Bangor Maine recommendations?

[y4m]

We are thinking about going there in July for a concert that also happens to fall on our anniversary.

What else is there to do there in the summer?  Food?  Outdoor stuff?

[Deleted]

I'm jealous, Maine will be so beautiful in July! Acadia National Park is only 50 miles away if you have a car. We were there in June last year and it was AMAZING. Actually, that entire part of the coast is beautiful. My mom went to Castine last summer and loved it.

[ESF]

eat lobster. then eat more lobster. YWIA.

[mccallister84]

I'm interested to see what people say. We're heading there in late June for a wedding.

[Awkward]

Guys, I'm going to be honest. The restaurant scene is really sad. The third best reviewed restaurant in the area on Yelp is the Olive Garden.

I haven't been to the Fiddlehead Restaurant, but a friend says it's very good. A little pricey for the area, but one of the better restaurants. My best recommendation is the Sea Dog Brewery. Their food is good and so is the beer (try the wild blueberry!). They also put on a good brunch. For sushi, Ichiban is your best bet. There's also a damn good truck stop diner called Dysarts a bit south of Bangor. This is the state of the Bangor restaurant scene.

Attractions wise there's not a lot around. Farmers Market, a slots casino, Paul Bunyan statue (LOL). If you're bringing kids, there's a children's museum downtown.

If you head two exits north, Orono is a college town (the college of our hearts always...) with some restaurant options. Siam Orchid (Thai), Woodman's (bar/grill), Verve (smoothies and burritos). Someone told me there's a microbrewery in town that does tastings now. That's about it, besides the small Native American museum on campus. For outdoorsy stuff, I'd suggest the Orono Bog Boardwalk, it's between Bangor and Orono. It's a system of nature trails that goes through the swampy areas with some really unique types of plants. It's a nice way to kill an hour or so.

If you're going to be there for more than a day or so, my advice is head for the coast/Acadia National Park.



Are you going to see Phish or Barenaked Ladies?

[y4m]

Guster. But we will see Barenaked Ladies (and Ben Folds!!!) by default.

Would it make more sense to spend most of the weekend in Portland instead? We've never been to Maine at all.

[cattledogkisses]

Apr 30, 2013 20:11:23 GMT -5 Awkward said:

Guys, I'm going to be honest. The restaurant scene is really sad. The third best reviewed restaurant in the area on Yelp is the Olive Garden.

I haven't been to the Fiddlehead Restaurant, but a friend says it's very good. A little pricey for the area, but one of the better restaurants. My best recommendation is the Sea Dog Brewery. Their food is good and so is the beer (try the wild blueberry!). They also put on a good brunch. For sushi, Ichiban is your best bet. There's also a damn good truck stop diner called Dysarts a bit south of Bangor. This is the state of the Bangor restaurant scene.

Attractions wise there's not a lot around. Farmers Market, a slots casino, Paul Bunyan statue (LOL). If you're bringing kids, there's a children's museum downtown.

If you head two exits north, Orono is a college town (the college of our hearts always...) with some restaurant options. Siam Orchid (Thai), Woodman's (bar/grill), Verve (smoothies and burritos). Someone told me there's a microbrewery in town that does tastings now. That's about it, besides the small Native American museum on campus. For outdoorsy stuff, I'd suggest the Orono Bog Boardwalk, it's between Bangor and Orono. It's a system of nature trails that goes through the swampy areas with some really unique types of plants. It's a nice way to kill an hour or so.

If you're going to be there for more than a day or so, my advice is head for the coast/Acadia National Park.



Are you going to see Phish or Barenaked Ladies?

There are a few good restaurants.  Second on Sea Dog (Bangor), Yoshi for sushi (Brewer), another second on Woodmans and Verve (Orono), they only serve lunch but Giacomos and Bagel Central (Bangor).

If you head out towards Bar Harbor/Acadia you'll pass the Lucerne Inn on Rte. 1A, which is definitely upscale.  We actually had our wedding reception there.    My personal recommendation is to skip Bar Harbor... it's tourist trap-y and I don't get the allure, personally.  Acadia is always lovely though. 

But yeah, not a whole lot going on in Bangor, honestly.  Lol. 

[Deleted]

We had a lot of fun in Portland last summer (flew in and out of there and drove to Acadia). They have great restaurants and breweries (we toured Allagash). We also went on a boat tour of the Casco Bay. I would definitely recommend Portland for a few days in July.

[Awkward]

Apr 30, 2013 20:22:08 GMT -5 y4m said:

Guster. But we will see Barenaked Ladies (and Ben Folds!!!) by default.

Would it make more sense to spend most of the weekend in Portland instead? We've never been to Maine at all.

The concert is Sunday night, so I'd definitely spend Saturday either in Portland (restaurant heaven!) or driving up Route 1 (will be lots of traffic though) and stopping in all those tacky, adorable tourist towns on the coast. There will be next to nothing to do on a Sunday morning in Bangor besides the Farmers Market, so I don't think staying in Portland and driving up in the morning would be too big of a problem. It's about a 2 hour drive.

If I can convince SO to take that Monday off I'll see you there.

[cattledogkisses]

Oh, you can drive by Stephen King's house on West Broadway.

Seriously, this is the extent of our attractions.

[Awkward]

Apr 30, 2013 20:25:37 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

Apr 30, 2013 20:11:23 GMT -5 Awkward said:

Guys, I'm going to be honest. The restaurant scene is really sad. The third best reviewed restaurant in the area on Yelp is the Olive Garden.

I haven't been to the Fiddlehead Restaurant, but a friend says it's very good. A little pricey for the area, but one of the better restaurants. My best recommendation is the Sea Dog Brewery. Their food is good and so is the beer (try the wild blueberry!). They also put on a good brunch. For sushi, Ichiban is your best bet. There's also a damn good truck stop diner called Dysarts a bit south of Bangor. This is the state of the Bangor restaurant scene.

Attractions wise there's not a lot around. Farmers Market, a slots casino, Paul Bunyan statue (LOL). If you're bringing kids, there's a children's museum downtown.

If you head two exits north, Orono is a college town (the college of our hearts always...) with some restaurant options. Siam Orchid (Thai), Woodman's (bar/grill), Verve (smoothies and burritos). Someone told me there's a microbrewery in town that does tastings now. That's about it, besides the small Native American museum on campus. For outdoorsy stuff, I'd suggest the Orono Bog Boardwalk, it's between Bangor and Orono. It's a system of nature trails that goes through the swampy areas with some really unique types of plants. It's a nice way to kill an hour or so.

If you're going to be there for more than a day or so, my advice is head for the coast/Acadia National Park.



Are you going to see Phish or Barenaked Ladies?

There are a few good restaurants.  Second on Sea Dog (Bangor), Yoshi for sushi (Brewer), another second on Woodmans and Verve (Orono), they only serve lunch but Giacomos and Bagel Central (Bangor).

If you head out towards Bar Harbor/Acadia you'll pass the Lucerne Inn on Rte. 1A, which is definitely upscale.  We actually had our wedding reception there.    My personal recommendation is to skip Bar Harbor... it's tourist trap-y and I don't get the allure, personally.  Acadia is always lovely though. 

But yeah, not a whole lot going on in Bangor, honestly.  Lol. 

Good to see that despite not having spent more than a few hours in Bangor in the last 3 years my restaurant recs are still mostly valid, haha! So much of my eating in the area was Pat's Pizza and Margarita's, trying to list out other good options reminded me why.

[LoveTrains]

Bangor is the worst. You know I went to college in Maine so we go still go up there a lot. Portland is AMAZING. I could give you a whole list of recommendations for Portland, then up the coast to Freeport and Brunswick, then go up the coast even farther to Wiscasset (Reds Eats on Route 1 has the BEST lobster rolls in Maine and the 30 minute line to prove it), then continuing up to Camden and Rockland.

Then the coast is kind of boring until you head over to Acadia. I think if you are going all the way to Bangor, it could be worth the time to go to Acadia.

Are you flying from DC or driving? How long will you be up there? I can plan you a whole itinerary if you want....

[LoveTrains]

Also, this concert sounds awesome and I want to go! Too bad my SIL's wedding is the day before in New Haven, CT. No way to make it up there in time.

[cattledogkisses]

I'll second the idea of staying in Portland a night and then driving up, but if you drive up Route 1 give yourself some extra time. The traffic in the summer is horrendous, especially through Wiscasset.

[UMaineTeach]

Apr 30, 2013 20:37:15 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

Oh, you can drive by Stephen King's house on West Broadway.

Seriously, this is the extent of our attractions.

ooooooo, and my first year college roommate's parent's house is right next door!

Paddy Murphy's www.paddymurphyspub.com/ just a little ways from the concert is good.

I hear about www.geaghanspub.com/ordereze/intro.html on the radio (Mr. King's radio station) every morning, but I have never been. It's on main st. not far from the concert.

I don't love the SeaDog www.seadogbrewing.com/verify.php?return=/ (also near the concert)

Ok, really, let's face it, nothing in BRG is 'far from the concert'

Bookmark this blog cultureshock.bangordailynews.com/?ref=inline- she does a "5 things to do this weekend" post on Fridays.

Acadia's not far away.

[UMaineTeach]

Apr 30, 2013 20:52:23 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Also, this concert sounds awesome and I want to go! Too bad my SIL's wedding is the day before in New Haven, CT. No way to make it up there in time.

We welcome you to pick another weekend
waterfrontconcerts.com/

[cattledogkisses]

If you drive up Route 1 and want to do something stereotypically "Maine-y" there's plenty of lighthouses along the way.  H and I like to go for drives and play tourist sometimes.  Some of my favorites:

Owl's Head Light in Owl's Head


Breakwater Lighthouse in Rockland:


Fort Point Light in Stockton Springs:

[bluejen22]

Aww! Go to Bar Harbor!!!! My husband and I are from Omaha, NE and we got married there 9/30/11! It is gorgeous. You can go on a lobster boat, check out Lulu's lobster ride-Capt John is so nice and informative. There are tons of restaurants and cool bars to check out. My faves were Mad Hatter and Finback Alehouse. We flew into Bangor, and there wasn't much to see there. The bartender at Finback Alehouse told us that one of his buddies owns the brewery in Orono. Black Bear Brewery. Also, a brewery in Bar Harbor to check out and a winery (though I wasn't that impressed with it!)
Hope that helps-if you want any more info let me know!
[e-mail]

[UMaineTeach]

also: Twenty2 vodka > Cold River vodka - you know, if you need to buy some ME vodka.

[Deleted]

Apr 30, 2013 21:13:17 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

If you drive up Route 1 and want to do something stereotypically "Maine-y" there's plenty of lighthouses along the way.  H and I like to go for drives and play tourist sometimes.  Some of my favorites:

Owl's Head Light in Owl's Head


Breakwater Lighthouse in Rockland:


Fort Point Light in Stockton Springs:

We stopped at all of these lighthouses on our way up the coast last summer. Beautiful!

[LoveTrains]

Apr 30, 2013 21:04:16 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

Apr 30, 2013 20:52:23 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Also, this concert sounds awesome and I want to go! Too bad my SIL's wedding is the day before in New Haven, CT. No way to make it up there in time.

We welcome you to pick another weekend
waterfrontconcerts.com/

Don't worry we will still do our annual trip to our friends lake house in Maine this summer. plus my 10 year college reunion is up there this June!