Best Day Trips from Portland

Portland sits at the center of southern Maine, with beaches to the south, lighthouses in every direction, mountains to the west and the Midcoast within reach. What follows gives the route to each destination and what the operator or the managing agency actually publishes about fees, hours and season.

Drive times are deliberately left out. They depend on the day, the season and Route 1 traffic, and nobody publishes them. A confident minute figure is the fastest way to make a reader late. Where a state agency or a land trust publishes an actual road distance, it is quoted below.

A note on state park fees. Maine charges day use per person, not per vehicle, which surprises families every summer. The 2026 Bureau of Parks and Lands rates are given for each park below. Anyone 12 and over pays the adult rate, children 5 to 11 pay $1, children under 5 are free, and Maine residents 65 and over are free. Only about 15 locations can take a card, so bring cash.

South to Cape Elizabeth

Portland Head Light and Fort Williams Park

Route: Route 77 south from Portland into Cape Elizabeth.

Portland Head Light stands in Fort Williams Park and is one of the most photographed lighthouses in America. The park is free and open year round, sunrise to sunset. Parking is pay and display at the Picnic Shelter, Parade Ground, Ship Cove and Central lots: $6 for a two-hour minimum, then $2 an hour, or $25 for an annual season pass. The Overflow lot is free. The museum in the keeper’s house charges $2 for adults and $1 for ages 6 to 18, free under 6, open 10am to 4pm from Memorial Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The tower itself opens to the public one day a year, on Maine Open Lighthouse Day. Dogs are allowed in the park on a leash except in the designated off-leash area.

Two Lights State Park

Route: Route 77 to Two Lights Road, then Tower Drive, in Cape Elizabeth.

The two lighthouses are not in the park. The Bureau of Parks and Lands is explicit about it: the park is named for the twin towers standing outside it, at the end of Two Lights Road, and neither is open to the public. Built in 1828, they were the first twin lighthouses on the Maine coast. The eastern light is an active automated station visible 17 miles at sea. The western light stopped operating in 1924 and is now a private home. One of the towers is the subject of Edward Hopper’s painting Lighthouse at Two Lights.

What the park does have is 41 acres of rocky headland on the site of the World War II Cape Elizabeth Military Reservation, with picnic tables above the surf and shoreline trails looking out to ships entering Portland Harbor. Open all year, 9am to sunset. Day use is $5 resident, $7 non-resident, $2 senior non-resident, per person.

Don’t miss: the Lobster Shack at Two Lights, 225 Two Lights Road, past the park at the end of the road. It is seasonal: open daily 4 April through 25 October in 2026, 11am to 8pm in spring and fall, to 8:30pm in July and August. See our best lobster shacks guide for more coastal dining.

Crescent Beach State Park

Route: 109 Bowery Beach Road, about eight miles south of Portland on Route 77 in Cape Elizabeth.

The closest state park sand beach to the city. The park’s own description is a mile-long crescent, with a bathhouse, cold-water showers, picnic tables and grills, and a playground. Open all year, 9am to sunset. Day use is $6 resident, $8 non-resident, $2 senior non-resident, per person.

Kettle Cove State Park is adjacent, with coastal views and a walking trail around the cove, at a lower $3 resident, $4 non-resident, $1 senior non-resident. The beach fills on hot summer days, and the parking lot, not the sand, is the constraint. Mornings are quieter.

Scarborough Marsh

Route: 92 Pine Point Road, Scarborough.

At 3,100 acres this is the largest salt marsh in Maine. It is owned and managed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Maine Audubon runs the nature center on Pine Point Road, with exhibits, a nature trail across the road, naturalist-guided and self-guided tours, a nature store and canoe and kayak rentals.

Check the dates before driving out. The Audubon center is open daily only 15 June to 7 September in 2026. Rentals run 9am to 4pm while it is open: $25 an hour, $35 for an hour and a half, $45 for two hours, capped at $55. Outside those dates the boat ramp is still there and you may launch your own boat at your own risk, but there is no staff, no rental and no guided tour.

Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park

Route: Wolf Neck Road, about two miles south of the Bow Street and Flying Point Drive intersection. The park is in Freeport, four and a half miles from Route 1 in the middle of the shopping district, not in the next town along.

More than 200 acres of white pine and hemlock forest, salt marsh estuary and rocky shore on Casco Bay and the Harraseeket River, given to the state in 1969. The Casco Bay Trail runs along the water. The park’s signature residents are the ospreys that nest on Googins Island just offshore, with an interpretive panel on the trail explaining them. Open all year, 9am to sunset, fee collected year round: $4 resident, $6 non-resident, $2 senior non-resident, per person.

Combine with: Freeport shopping, five minutes back up the road.

The Southern Beaches

Old Orchard Beach

You can get here without a car, and it is the only beach on this page you can. The Amtrak Downeaster stops at Old Orchard Beach, but the stop is seasonal: 2026 service runs 18 May to mid-October. The station is at 11 First Street, and the beach, pier, amusement park, shops and hotels are all within a quarter mile on foot. On-street metered parking sits next to the platform.

Sand, a classic amusement pier and all the fried dough you can handle. Palace Playland is the beachfront amusement park. It publishes a day-by-day calendar rather than fixed hours and says plainly that it has no set closing time, because closing depends on weather and attendance, so check the calendar the morning you go rather than the night before.

Ogunquit

Three good things in a row: the beach, the Marginal Way footpath along the cliffs, and Perkins Cove at the far end. Walk them as a loop and you get a full day without moving the car.

Moving the car is the expensive part. Every town lot is metered, and the Town of Ogunquit’s published 2026 rates run from the Main Beach Lot at $9.00 an hour or $50 a day, through the Lower Lot at $8.25 and $46.50 and the Footbridge and North Beach lots at $8.00 and $45.00, down to Obeds at $6.25 and $36.00 and Jacobs at $2.25 an hour with a two-hour limit. Pay at the meter or through the Passport Parking or ParkMobile apps. Failing to pay costs $75 plus administrative fees.

Kennebunk Beaches

The town has three beaches: Gooch’s Beach, Middle Beach and Mother’s Beach. “Kennebunk Beach” is the collective name for the three, not a fourth beach, and guides that list it separately are double-counting. They run along Beach Avenue off Routes 9 and 35, linked end to end by sidewalk from Gooch’s to Lord’s Point.

A parking permit is required, from 15 June through 15 September. Non-resident permits in 2026 are $30 a day, $100 a week and $200 for the season, sold at kiosks on each of the three beaches, at Town Hall, or through the PassportParking app. Taxpayer and resident window stickers are $10. Lifeguards cover Gooch’s and Mother’s from mid-June to early September.

Dogs are allowed on Gooch’s, Middle, Mother’s and part of Parsons, but from 15 June through Labor Day only before 9am and after 5pm, under voice control or on a leash. From the day after Labor Day to 14 June they may be on the beach all day on the same terms.

The permit ordinance changes on 1 January 2027, so if you are planning a later season, check the town’s page before buying anything. Add Dock Square in Kennebunkport for shopping and dining.

Up the Coast

Boothbay

Route: US Route 1 north, then south down the Boothbay peninsula.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is at 105 Botanical Gardens Drive in Boothbay, not in Boothbay Harbor. It covers more than 300 acres, calls itself the largest botanical garden in New England, and is open daily 9am to 5pm, closing promptly at 5. Admission is ticketed, and tickets bought on site cost $4 more each than tickets bought ahead, so book before you leave. Wheelchairs are free at the front desk, electric scooters rent for $18 or $15 for members, and accessible cart tours are $18 or $15 for members, free for everyone on Wednesdays. The paths are easy but there are a lot of acres, so wear real shoes.

The Maine State Aquarium is a Department of Marine Resources facility at 194 McKown Point Road in West Boothbay Harbor. Admission is $10 for adults and $7 for children 3 to 12, seniors 65 and over, active military and veterans, free under 3. It is one room of roughly 1,800 square feet with a 26-foot minke whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling, and parking is very limited. Its 2026 summer season ended on 6 September. It is closed on Labor Day and then open Saturdays only in September, 10am to 3pm.

Brunswick and Bath

Route: I-295 north to Brunswick, then US Route 1 on to Bath. Brunswick comes first.

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 245 Maine Street, Brunswick, is free. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Thursday until 8:30pm, Sunday 1pm to 5pm, and closed Mondays and national holidays. The Monday closure catches people out.

Maine Maritime Museum in Bath sits on a 20-acre campus on the bank of the Kennebec, in the city that calls itself the City of Ships. Open 9:30am to 5pm daily. Admission is $22 adult and $20 senior. A cruise ticket includes museum admission, good for two days within a week. The museum takes part in Blue Star Museums, free for active military and their families, and Museums for All, free for up to four adults receiving SNAP.

Camden and Rockport

Route: US Route 1 north. Camden Hills State Park entry is two miles north of Camden on Route 1, at 280 Belfast Road.

The longest drive on this page, and it wants a full day. The signature is the view from Mount Battie over Camden Harbor, Penobscot Bay and the islands, the view behind Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Renascence. On a clear day you can see Cadillac Mountain.

You do not have to walk up. There is a Mount Battie Auto Road, and this is the detail that ruins afternoons: the auto road closes at 4:00pm daily, and shuts for the winter on 1 December or whenever snow blocks it. Mount Megunticook, the highest of the Camden Hills, is a moderate climb on foot. Park hours are 8am to sunset all year, and day use is $4 resident, $6 non-resident, $2 senior non-resident, per person, collected year round.

The Pemaquid Peninsula

Route: US Route 1 to Damariscotta, then State Route 130, signed as Bristol Road, down the peninsula to Bristol.

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park is run by the Bristol Parks and Recreation Department, open 9am to 5pm every day from the middle of May until mid to late October, with the closing date varying year to year. Admission is $4 for adults and children 12 and over, $1 for children 5 to 11, free under 5.

The tower is a separate proposition. The Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse staff it with volunteer docents and open it weather permitting from Memorial Day weekend into early October, for a $1 suggested donation, and there is a 46-inch height requirement that is not waived. Call ahead if climbing it is the point of the trip.

Pemaquid Beach Park, also run by Bristol Parks, is open June through early September only, 8am to 6pm weather permitting, at $5 for adults and children 12 and over and $1 for ages 5 to 11.

Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site is narrower than it looks. The museum, the reproduction 17th-century fisherman’s dwelling, the Fort House and the forts are open 9am to 5pm daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day only. Outside that window you can walk the grounds from 9am to sunset but every building is shut. Day use is $3 resident and $4 non-resident, and children under 12 are free.

New Harbor at the tip is a working fishing harbor with lobster restaurants on the wharf, the best known being Shaw’s Wharf. It publishes no website, so phone rather than trusting hours you find elsewhere, and assume the wharf restaurants are seasonal.

West to the Mountains

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Route: 528 Hallowell Road, Pownal, on Route 9. From I-295 Exit 22, the Freeport and Durham exit, head west and turn left onto Durham Road, follow it as it becomes Pownal Road and then Elmwood Road to the blinking light at Route 9, and turn right. The park is about five miles from the exit.

The closest real summit hike to Portland, on 800 forested acres, and one of Maine’s five original state parks. The state’s own trail map puts the Summit Trail at 0.3 miles, described as the steepest ascent but not a difficult hike, and the Northern Loop at 1.0 mile, a wide gradual ascent to the same place. With children, go up the Northern Loop and down the Summit Trail. The Bureau of Parks and Lands publishes no summit elevation, so this page does not quote one.

Open 9am to sunset year round. Day use is $4 resident, $6 non-resident, $2 senior non-resident, per person. It is the only state park in southern Maine with shared-use trails for horses, mountain bikes and snowmobiles, and the mountain biking is east of Route 9. The Hawk Watch runs from the summit 15 March to 15 May.

Sebago Lake

Route: US Route 302 between Naples and South Casco. The day-use entrance is 11 Park Access Road in Casco. The campground entrance is 3 Campground Lane in Naples.

Sebago is Maine’s deepest and second largest lake. The state park covers 1,400 acres of sandy beach, woodland, ponds and bog, with a 250-site campground, and it also operates the historic Songo Lock. Open year round, 9am to sunset. Day use is $6 resident, $8 non-resident, $2 senior non-resident, per person.

Pleasant Mountain

The name has changed, and most write-ups have it backwards. The ski area once called Shawnee Peak is now Pleasant Mountain, which is also the name of the mountain it sits on; shawneepeak.com now redirects to pleasantmountain.com. Anything telling you Pleasant Mountain is “now Shawnee Peak” has it the wrong way round.

The mountain straddles Bridgton and Denmark and at 2,006 feet is the tallest in southern Maine. Loon Echo Land Trust owns 2,064 acres of it and manages a 10-mile hiking trail network with four trailheads: Ledges, Bald Peak, Southwest Ridge and Firewarden’s. Every trail connects to the main summit, and access is free with no permit needed. The land trust’s own warning is worth repeating: the trails are strenuous and the round trip takes many hours, so this is a day, not an afternoon. Ledges has the biggest parking area at about 20 cars; the rest hold at least six.

The ski area is owned and managed separately from the trail network, so a trail map from one is not a map of the other.

Grafton Notch and Sunday River

Route: Route 26. Grafton Notch State Park is on Route 26 about 14 miles north of Bethel.

Sunday River is in Newry, not Bethel, though Bethel is the town you eat and sleep in. In winter it is a major ski resort. In summer and fall the resort runs mountain biking, scenic lift rides, hiking and golf.

Grafton Notch is the reason to come in any season. Open 9am to sunset 15 May to 15 October only, and the entrance takes cash or check, no credit cards: $3 resident, $4 non-resident, $1 senior non-resident, per person. Off season you can walk in during the same hours and pay into the self-service canister, with facilities closed. Short walks off Route 26 reach Screw Auger Falls, a 23-foot drop into a narrow gorge on the Bear River; Mother Walker Falls, a gorge more than 40 feet deep and 980 feet long; and Moose Cave, a 200-foot gorge on a quarter-mile loop. Twelve of the hardest miles of the Appalachian Trail cross the park, and Old Speck tops out at 4,180 feet.

The Casco Bay Islands

Casco Bay Lines runs year round from the Maine State Pier in Portland to Peaks, Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Diamond Cove, Long, Chebeague and Cliff. All tickets are round trip and are collected in Portland when you board. Peak season fares, in force 18 April to 12 October 2026, are $16 adult and $8 for a child aged 5 to 17, a senior 65 or over, or a rider with a transportation disability. From 13 October 2026 to 16 April 2027 those fall to $8 and $4. A bicycle is $7 round trip and a dog is $4.50. Children under 5 ride free.

Peaks Island

Casco Bay Lines puts the crossing at about 17 minutes. Peaks is 740 acres, three miles out, and a neighborhood of the City of Portland rather than a separate town. Rent a bike or a golf cart at the landing, circle the island, walk up onto Battery Steele, and eat near the ferry before catching a later boat. The Fifth Maine Museum covers the island’s Civil War history and holds the restored battle flag of the Fifth Maine Regiment. Weekday boats are quieter than weekend boats.

Chebeague Island

Two ferries reach Chebeague and they are very different trips. Casco Bay Lines runs from Portland and puts it at 60 to 90 minutes each way, varying with the route and the amount of freight aboard. The Chebeague Transportation Company runs a much shorter crossing from Cousins Island in Yarmouth, on its own schedule and its own fares, with tickets bought in advance.

The island is almost five miles long and a mile and a half wide, with about 360 year-round residents and more than 1,600 in summer. The name means “isle of many springs” and is pronounced “shuh-big”. Casco Bay Lines publishes walking times from its landing: 31 minutes to the boatyard, 44 to the library and market, 56 to the museum, 63 to the inn and golf club. Bring a bike or plan on a long walk.

Cliff Island

Cliff Island is the smallest year-round island in Casco Bay and the last stop down the bay. Casco Bay Lines puts the crossing at 60 to 120 minutes each way, varying with route and cargo, so read the schedule and work backwards from the return boat.

It is the only year-round island in the bay where every road is unpaved. Cars are allowed, though most people walk, cycle or use a golf cart, and there is a small seasonal grocery store and cafe, the Cliff Island Store and Cafe. About 60 people live here year round and roughly 200 in summer, much of the island is conservation land, and there is very little else, which is the point.

Bailey Island and Orr’s Island

Route: Route 24 south from Cook’s Corner in Brunswick, 14.5 miles, crossing the Cribstone Bridge.

These are part of the Town of Harpswell and are reached by road, so there is no ferry to time. The Giant’s Stairs is the reason to come: a half-mile trail along the rocky shore of Bailey Island with views over eastern Casco Bay, and often harbor seals, rafts of ducks and a lobster boat hauling below your feet. The rock is an eroded volcanic dike, which is why the shore looks like a staircase. The trail is owned and managed by the Town of Harpswell, and Harpswell Heritage Land Trust’s McIntosh Lot Preserve trail completes a short, easy loop. Parking is in designated roadside spots on Washington Avenue, and there are not many.

Seasonal Notes

Fall Foliage

Peak near Portland is later than most visitors assume. The Maine Forest Service publishes the progression by zone: northern Maine peaks in the last week of September into the first week of October; central Maine and the western mountains, which is where Bethel and Rangeley sit, peak around Indigenous Peoples’ Day weekend; and coastal and southern Maine, the zone that includes Portland, Kennebunkport and Camden, sees peak or near-peak color from mid-October through the end of the month.

So a foliage day trip in late September should head north or west, and a coastal drive is better saved for the second half of October. The state’s free weekly foliage report beats planning against an average, and the 2026 reporting season starts on 9 September. Our foliage guide has the zone dates and the viewpoints.

Apple Picking

Thompson’s Orchard, New Gloucester, has been in the same place since 1906, with pick-your-own apples, cider pressed on site and a bakery. It is Thompson’s Orchard, singular, not Orchards.

Ricker Hill Orchards, Turner, dates to 1803 and is open daily 8am to 6pm, with apples, pumpkins, cider donuts and hard cider.

For anywhere else, start from the Maine State Pomological Society orchard directory rather than a listings site. This page previously recommended a Limerick orchard whose website has since gone dark entirely, and a listing on an aggregator tells you nothing about whether a farm still opens its gate. See our best apple orchards guide for orchards checked one at a time.

Skiing

Pleasant Mountain in Bridgton, formerly Shawnee Peak, and Lost Valley in Auburn are the closest lift-served skiing to Portland. Sunday River in Newry and Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley are the bigger mountains and the longer drives. Pleasant Mountain, Sunday River and Sugarloaf all sit on the New England Pass, along with Loon, so one pass covers three of the four.

Paddling in the Fall

Sebago Lake and the Royal River both take a kayak. The Scarborough Marsh boat ramp stays usable after the Audubon center closes for the season, but the rentals and the guided trips do not.

Getting There Without a Car

Some of these trips work without driving. Most do not, and it is worth knowing which is which before you rely on a bus that does not run.

• The Amtrak Downeaster runs five round trips a day between Brunswick and Boston, calling at Portland, Freeport, Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Wells. Old Orchard Beach is a seasonal stop, 18 May to mid-October in 2026, and it is the only sand beach on this page a train reaches.
• Casco Bay Lines covers every island trip above, year round, from the Maine State Pier.
• Greater Portland Metro runs local buses in Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth and Gorham, plus the Metro BREEZ express between Portland, Yarmouth, Freeport and Brunswick. That puts L.L.Bean and the Bowdoin museum within a bus ride and a short walk. It does not serve the southern beach towns. There is no Metro bus to Cape Elizabeth, Kennebunk or Ogunquit.
• BSOOB Transit links Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Biddeford on its Blue-White line.

Everything else here needs a car.

Planning Tips

Check the closing date, not just the opening hours. More than half of these destinations are seasonal, and a cluster of them shut in September and October. In 2026: the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center’s daily season ends 7 September; Pemaquid Beach Park runs June through early September; the Maine State Aquarium’s summer season ended 6 September and it then opens Saturdays only in September; Colonial Pemaquid’s buildings close after Labor Day; Red’s Eats has a target closing date of 13 October; Grafton Notch State Park closes 15 October; Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park closes mid to late October; and the Lobster Shack at Two Lights closes 25 October.

Bring cash. Only about 15 state park locations can take a card at the gate, and Grafton Notch takes cash or check only.

Budget per head, not per car, at any state park, and note that anyone 12 and over pays the adult rate. Crescent Beach for two adults and two teenagers is $24 at the Maine resident rate and $32 at the non-resident rate, not $6 or $8 for the vehicle.

Other things worth knowing:

• Weekdays are quieter than weekends nearly everywhere here, and the gap is widest at the beaches and the ferry terminal.
• Mornings are quieter than afternoons at the beaches, and better for photographs at the lighthouses.
• Expect traffic on Route 1 on summer weekends and through foliage season.
• Layers, sunscreen, water and real shoes, even for the walks described as easy.
• In spring, the mountains are in mud season and the coast is the more reliable choice.

Three Day Trips That Work

Times are left to you, for the reason given at the top. These are orders of operation, not schedules.

Classic Coastal

Fort Williams Park and Portland Head Light first, while the light is good and the parking lot is empty, then south to the Kennebunks. Lunch at The Clam Shack, which is at 2 Western Ave in Kennebunk, at the bridge, not in Kennebunkport where it is often listed; it opens daily at 11am. Then Dock Square in Kennebunkport for the shops, and the afternoon on Gooch’s, Middle or Mother’s Beach. Buy the parking permit if you are going between 15 June and 15 September.

Foodie Run Up the Coast

Freeport for L.L.Bean, then Route 1 to Wiscasset for Red’s Eats at 41 Water Street, then on to Damariscotta for oysters from the river that made them famous.

Red’s is seasonal and its days change in September. Its own site gives the season as late April or May to mid-October, with a 2026 target closing date of 13 October, and says it will be open on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 12 October. From the day after Labor Day it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, open Wednesday to Sunday 11:30am to 5pm. It is a walk-up window and the line is part of the deal.

Mountains and Lakes

Sebago Lake State Park for the morning, beach and picnic, then Route 302 to Bridgton or Naples for the afternoon, town, a kayak or nothing at all. If you want the hike rather than the swim, carry on to a Pleasant Mountain trailhead, but treat that as the whole day: Loon Echo Land Trust describes its trails as strenuous and a many-hour round trip.

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Portland’s central position is the real attraction here. Pick a direction, check the operator’s own page for the season and the fee before you leave, and the day plans itself.

Related Guides

Plan your Portland day trips with these additional resources:

• Portland Head Light Guide - Maine’s most famous lighthouse
• Portland Museum of Art - Rainy day cultural option
• Portland Coffee Guide - Fuel up before your trip
• Bradbury Mountain Guide - Closest mountain hike
• Freeport Overview - L.L.Bean and outlet shopping
• Boothbay Harbor Overview - Classic coastal village
• Maine Islands Guide - Island day trip options
• Maine Ferries - Getting to the islands
• Scenic Drives Guide - Routes from Portland
• How to Plan a Maine Road Trip - Extending your exploration
• Maine Maritime Museum - Bath’s maritime heritage
• Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens - World-class gardens in Boothbay
• Best Antiquing Guide - Antique shops along the coast
• Best Bookstores Guide - Literary stops en route
• Eventide Oyster Guide - Portland’s famous oyster bar