Bar Harbor has as many facets as a diamond, each offering a wealth of experience that is just waiting to be enjoyed and explored by visitors to our town. Few realize it, but the town of Bar Harbor encompasses everything from the Trenton Bridge to Otter Creek, from the town pier to Town Hill. Bar Harbor is comprised of 28,800 beautiful acres (that's 45 square miles), is 28 miles long from west to east, and enjoys a coastline roughly as long. That's a lot of space for the 4500 residents, and a lot of exploring for the visitor!

    Crossing the bridge from the mainland, one is faced with a choice of two routes into town. The traditional way is to follow Route 3 to the left, the more direct choice. However, there is another part of Bar Harbor that you should try to visit during your stay. It is the village of Town Hill, which lies down the right hand fork, Route 102. Town Hill is home to a melange of inns & cottages, artist's studios, little stores, and restaurants. You will also find bucolic lanes, homey old houses, and stately farms which date to when this part of town was called West Eden. On summer evenings, village life centers on the commons and the firehouse, where people come to watch the little leaguers, eat ice cream, or listen to the local pipe & drum corps practice as the sun sets.

    The majority of visitors to the island follow Route 3 to the downtown section, but without pausing to enjoy three of Bar Harbor's most charming rural districts: Eden, Salisbury Cove, and Hulls Cove. Eden begins at the Trenton Bridge and encompasses creeks, rivers, and forests, as well as Hadley Point Beach. This public beach is found on a quiet sideroad and curves along Thomas and Frenchman Bays and is the perfect spot for a mid-afternoon picnic, or somewhere to let the kids run free. For aircraft buffs, bring your binoculars and watch small planes and private jets take off from Hancock County Airport. As the road unfolds, many catch their first real close-up of the mountains of Acadia, shadowed against blue sky with a carpet of green meadows at their feet. Eden has several motels, inns, campgrounds, and cottages that share this view, and other vistas just as spectacular. There is also an oceanarium and a creek perfect for putting in kayaks or canoes for a trip to the island's interior or out to Frenchman Bay. You might see a seal, gracefully wading herons, or soaring osprey as you paddle along.

    Hamilton Pond on the right marks the beginning of Salisbury Cove. A popular place to stay away from downtown with a full range of accommodations, the village also houses a "summer camp" for some of the world's finest scientific minds; the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. The lab provides space for research teams to escape the bustle of their universities and institutions and helps add a unique international flavor to Salisbury Cove. Like much of the island, life in Salisbury Cove seems to move at a more civilized pace. Mail your postcards at the quaint little post office, stroll the streets, or walk along the shore of the cove and just look across the light reflecting off the rocks on the far side of the bay. All year, there are all manner of waterfowl on both Hamilton Pond and the cove; and of course the ever-present birds of prey watching over the other birds and fish with an eye to a meal.

    Hulls Cove is where Bar Harbor begins to grow more populated (by our standards at least). Again, the range of places to stay is broad and there is a varied choice of restaurants. Hulls Cove is home to both the temporal and the spiritual; the exclusive Pot & Kettle Club finds a home in Hulls Cove, as does the exquisite Episcopal Church of Our Father. Built of stone, the church looks as if it were transplanted from the English countryside. Each year, its very active congregation stages the Downeast Church Fair. The fair takes place in July each year and is a real island institution with all the trappings of New England Village life, including a world beating bean supper. The village continues as you climb the winding side lanes. At the crest of the rise, the splendor of Frenchman's Bay, hinted at in views of its upper reaches, unfurls before you. The crescent of Hulls Cove sits alongside the road, the water dotted with both pleasure craft and working lobster boats.

    Ahead of you, the road rises again and Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor begin to intermingle. The main park entrance is located in this district, with its excellent visitor's center and myriad trail heads for both hikers, cyclists, or in the winter, skiers. This is also a great place for those who wish to explore in a more leisurely fashion to begin their circuit of the Park Loop Road by car. At this stage of Route 3, Hulls Cove begins to give way to the village of Bar Harbor. A discrete element of the Town of Bar Harbor, the village comes into view as you pass the Bluffs, a granite cliff formation that towers over the road, with a precipitous drop to the ocean on the other side. From here, you can see the Schoodic Peninsula on the far side of Frenchman's Bay, the Porcupine Islands, and boats coming and going from Bar Harbor's busy waterfront. Route 3 becomes Eden Street, a road dotted with hotels and motels to meet every pocket, each one offering traditional Downeast hospitality and comfort. Here you will also find the College of The Atlantic, voted by Princeton Review to have the most beautiful campus in the United States.

    Downtown Bar Harbor has four major streets, and a delightful assortment of side streets, alleys, squares, and places running between them. The first street from Route 3, West Street, showcases some of the fine mansions that made Bar Harbor the queen of the east coast at the turn of the century. Some remain private homes, while others have become elegant, welcoming inns. The foot of West Street plays host to the working waterfront, where fishing boats, schooners, yachts, excursion boats, and even cruise ship tenders bustle with their cargoes of seafood and passengers. It also marks the beginning of the Shore Path, an enchanting stroll along the front lawns of some of Bar Harbor's biggest "cottages", highlighting views that were once the exclusive domain of the summer colony. Up the hill from the town pier, Main Street beckons with its montage of fascinating stores, restaurants, and green spaces to sit and reflect. The longest street in downtown, Main Street stretches from the water to the ballfield at the new YMCA and offers cuisine to tempt every palate, gifts with a Bar Harbor twist, vacation essentials, and so much more. The first major intersection on Main Street is with Cottage Street, the island's unofficial outdoor headquarters. Here you can rent bikes, canoes, kayaks, or skis; sign up for guided trips on the water or up rock faces; outfit yourself with the newest equipment; sign up for a whale watching excursion; go shopping; and finally sate a well-stoked appetite at a restaurant, or brew pub. The trail of restaurants extends down the side streets, and brings you out to the Village Green, home in the summer to a biweekly concert series, art shows, and other cultural events. On the other side of the green lies Mount Desert Street, a national historic district by virtue of the sheer number and beauty of the homes of the once rich and famous, many now serving as luxurious inns. There is also an impressive trio of churches; Saint Saviour's with its enthralling stained glass windows, the Congregational with its classic New England lines, and the Holy Redeemer with it's imposing stone architecture.

    Back on Main Street, the road slowly winds out of town towards Otter Creek, part of this settlement being in Bar Harbor and part in the neighboring town of Mount Desert. On the way there, Main Street reverts to Route 3 and hidden gateposts hint at yet more mansions and oceanside hideaways. Staying on Route 3, you pass the world-renowned genetic research facility, the Jackson Laboratory and a scattering of houses as the population thins out once more. Off to the side of Route 3 you will find side roads that interlock with Acadia's traffic system, leading you to the shore or up into the hills as you pass beneath sheer mountain walls of bare granite and alongside shimmering beaver ponds and birch stands.

    So there you have it, 28 miles of Maine at it's finest, all in one town. Bar Harbor is the state in microcosm; the sea, the mountains, old and new growth forests, hidden villages, fantastic shopping, a cornucopia of food, and finally a good night's rest, all in the same small town. Have you allowed enough time to see Bar Harbor?