC


Travel Dates: June 24-27, 2023

Finally, a long weekend road trip getaway to explore this grand nation! Since moving to the US 3 months ago, we’ve been so busy settling in and exploring our neighbourhood that we haven’t had any time to do any road trips. This long weekend we finally decided to plan one and as our first American road trip, we chose to visit Washington, DC – the capital of the nation! I’ve been to DC a couple times in the past but this was Toby’s first time. He was more than excited to see all the famous buildings, but most importantly the Air and Space museum!

For our first time hiring a car in NY, Toby did a lot of research into finding the cheapest option for rental cars and settled on a small local shop. When we went to pick up the car the day before, it was less than ideal. The entire car had stains, scratches, and I swear the little holes in the seats looked like cigarette burns. I’d post pictures, but let’s not start off our happy weekend vacation blog on a bad note. Just believe that it was gross 🤮. It was so gross that I had to quickly Amazon cheap car seat covers and luckily had them delivered the same day in time for our trip (gotta love Prime). You can just see the car seat covers in the photo looped around the head rest 😂. It was a 4.5 hour drive to DC from our home in Brooklyn. Luckily Washington is a pretty walkable city, so we parked our car in the hotel lot and didn’t have to touch it until it was time to go home. 😅 Needless to say, this would be our first and last time hiring from this company.

We stayed at Hotel Washington. It was a beautiful fancy hotel that Toby chose because it was near the White House, Washington Monument, and restaurants. They were filming the next Captain America movie just outside! 🤫 Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any celebrities during our time there and missed out on all the times they were filming. The valet told us that one of the main stars of the movie was staying at our hotel though – too bad he couldn’t remember his name.

It never ceases to amaze me how huge the buildings are in DC!

I’ve always been impressed by the sheer size of the buildings in Washington. Many of them take up an entire block!

Evening stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue

Things to Do: The National Mall

When you visit Washington DC, the main sights can be broken up into 3 categories: 1) Monuments and Memorials, 2) Government Buildings, and 3) Museums. All of these surround a large walkable grassy area that is grouped together known as The National Mall. The map below outlines this grassy area and if you have a good pair of walking shoes, you should be able to hit all the memorials in one day, which is what we did!

Our itinerary:

Day 1 (red): We arrived around lunch time and after checking in, we started at the White House (right across from our hotel) and headed towards the Washington monument then did a circle to the Lincoln memorial, around the Jefferson memorial, then back up past the Washington monument and back to the hotel for some dinner.

Day 2 (blue): We headed to Capitol Hill and took some photos outside, walked through the US Botanic Garden, then finished off at the Air and Space Museum.

Day 3 (green): We spent all day at the massive Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

How Many Days Do You Need?

It depends on what you want to see and how much time you’re willing to put in. If you only want to see the major monuments and memorials and the outside of the buildings, you could easily finish it all in 1 day.

If you want to go inside the government buildings such as Capitol Hill and The White House and join a tour, I’d recommend adding on an extra day or two, depending on your tour times and how packed you want your schedule to be.

Washington is home to MANY museums and it would be a shame to leave without at least visiting one or two. The two most popular ones are the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History. Each of these museums are quite large and can easily take up nearly an entire day. If you want to visit both, add on an extra 2 days. Apart from these two, there are also a variety of other museums that are free of charge that can easily add on to your itinerary.

For us, we spent a total of 3 days and saw all the major monuments and memorials, saw the outside of the White House and Capitol Hill but didn’t attend any tours, and went to the Air and Space Museum as well as the Museum of Natural History. This was just enough time for us to enjoy everything without feeling too rushed. If we have a chance to visit again, I’d book some walking tours inside the government buildings and maybe visit the Museum of American History which has a lot of cool famous historical items.

1) Monuments and Memorials

Washington Monument

You can go inside for free, BUT tickets have to be reserved at least 30 days in advance or released at 10am the day before. You can find more info at recreation.gov. We didn’t end up going inside during this trip, but I went in a few years back and I remember it being a small museum of the history of the monument and photos documenting the building process.

View from the base of the Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

World War II Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial in the distance
World War II Memorial – each star is for a fallen soldier
World War II Memorial looking back to the Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool
View of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial – FOREST! JENNY!!!!!!
The detail is amazing!
View of the Washington Monument from the top of the Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Veterans Memorial

I’ve been told that this memorial is also cool to check out at night!

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

It was a longer walk to get to this memorial but the stroll along the water was beautiful and there were tons of geese!
Thomas Jefferson Memorial

2) Government Buildings

The White House

This was the best photo I could get of the White House. If you get too close to the White House you end up with bars and gates in your photo and its hard to see the entirety of the building. We didn’t end up going into the White House because it is a HUGE process to organize. First, you have to book your tickets at a minimum of 21 days prior to visiting but no longer than 90 days. Second, in order to organize your tour, you have to contact your member of congress if you’re a US citizen, or if you’re a foreign citizen, you have to contact your embassy in DC. More information here. I definitely did not plan early enough for this trip to make this happen and the amount of effort it took was a bit too much for us. Maybe next time.

Capitol Hill

You can visit Capitol Hill free of charge, but it has to be with a guided tour. Tours last roughly an hour (more info here). We didn’t end up going in during this trip because we were a bit short on time. I mainly wanted to see the outside of the building, however sadly during our trip, it was under renovation. 😦

Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill

United States Botanic Garden

This wasn’t originally on our list but we happened to walk past it on our way to Capitol Hill and checked it out. It was a lot larger than we expected they had a large display of unusual orchids on display at the time!

United States Botanic Garden

3) Museums

There are a TON of museums in DC and the best part is that they’re all free! The Smithsonian museums are HUGE and takes a lot of time to get through but there are some really cool things in them. Due to popularity, remember to check online to see if you need to book tickets ahead of time. We almost didn’t get to see the Air and Space museum because we didn’t know you needed a timed ticket!

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

https://airandspace.si.edu/

This is one of our favourite Smithsonian museums in DC. There are a lot of original famous historical items here including the original Wright brothers’ plane and also original parts from the space shuttle missions. The museum goes through a chronological history of air and space in time starting with the invention of planes and ending with space travel. Tickets are free, but you HAVE to buy them early and there are timed entries. If you don’t buy them early, same-day tickets are released at 8:30am and if there are any leftover, they are re-released at 12:30pm. Toby and I (and many other tourists) learned this the hard way. We rocked up at 12:15pm and stood outside in the super humid heat and waited until 12:30pm until online ticket portals were open and quickly snagged two tickets. Not everyone was so lucky and had to come back another day. It was also super busy, so I’d recommend planning early and booking the first ticket of the day so you’re not rushed to get through everything in time before closing. We JUST managed to get through everything but didn’t have time to see any of the short films.

Right at the entrance, you’re initially greeted with the original model of the Enterprise they used in the Star Trek TOS opening scenes!!!
Toby’s mind was blown when he saw that they had the original Wright brother’s plane!
It was pretty cool
Toby loves planes
Not a replica!

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/

This was our second favourite museum in DC. This museum is HUGE and tickets are not required beforehand. Entry is free and it will likely take you all day to get through it all. This museum has the largest collection of dinosaur fossils that I’ve ever seen and there are a TON of things to see here. Definitely worth a visit!

You can see what you’d look like in prehistoric times
😂
Like twins 👯‍♀️

Smithsonian Castle

This was also not on our list of things to do, but we happened to walk by it on our way to the Museum of Natural History. There was a beautiful garden to walk through and the building is the Smithsonian Castle, which is temporarily closed.

Things to Eat

We weren’t really expecting a big foodie trip, so we just googled nearby restaurants to our hotel and found the two top rated ones and spent most of our meals there 😅.

Joe’s Seafood, Prime Rib and Stone Crab

https://www.joes.net/dc/

Joe’s is a chain restaurant with locations in Chicago and Vegas. They specialize in seafood (esp stone crab) and prime rib. Over the course of two separate meals, we ordered the crab cakes, steak tartare, lobster, prime rib, and stone crab. The prime rib was meh, but the crab cake was delicious (although pricey) and the stone crab was out of this world! We had never had stone crab until now and we were HOOKED. We went back the next day just to have the stone crab again. Oh boy!

The stone crab was SO freaking good. I’d come back to DC just for these babies!

Old Ebbitt Grill

https://www.ebbitt.com/

This restaurant has historical significance – it is Washington’s first saloon, opened in 1856! It’s now owned by a corporate restaurant chain but they’ve preserved the interior very nicely and the place has a great ambience to it. They pride themselves on being a ‘scratch kitchen’, making everything from scratch including all the sauces. The food was decent but nothing mind-blowing (the crab cakes were better at Joe’s), but the atmosphere was great and it was always busy during dinner time, so make sure you make reservations!

VUE Rooftop (inside Hotel Washington)

https://www.vuerooftopdc.com/rooftop-bars-dc

This rooftop bar was located inside of our hotel which was nice. It has great views of the Washington monument as well as the White House in the distance. The drinks are decent and the vibes were lovely at sunset. There’s a whole restaurant area but we already had dinner at this point so we only had drinks and dessert.

We drove home early next day to make it back in time to unwind and do laundry before work started the day after. Thanks for reading! If you have any tips or suggestions for DC, I’d love to hear them!

Abby4 Comments

Victoria’s Eastern Coast


This guide is an overview of the road trip we took of Victoria’s eastern coast.

When we travelled: Jan 4 – 8th, 2021

*Disclaimer: please double check the opening times and costs on their website since they may have changed since we last travelled these places.

Sample Itinerary:

The original itinerary we followed was a lot more hectic and disorganized. This is by far not a comprehensive list of everything there is to do (there’s just too much to explore in Australia!), but the places listed are the ones that were highly recommended from my trip planning research. I’ve made this sample itinerary as what I think an ideal trip along the eastern coast would look like, seeing all the highlights. Please double check all the opening times before you travel in case they have changed since we last travelled.

Day 1: San Remo & Philip Island

  • Early lunch at San Remo – MUST have the fish and chips at the Fisherman’s Co-op
  • Catch the Pelican Feed in San Remo at 12pm (next to the fish and chips shop)
  • Explore the small shops of San Remo for some dessert, coffee or walk along the beach/pier
  • Drive 15mins to the Philip Island Wildlife Park to get up close with native Aussie wildlife
  • Dinner: pack your own, explore restaurants in the main town of Philip Island, or there is a restaurant at the Penguin Parade
  • Penguin Parade (15min drive from the Wildlife park) – make sure to arrive 1 hour before sunset to not miss them
  • Stay overnight on Philip Island or nearby

Days 2-7: Kilcunda Beach & Wilsons Prom

  • Breakfast in town or pack your own
  • Brief stopover at Kilcunda Beach (30min drive from the Penguin Parade)
  • Wilson’s Promontory National Park (1.5-2hr drive from Kilcunda Beach)
    • Spend at least 4-5 days at Wilsons Prom

Day 8:

  • Fit in one last short morning hike in Wilsons Prom before getting back on the road
  • Stopover at Sale for lunch and to stretch your legs or replenish groceries/snacks (2 hour drive from Wilsons Prom)
  • Optional: spend a couple hours at Raymond Island to spot some wild koalas (1 hr drive from Sale)
  • Reach Lakes Entrance (1.5 hr drive from Sale)
  • Check into hotel at Lakes Entrance and explore the streets and waterfront
  • Lots of dinner options in Lakes Entrance

Day 9:

  • Visit Griffiths Seashell Museum in Lakes Entrance before leaving (opens at 9am)
  • From here on we continued our coastal trip to the next state, New South Wales, stopping at Eden for lunch and the Killer Whale Museum (2hrs 45mins drive). There’s another large national park (Croajingolong) in Victoria that’s near the NSW border but we decided to skip it since Wilsons Prom was already full on with nature hikes during this trip and the views. Toby went to Mallacoota (near the border) as a child and had fond memories of losing the map there and getting lost with his family and came upon a random colony of seals 😅.

San Remo

San Remo, considered the gateway to Philip Island, is a small coastal fishing town with a few cute shops and a beach. Whenever we’re headed this way, we’ll always be sure to stop by out favourite fish and chips place at the fisherman’s co-op!

San Remo Fisherman’s Co-operative

Address: 170 Marine Parade, San Remo, VIC
https://srfco.com.au/

We’ve had a lot of fish and chips in our day, but this place always remains one of our favourites. The chips are pretty average, but the battered fish is what we come for – it’s not too heavily battered nor overly greasy, and it’s great paired with their homemade tartar sauce. We usually skip the chips and order a couple of calamari rings, potato cakes, and dim sims (for Toby). Yum!

During COVID times we could only do takeaway at the window.
YUM!

Pelican Feeding

Address: 170 Marine Parade, San Remo, VIC
https://srfco.com.au/pelican-feeding/

Everyday at 12pm, the Fisherman’s Co-op feed the wild pelicans on the beach next to the pier and do a little information talk at the same time about Pelicans. It’s completely free and super cool to see these huge birds up close. The talk lasts about 15-20mins from memory so don’t be late Pelicans are Toby’s favourite bird and it’s pretty cute how excited he gets by them every time.

Phillip Island

This is one of the most popular day-trip tours from Melbourne (apart from the great ocean road). The main attraction is the Penguin Parade where you can watch wild penguins emerge from the ocean at night to their nesting spots. The Wildlife Park nearby is also fantastic for checking out the native Aussie animals. There’s also Moonlit Sanctuary that’s highly recommended in some itineraries. Toby has been to both and although Moonlit Sanctuary is more well-organized with a larger variety of animals, Philip Island Wildlife park has more free-roaming animals you can touch and feed.

Philip Island Wildlife Park

Address: 2115 Phillip Island Rd, Cowes VIC 3922, Australia
Cost: $19/adult
https://www.piwildlifepark.com.au/

There are a ton of zoos and wildlife parks around Australia but this place is all about native Australian animals and for the relatively cheap price of admission, they have quite a lot of animals. At first glance this place didn’t seem like much on the outside, but there’s actually a decent amount of space and tons of free-roaming animals that will come up to you for some feed that you can purchase for $2 at the entrance. If you’re a tourist and you want to get an up-close encounter with native Aussie wildlife, this place is a good option!

Penguin Parade

Address: 1019 Ventnor Rd, Summerlands, Victoria 3922
Cost: $27.50/general adult ticket
https://www.penguins.org.au/attractions/penguin-parade/

This was one of the first things I did when I moved to Australia 7 years ago. It has changed a LOT since then so I’m not sure what to expect anymore, but this is the best place to see the tiny fairy penguins in Australia. This is the main attraction of Philip Island and there are always tons of tour busses here. It’s $27.50 for a general ticket but there are a lot more viewing options available on their website if you want to get a closer view. When I was here 7 years ago, we were all ushered to a viewing area on the beach set up like bleachers (bring warm clothes, a blanket, or even a poncho if it’s wet because it’s completely outdoors). If you paid extra you could get a seat closer to the edges with a cushion to get a better view of the penguins. They start off with a staff member doing a talk about the penguins and then we all wait quietly as the penguins emerge from the ocean and make their way across the beach to their nesting site. You can take photos, but no flash photography. It was definitely a neat experience and super cool to see these adorable tiny wild penguins up close!

The penguins arrive at sunset every evening and it is recommended to get there 1 hour beforehand to settle yourself in and find your seat. Check the penguin calendar on the website for arrival time depending on time of year.

Kilcunda Beach

Toby came here a couple times when he was young and he wanted to do a quick stopover on our way to Wilson’s Promontory. We almost didn’t stop because the weather wasn’t the greatest, but I’m so glad we did! At first glance it was like any other beach, but then we came upon these really cool rock formations by the water. It made a pretty good photo-op especially with the gloomy weather.

Wilsons Promontory National Park

Wilson’s Promontory is a huge national park roughly 3 hours drive from Melbourne and 1.5-2hrs from Kilcunda Beach. It sits at the most southern point of mainland Australia. There are so many different hikes in this amazing park that you’ll want to stay at least 4-5 days here to get the best of it. There are coastal views, mountain views, beaches, tropical hikes, sand dunes, and even plenty of Aussie wildlife! This national park is hugely popular and accommodation gets booked out fast so plan ahead. Apart from the Great Ocean Road, this place is probably the second most popular jewel of Victoria’s natural wonders but it can be a bit full on when trying to plan a trip here.

There’s just so much to cover that I’ve written a comprehensive guide of our experience in Wilsons Prom in a separate post here: https://polyphagicabby.com/2022/09/12/wilsons-promontory-national-park-the-prom/

  • Big Drift
  • Mount Oberon Summit
  • Mount Oberon Summit
  • Darby River
  • Mount Bishop Summit
  • Tongue Point
  • Wild blonde wombat
  • Wild emu family
  • Tidal River inlet
  • Squeaky Beach/Leonard Bay

Sale

Sale is a large town with plenty of shops. There’s not much “to do” here in terms of tourism, but it’s a good place to stop to stretch your legs and replenish your groceries or road trip snacks. There’s also plenty of cafes and lunch options here too. This was our first stop after spending 3 days hiking in Wilsons Prom and we were glad to be back in a busy town again with food options. We passed by a massage place in the mall and got a 30 min massage of our tired hiking legs while they played Moana in the background.

Sale

Raymond Island

Disclaimer: We visited Raymond Island in 2018 while I was on a student vet placement in Bairnsdale and completely forgot about it until I was going through my photos recently. This island was not part of our recent road trip in 2021 but if you’ve got time to spare, it’s worth spending an hour or two on this small island to check out the koalas.

Raymond Island is a small island located off of the town of Paynesville. This island is known for its large population of wild koalas. In fact, there’s actually not much to do there other than to walk the koala trail which takes about half an hour that leads you through the neighbourhoods of the island. Toby and I made a game out of it to see who could spot the most koalas – I think in the end he won, spotting about 16 in total. The only way to get on the island is via a ferry. It’s free for pedestrians, but if you want to take your car it’s $13/car and more for trucks. As I mentioned, there’s not much else to do on the island other than spotting koalas so we just parked our car by the dock in Paynesville and strolled onto the ferry.

Ferry Timetable and Cost: https://www.eastgippsland.vic.gov.au/community/raymond-island-ferry

Lakes Entrance

Map of Lakes Entrance – so adequately named!

Lakes Entrance is a seaside town that is a popular place for fishing, located 2.5 hours from Wilsons Prom. It’s aptly named due to all the surrounding lakes that converge in this one area and flow out to sea. Many Victorians will come here to vacation along with their boats or hire fishing charters to take them out. Toby has a few childhood memories here with his dad fishing. 😊

Apart from fishing, the town centre has a good selection of restaurants and shops that are quite busy during the peak holiday season. There’s also a beach and foreshore you can explore.

We only stopped here for one night and honestly, unless you’re planning on doing some fishing and a lazy beach day, one night was enough for us. We arrived in the early evening and checked into our hotel then spent a couple hours at the local fair, had dinner at a lovely restaurant with fantastic Thai food, and visited the seashell museum. I’ve highlighted the things we did here.

Nick’s – Thai & Japanese Restaurant

Website: https://www.facebook.com/nickslakesentrance
Address: 251-269 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance VIC 3909

I usually won’t include restaurants in my guides unless we found them to be really impressive and worthwhile visiting. We came upon Nick’s on the main street by the foreshore. From the outside (pictured), it didn’t seem like much. The decor didn’t give any hints as to what kind of food they served, but when we got closer and read the menu we realized it was a Thai and Japanese restaurant. I didn’t have high hopes for authentic Thai food this far away from a major city, but we arrived during dinner time and also COVID times so we didn’t have many options to eat. I’m glad they were able to fit us in because all of the food was actually REALLY GOOD. We couldn’t decide which mains we wanted so we ordered three and an appetizer. If we’re ever in the area again, we’ll definitely be coming back to Nick’s!

Salt and pepper calamari
Prawn and lychee red curry
Prawn chicken and pork laksa
Beef pad Thai

Chant’s Family Carnival

Overview of the carnival from the top of the ferris wheel

Entry: Free to enter but rides and games cost money
Location: Lakes Entrance Foreshore (just follow the lights and the ferris wheel)
Time: Usually only operates late December to January
https://www.lakesentrance.com/things-to-do/item/chants-carnival

This is a small country carnival with a few rides and games. It’s nothing special from any other carnival and it’s not especially big. It’s not even a “must-do” for this area but given the lack of things there are to do at night in Lakes Entrance (other than restaurants/pubs), it’s definitely a good way to spend a few hours. I would recommend going on the ferris wheel though. Since the carnival is situated on the foreshore, you get a beautiful view of all the lakes at the top of the ferris wheel. We happened to go right at sunset so it was even more magical. 😊

After the spinny ride 😂
He won me a…lipstick?
View of the lakes from the top of the ferris wheel

Griffiths Seashell Museum

Address: 125 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance VIC 3909
Entry: $8/adult
Hours: 9am – 4pm daily
https://www.facebook.com/GriffithsSeaShellMuseum

This place had a few mixed reviews – mainly positive, but some people called it dated. We decided to visit anyway and we’re glad we did. It’s a small shop on the outside, but on the inside there were shelves and shelves of SO many seashells, many of which we’d never seen before. Some had background stories on the original owners that passed on their collection to this museum. Although I will agree that the decor seem a bit outdated but who cares when there are so many beautiful shells from all over the world to appreciate! We spent a good hour or so in here just looking through it all. There were also a few murky fish tanks on display that weren’t the greatest and also a strange room of a huge model train set up that was out of place – maybe the owner just wanted some place to show off his hobby? In any case, just come for the seashells and you won’t be disappointed. There’s also a gift shop where you can buy a few of these funky shells to take home!

Mackenzie River Rainforest (highway stopover)

This isn’t really a place to stop but I thought I’d include it in this post anyway because of the significance of the massive forest fires in 2020. As we drove towards the border of New South Wales, Toby pointed out the funky-looking trees on the side of the highway and we realized that we were driving through one of the hotspots of the great Australian bushfire at the start of last year (wow, has it been a year already??). The funky appearance of the trees were a result of the trees recovering. The main tree trunks were all black and charred but they were all sprouting small branches with plenty of leaves making them look “fuzzy” from afar. It was surreal driving through it all and realizing how far the fire had spread and how big it must have been. It‘s amazing how much the trees have already started recovering and their resilience. Mackenzie River Rainforest was just a random highway stopover rest spot that we pulled over to get a better look at the trees up close. As I’m writing this post in 2022, I’d imagine the trees probably look somewhat back to normal now.

Continuing on to NSW…

From here on we continued our coastal trip to the next state, New South Wales, stopping at Eden for lunch and the Killer Whale Museum (2hrs 45mins drive). Check out the NSW road trip page to continue following our trip!

If you want to explore more of Victoria’s eastern coast, there’s another large national park (Croajingolong) that’s near the NSW border but we decided to skip it since Wilsons Prom was already full on with nature hikes during this trip. Toby went to Mallacoota (near the border) as a child and had fond memories of losing the map there and getting lost with his family and came upon a random colony of seals 😅.

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