Summer Weekend in Boothbay Harbor, Maine

OMG, I’m surrounded by five different fireworks shows, my daughter texted last Fourth of July. She was on the waterside slope below the octagonal blockhouse at Fort Edgecomb, juggling her phone and a milkshake, just up the road from Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

Lara didn’t exactly want me to divulge this snippet of intel. But expecting a travel editor to keep a little-known prime vantage point under wraps is like asking a diva to pipe down. Plus, I love the symbolism of those colorful explosions, emanating not just from Boothbay Harbor but its sibling communities (and probably some personal arsenals), in this region of tidal rivers, briny coves, and boat-dense harbors.

Understandably, many visitors swoop down Route 27, hit the rotary, and head straight to New England’s largest botanical garden or to Boothbay Harbor, one of Maine’s liveliest seaside towns, then make their departure before darkest night. But plenty of the Boothbay Peninsula’s pyrotechnics are the quiet sort that lie just before or beyond where you thought you belonged.

How fortunate Lara and I were to spend two summers’ worth of non-working hours poking around the peninsula, following tips and our instincts. She interned at the 300-acre Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and I visited so often I felt a kinship with the five resident trolls (and even more so after my silly little great-niece insisted we see all the trolls’ backsides). Danish artist Thomas Dambo continues to add to the global Trollmap of colossal creatures he and his team and volunteers have sculpted from reclaimed and natural materials, but the largest collection in one place is here, where their message about sustainability resonates deeply.

During rare evenings when the gardens stay open only for members, we loved having picnic suppers with monarchs aflutter, golden light on their floral feast. The cost of uncrowded enchantment is only a bit more than regular admission, and membership buoys the botanical treasure’s growth and research … and allows you to return again and again.

Seize the opportunity because, within a tiny radius of the gardens, there’s an out-of-the-way country store where you won’t have to wait in a long line for one of the Midcoast’s best lobster rolls. There’s a land trust preserve with lightly trod trails and boulder-top benches that won’t let you catch your breath: The view steals it away. There’s a dirt turnoff that leads to a dock, where you can sun yourself or read between refreshing dips. There’s a funky stand with the best fried fish you’ve ever had and the perpetual promise of “Free Beer Tomorrow.”

If that doesn’t keep you around for a few days, maybe the secluded beach on East Boothbay’s Ocean Point will. Or a first-rate bakery “disguised” as an old-timey general store. Or tickets for dinner and a show where performers are your servers, and what productions lack in glitz they make up for in heart. It’s so in keeping with the earnestness to how things operate here, a way of life that’s protected by locals and transplants alike.

Am I being intentionally vague about these finds? No. You already know I can’t keep a secret. Especially not the one about flights of ice cream served in cute homemade waffle cups in a 19th-century barn. The details are all right here for you in our Guide to Boothbay Harbor | Eat, Stay, Play.

Boothbay Harbor holds surprises, too. Not surprising: Parking’s a challenge downtown at the height of summer (try near the library). Everything is walkable once you land a spot. There are galleries, shops, and restaurants to easily fill the better part of a day. Even agonizing over Coastal Maine Popcorn’s 40-plus flavors is time delectably spent. Our favorite meals always started with sushi and ended with pastries shaped like perfect red roses.

Stroll across Boothbay Harbor’s trademark 1901 footbridge, renovated last year, and pause to picture not only the vacationers who made this walk when the bridge was new, but also the shipbuilders who toiled here before them. The settlers who tried to get a toehold as early as 1630. The indigenous fishing community that was like, Not so fast.

Tidal Transit, right by the footbridge, will rent you a kayak. The piers are lined with ticket booths, where you can purchase passage aboard a sailing schooner, a puffin- or whale-watching cruise, a fishing charter, a sightseeing vessel, even a boat bound for a clambake on Cabbage Island. The ease of taking to the water keeps this tourist-filled summer spot from ever feeling like a trap. Keeps Boothbay Harbor true to its maritime identity.

See More: Guide to Boothbay Harbor | Eat, Stay, Play