Maine comes by the nickname “Vacationland” truthfully – the massive, scenic New England state solely has about 1.four million residents, however welcomes greater than 15 million guests per 12 months, most in search of a mixture of outside adventures and prime-notch seafood, like lobster rolls and oysters.

Everybody enjoys Maine’s enviable mixture of picturesque seashores, pine tree forests and charming small cities with working waterfronts and intriguing museums – together with the kids.

Is Maine good for kids?

Childhood summers are made in Maine, consuming fried clams and splashing within the lake. Even kids who usually solely work together with video screens discover it arduous to withstand the charms of Maine’s pristine pure magnificence and considerable wildlife, from the prospect to identify uncommon however superior behemoths, like whales and moose, to minuscule but marvelous crabs and sea snails, discovered within the biodiverse tide swimming pools that type within the hollows of craggy oceanside cliffs.

Although a few of Maine’s cities will be difficult to stroll round with strollers – howdy, cobblestones and hills of Portland! – the state virtually runs on household-pleasant tourism, so don’t be shy about touring with wee ones. Maine welcomes households readily, with many prime sights providing useful facilities, corresponding to loos with altering tables at seashores and campgrounds with playgrounds.

You will discover superior climbing trails and loads of excursions to have interaction assured youngsters, like summiting Mt Katahdin, the northernmost finish of the Appalachian Path, in addition to accessible paths with jaw-dropping views, from wheelchair- and stroller-pleasant paved sections of Acadia Nationwide Park to softly rolling hills with sturdy fences alongside the sheer cliff and well-known Portland Head Gentle at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth.

The place is finest in Maine for kids

With 3500 miles of coast alongside the Atlantic Ocean and lots of extra lakes inland, Maine presents numerous seashores. Be warned that the ocean water stays chilly even within the warmth of summer time, although, so you’ll want to pack rash guards that provide some heat along with solar safety.

For constructing sandcastles and splashing in comparatively calm waters, Brief Sands Seaside in York or Higgins Seaside in Scarborough are excellent venues, with restrooms and altering tables. Or attempt someplace like Pemaquid Level in Bristol, the place the kids can clamber alongside rocks splashed by waves and peppered with mesmerizing tide swimming pools. 

Finest issues to do in Maine with kids

Hang around on the glorious youngsters’s museums

You could possibly simply spend all day on the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor or the Kids’s Museum & Theatre of Maine in Portland, each of which have copious reveals throughout three flooring. Whereas they do have experiences appropriate for infants and toddlers (infants below 18 months enter the Kids’s Museum without cost), they’re particularly nice for kids who can self-lead a bit as they climb, attain into contact tanks and study hydropower by means of interactive waterworks tables.

The Kids’s Museum additionally homes the nation’s oldest constantly working youngsters’s theater, whose almost 12 months-spherical programming contains musicals based mostly on iconic youngsters’s books, just like the Maine-based Blueberries for Sal.

Find out about legendary creatures on the Worldwide Cryptozoology Museum

Bangor and Portland even have areas of the quirky Worldwide Cryptozoology Museum, for kids and maybe imaginative teenagers who need to study extra about legendary creatures like bigfoot. Infants get in free, whereas admission for kids 12 and below is simply $5.

Pique your kids’ curiosity in native produce

Maine is large on small farms, fisheries and orchards, making it an excellent place to have interaction your kids’ curiosity in native produce. Store the Portland Farmers’ Market in Deering Oaks park and picnic on contemporary blueberries, breads, pastries and cheese, play within the wade pool and watch the geese on the pond. 

In case your kids need to see the place their lobster roll comes from, take them on considered one of many lobster-boat excursions, such because the Lulu lobster boat out of Bar Harbor. Sunflower Farm Creamery enables you to do yoga with Nigerian dwarf goats, then snack on goat cheese. Navigate a corn maze, pet the animals within the petting zoo, take a experience in a horse-drawn wagon and, after all, decide your personal apples, berries and flowers at Treworgy Household Orchards in Levant.

Finest issues to do in Maine with infants and toddlers

Spend time in Freeport

Along with LL Bean and lots of different stores, Freeport has sights like Wolfe’s Neck Middle for Agriculture & the Surroundings, the place the programming ranges from seed-beginning workshops to farmyard story time and goat hikes. Go to the animal barns and gardens with your tots without cost, and even camp in a single day.

Take the scenic route and journey by practice

For the youngest kids who aren’t fairly free-vary but, reap the benefits of scenic transportation choices, like Amtrak’s Downeaster practice, which stops at six enjoyable cities alongside the southern coast, together with Freeport and the faculty city of Brunswick (Bowdoin School).

See the sights from the water

Maine’s 3500-mile shoreline, with many inhabited islands, is related by ferries. Look out for whales when you sail to artsy Monhegan Island from Boothbay Harbor, or go to as much as seven islands on Casco Bay Strains’ spherical-journey mailboat run from Portland, which could move seals because it delivers submit and passengers.

Finest issues to do in Maine with tweens and youngsters

Style Maine’s world-class delicacies

Ebook a strolling tour with Maine Day Ventures, stuffed with native historical past and meals samples in maritime cities like Boothbay Harbor and Portland. (Ensure that to get some pics for Instagram on the working dock behind Harbor Fish Market.) Or head to Glidden Level Oyster Farms in Edgecomb, the place teenagers and older can study to shuck their very own freshly harvested oysters.

Get outdoors for motion and journey

Take sporty offspring to ski, snowboard, ice skate and experience ski bikes and fats bikes within the winter at Sugarloaf Mountain. In hotter months, discover the ocean, freshwater favorites like Sebago Lake and even roaring rivers just like the Androscoggin by canoe, kayak and whitewater raft.

Some locations, like North Nation Rivers resort in Binham, provide all of those actions and extra in a single place, together with snowmobiling and moose-recognizing hikes.

Root for the house staff in Portland

In case your teen would relatively watch another person exert themselves, Portland has a number of minor-league sports activities groups – Portland Sea Canine baseball, Maine Mariners hockey and Maine Celtics basketball, all of which provide basic stadium concessions and mascot antics for low ticket costs.

Embrace the nostalgia at Outdated Orchard Seaside

One other favourite is Outdated Orchard Seaside, a resort city with a nostalgic boardwalk, amusement-park rides, seaside volleyball and arcade video games.

Take the youngsters for a campus go to

For older teenagers on the verge of school, among the state’s finest artwork museums are related to Maine’s three extremely regarded universities. Examine them out at Bates School (Lewiston), Bowdoin School (Brunswick) and Colby School (Waterville).

Planning ideas

• Maine leans away from stuffy positive eating and gown codes, which implies even most of the state’s most revered eating places are fairly chill about kids. Don’t really feel the necessity to hunt down “child-pleasant” eating places right here on the expense of your palate.
• This one appears easy, nevertheless it’s vital: do your kids choose snow to crowds? Maine will get walloped with vacationers in the summertime and fall, nevertheless it’s chilly and quiet within the winter and spring, so that you really can keep away from most waits within the offseason.
• With all the outside time, be certain that to pack hats, sunscreen and loads of water!