A Day in Ogunquit, Maine       

Why you should include Ogunquit, Maine on your bucket list 

Ogunquit, Maine, is an easy day trip from many places in New England and is well worth visiting for a day and more if you can.  It is the type of place you could imagine yourself settling into for a week or a season of quiet relaxation.  I imagine the locals probably think the town gets overrun by tourists but it didn’t feel that way to me on our visit.  We drove up for the day from Salisbury Beach, MA where we had our RV for the week.

The air is clean and crisp and the water views incredible.  The restaurant selections are pretty amazing too.  Did I mention the air was clean and crisp?  I’m sure people take this for granted but that was a pretty incredible thing.  And there are hills and cliffs and a beach and a trolley.  The one thing you must do I think is walk the Marginal Way and soak up the laid back feel the area gives.  You can easily imagine a simpler time when the upper middle class spent their summers here years ago.

This is great old school summer vacationing at its best with cabins and large hotels that don’t have brand names and most likely close during the off season with grass made for croquet and Adirondack chairs.  The beaches are not powder white sugar sand like you see in the west coast of Florida but that was quite alright by us. There were plenty of people schlepping beach chairs to the beaches.

At the end of the Marginal Way you’ll find a couple restaurants.  We stopped at Barnacle Billy’s and had really quite excellent lobster rolls and drinks.  From there you can go to the nearby historical museum, which was closed when we stopped by, and stroll the beautiful grounds.   It is easy to loop back to the main town center from he for the usual t-shirt shops and ice cream but just being here was special and magical.

There is plenty to return for as the town has an excellent playhouse and an abundance of activities and restaurants to try.  It’s also an easy base for day trips to places like Portsmouth, Old Orchard Beach and even outlet shopping in Kittery.  So whether you stay in Ogunquit or just venture there for a day, there’s great reason to visit as well as stay for a more extended period of time.  Whichever you do, you’ll find plenty within an hour or so drive of Ogunquit.