Review - Bar Harbor Manor in Bar Harbor, Me.

BAR HARBOR MANOR

Located at 47 Holland Ave. on Mt. Desert Island
207-288-3829
http://www.barharbor.com/

We stayed at the Bar Harbor Manor in 2008 and liked it so much, when we went back to Maine in 2009, we stayed there again. The owners are gracious and friendly. The rooms are clean, spacious and kept up to date, with a good size bathroom. The room we stayed in had a porch so that you could sit outside and it had lattice on the sides, so you had some privacy. A parking lot with free parking. It's conveniently located to everything. A half block walk to Cottage St., which has a number of restaurants and stores to look in as you walk to Main St., about a 3 block walk. When you get to Main St., if you go right you have quite a few blocks of stores for shopping, restaurants, coffee shops etc. If you go left you have a block of the same, and then your at the harbor. There you can catch a boat for whale watching or boats for sight seeing. If you don't want to boat, there's a trail that winds along the coast line for aways, giving you opportunities to photograph various boats and birds etc. You can also jump in the car and have a short drive to the Acadia National Park, Southwest Harbor, Northeast Harbor, or Bass Harbor. There is also a beautiful garden over in Southwest Harbor called the Asticou Gardens ( free, but donations are welcome ). There are nice restaurants all over Mt. Desert Island, from Bar Harbor to Bass Harbor. In Bar Harbor, our favorite breakfast place was Jeannie's, they have much better than the regular breakfast fare, incredible stuffed french toast, their own homemade oatmeal bread, even their own strawberry rhubarb spread, which i would love to carry in my store, but they only sell retail, unfortunately. Just a short drive to Southwest Harbor and you can go to the Cafe Drydock and Inn, it is a very nice restaurant, with lite fare and really good upscale food. We went there for their Walker Wellington, a Filet Mignon, topped with crabmeat, wrapped in puff pastry and topped with Bearnaise sauce. It was excellent, not only one of the best dishes that i had on vacation, but also one of the best ever. They have a number of items on their menu that i hope to try in future years. I hardly ever eat dessert, but they had a Tollhouse cookie pie, that my wife and i both wanted to try, but we were too filled from the dinner. So we came back the next day a little late for the lunch crowd and a little early for the dinner crowd, because we wanted to order just dessert, but didn't want to tie up a table at their busiest times. The Tollhouse cookie pie was worth going back for. The restaurant is clean, well decorated and the service is great, the people friendly. You won't regret the short drive to get here and back.