Driving To
Acadia National Park

Enjoy the Ride!

Are you planning on driving to Acadia National Park? Great! If you live in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic regions, getting to Acadia by car is no problem.

We drove to Acadia 6 times from southern New Jersey (near Philadelphia). It's an easy to navigate route (if you pay attention!) and we were able to get there in 11 hours when we drove straight through with 2 or 3 drivers. Of course, if you live closer or further away, your experience will differ.

We drive fully loaded!

Think of the Boston area as the main jumping off point for driving to Acadia. If you can figure out how to get to Boston, then you can make it the rest of the way.

Getting to Boston

Of course, if you live north of Boston, you won't start driving to Acadia by going there first, but almost anyone coming from the Mid-Atlantic or East Coast regions will come through at least the general vicinity of Boston on their way to Maine.

Your best bet is to go to a mapping site such as MapQuest or Yahoo or Google Maps. I've always liked MapQuest a lot and we're able to provide a handy search form for them right here on our site (clicking the Get Directions button takes you off our site). Just put in your starting address and where exactly you're driving to in Acadia or the Bar Harbor area.

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A Word to the Wise...

However, you may find that these mapping programs direct you to take the coastal route, up I-95, for driving to Acadia. That's a scenic way to go, but...

First off, you'll have to drive straight through New York City on the Cross Bronx Expressway. Thatgoes pretty fast, assuming traffic isn't backed up, which it can be. It's a little scary though, driving past what look like bombed out buildings. There are no real shoulders to pull off on either, not that you'd want to have to stop there anyway.

Second, once you get past NYC, it's slower driving along the coast. Beautiful yes, but slow, and you will hit traffic around all the major cities and towns in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

So, unless you have a hankering to see one or more of the coastal towns (such as Mystic Seaport) as you're driving to Acadia, I'd encourage you to hop off I-95 onto I-287 North, then I-684 East to I-84 East, which heads diagonally in a northeasterly direction across Connecticut into Massachusetts, where it eventually intersects the Mass Turnpike (I-90). The Turnpike heads due East across the state all the way to Boston.

Driving to Acadia: From Boston to Augusta, Maine

When driving to Acadia from Boston, you can jump on I-95 and head straight north into Maine through a small portion of New Hampshire. However...

If you came from the south via the I-84/I-90 route recommended above, you can avoid the whole Boston area (one of the worst places in the US to drive!) by veering north on I-290 through Worcester until it intersects the "outer loop" of I-495. Take I-495 North until it hits I-95 just south of the New Hampshire/Massachusetts border.

Once you are on I-95, you can take that all the way north into and through coastal Maine.

NOTE: When you get near Portland, Maine, you'll have the option to get off on I-295 to stay right on the coast or to stay on I-95 and take a somewhat longer route a bit to the west. We've done both and they both work, depending on the time of day and any road construction that may be going on.

If you want to take side trips to shop in the outlets at Freeport or see the shipbuilding yards in Bath, then definitely take I-295. But if you'd prefer to detour through deep Maine woods, then I-95 is your best bet (but it will take longer).

At any rate, both roads come together again south of Augusta, Maine, where you'll have another decision to make.

From Augusta to Mt. Desert Island

Most of the websites I've seen—including the National Park Service site—recommend you get off I-95 in Augusta and take Route 3 over to Belfast on the Maine coast, then Route 1 up the Maine coast to Mount Desert Island.

You can do that, and it's a gorgeous drive going that way. But, you'll go through a number of small towns and it can be rather slow, even though it's quite direct. We did it that way on our first and third trips to Acadia National Park.

But let me give you an alternate route that is our preferred route. You see, we want to get to Acadia these days as quickly as we can, so that we have the maximum time in the Park to do the fun stuff, like hiking.

So, we take the faster, less scenic route. It might be a bit longer, as the crow flies, but it's faster. And the good news is, it's beautiful going that way too!

So, instead of getting off I-95 in Augusta, just keep heading north, all the way to Bangor, Maine. In Bangor, follow the signs to get off on I-395 to get to Route 1A towards Bar Harbor. You go about 30 miles on Route 1A into Ellsworth.

In Ellsworth (a little "gateway" town), get on Route 3, which heads off to Trenton and the causeway bridge onto Mount Desert Island.

Once you get on the island, you must choose to go right (towards the western side of the island) or left (towards Bar Harbor and the main entrance to Acadia National Park).

That's it! You've just finished driving to Acadia!

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