A Visit to Peaks Island, Maine
Just a short ferry ride from Portland, Maine, the picture-perfect Peaks Island offers the perfect New England summer escape.
By Annie Graves|Jun 06 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanAdjectives ensue on the ferry ride to Peaks Island from Portland, Maine. Frothy, brilliant, sparkling, sea-salty. Everything that a quick, 20-minute ferry ride should be, until you dock at Forest City Landing, where Casco Bay ferries have been landing since the 1880s.
It’s easy to dream here on tiny Peaks Island. Of tall ships and seaside cottages and endless blue seas and crisp breezes. You can bike the circumference of this 1×2-mile knob of land in 40 minutes, according to Brad, who rents transportation at Brad’s Island Bike Rentals. But there’s no need to rush—beaches here are plentiful and accessible, a welcome change from the beach-rights squabbling that invades so many seacoast villages like red tide.
Time enough to pedal along Seashore Avenue and dip a toe in the vast brilliant water on the Atlantic “backshore” side of the island. Or explore the mysterious, leafy green paths winding inland, to little cottages festooned with porches, or the vestiges of concrete war bunkers, or the shadowy remnants of old Indian trails, weaving through sunlit pine groves. Easy enough to pass a lazy afternoon meandering along Island Avenue, just up the hill from the ferry landing, sampling the Umbrella Cover Museum, the GEM Island Artists Gallery, and a diverting assortment of shops and galleries sprinkled like beach glass.
And then, park your bike at Peaks Island House, pick out a table on the veranda overlooking Casco Bay, and order up a Caesar wrap. Or kick back at the Cockeyed Gull, further down Island Avenue, where a chilled calamari cocktail meets orange curry yogurt, or sesame-encrusted salmon bumps up against a wasabi aioli seaweed garni.
Reason enough to pause as you circle the four-mile perimeter of Peaks Island. Dream a little dream.
A Summer Visit to Peaks Island, Maine, in Photos
Have you ever visited Peaks Island?
This post was first published in 2012 and has been updated.
Photo Credit : Annie Graves
The island is overcrowded. Look at the photos getting on and off the boat. Be prepared to wait in the hot sun. In the thick of the tourist season don’t expect us to be friendly…except for those who benefit from your purchases.
The off season we are friendly and helpful.
Will it be crowded mid week the 1st week of October?
@Caron If you are truly a resident, how rude. I live in Vermont where the most beautiful foliage is and skiing is a vital part of the economy in some parts of the state. I’m sure there must be some people who can be rude but no one would ever make such a statement about a whole community.
@Jacqueline. I’ve lived on Peaks year round for 10 years. Your arguments that tourism helps the community does hold up to the facts. 900 residents year round. 4-5000 residents during the summer. 1.1 square miles. 3 bathroom stalls total on the island. Estimated (ticket sales by the ferry) of 1.1 MILLION visitors a year. Approximately 15 islanders benefit from tourism (golf cats rental companies, 3 restaurants, 2 gift shops, one bike rental company, 2 art galleries). The 95% of our community not directly benefiting from tourism are, at best, tolerating the steady stream of people. I live here, you don’t. Vermont may love tourism- we are over-ridden by them.
will thing be open the first week of October?
Have gone to Peaks Island on several occasions, had friends with homes, attended the church and thought it was wonderful.
Living in Florida now for the last seventeen years; these pictures certainly do add to my severe case of continuing homesickness! VERY NICE! – THB III