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
A view of the ferry
Photo Credit : Annie GravesAdjectives 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.
Have you ever visited Peaks Island?
This post was first published in 2012 and has been updated.
A New Hampshire native, Annie has been a writer and editor for over 25 years, while also composing music and writing young adult novels.
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