Vaughan to Portland, Maine: the lobster coast by chauffeured car

Portland, at the end of the road

Portland is the small city at the end of this site's longest northern road, and the reason to drive there is the coast it stands on: a peninsula in Casco Bay with the Old Port's brick warehouses of the 1860s turned into the restaurants that made Portland a food city — Eventide's oysters, Duckfat's fries, the Holy Donut, the lobster rolls at the Highroller and the Portland Lobster Company on the wharf; Portland Head Light at Cape Elizabeth, the lighthouse George Washington commissioned in 1791, on its rocks with the surf; the Casco Bay Lines' mailboat run to the islands, three hours of ferry through Peaks, Long, Chebeague and Cliff islands; the Portland Museum of Art's Winslow Homers and its Homer studio at Prouts Neck; Freeport's L.L.Bean flagship, open twenty-four hours a day since 1951, twenty minutes north; and south along Route 1 the beaches and villages — Old Orchard Beach's pier, Kennebunkport's Dock Square and the Bush compound's Walker's Point, Ogunquit's Marginal Way and Perkins Cove — that Ontario families drove to before there was a Cape Cod on the list. The Visit Portland site has the city; the border guide has the crossing.

The road, in two days

From Woodbridge the 401 to Montreal in five and a half hours, Autoroute 15 to the Lacolle crossing, I-89 southeast through Vermont to White River Junction, I-91 and I-93 north to Franconia Notch, Route 302 east through Crawford Notch and the Maine lakes — Bridgton, Naples's causeway on Long Lake — to Portland; twelve and three-quarter hours by the estimate and thirteen with the booth and stops, which is two days with a night in Burlington or the White Mountains — the mountain week's last night becoming the coast week's first drive. The Sprinter carries a family and two weeks' bags; a family that flies home from Portland's jetport books the one-way and the Pearson pickup.

The Old Port and the food

The Old Port is the six blocks between Commercial Street's wharves and Congress Street's hill — Exchange, Fore and Wharf Streets' cobbles, the 1860s brick blocks rebuilt after the 1866 fire, the shops, the galleries and the restaurants that every food magazine has ranked — and a family's evenings: the lobster roll at the wharf's picnic tables with the ferries coming in, Eventide's brown-butter lobster roll for the parents, the Holy Donut's potato donuts for breakfast, Standard Baking's croissants under Fore Street, the Portland Farmers' Market on Saturdays in Deering Oaks, and the Allagash brewery's tours on Industrial Way for the father. The Sprinter parks once in the Fore Street garage and the peninsula is walked; the Visit Portland site has the restaurants' current list.

The lighthouses

Portland Head Light in Fort Williams Park at Cape Elizabeth, fifteen minutes south, is the most photographed lighthouse in the country — the 1791 tower on the rocks with the keeper's house museum, the fort's ruins and the cliff walk, the Bite into Maine food truck's lobster rolls in the park — and a family's morning with the SUV in the park's lot; Two Lights State Park's twin towers and the Lobster Shack at Two Lights' picnic tables on the rocks are ten minutes further, Spring Point Ledge Light's breakwater walk is on the harbour's south side, and Bug Light Park's miniature Greek temple of a lighthouse faces the city across the water. The Portland Head Light site has the museum's hours; the lighthouse itself is not climbed.

Casco Bay and the mailboat

Casco Bay Lines runs the ferries from the Maine State Pier to the bay's islands, and the Mailboat Run — three hours, twice a day, delivering the mail and the groceries to Long, Chebeague, Cliff and Great Diamond islands with the passengers along for the ride — is the family's afternoon on the water for the price of a ferry ticket; Peaks Island, twenty minutes from the pier, is the island for a half day — the bicycle rental, the back shore's rocks, the Umbrella Cover Museum, the island's ice cream — and the ferry company's site has the schedules. The Sprinter stays at the pier's garage and the family sails.

Freeport and L.L.Bean

Freeport, twenty minutes north on I-295, is the town L.L.Bean built around its flagship — the store that has not locked its doors since 1951, with the trout pond inside, the giant boot outside, the archery and the fly-casting lessons, the Outdoor Discovery Schools' kayak and paddleboard classes on the town's ponds, and the summer concerts on the store's lawn — and the outlet village of a hundred stores around it in a state with a 5.5 per cent sales tax that clothing does not escape; a Vaughan family does the store at nine on a Sunday morning, the outlets until noon, and the 48-hour CAD 800 exemption per person on the way home. The town's site has the stores.

The southern beaches: Kennebunkport, Ogunquit, Old Orchard

Route 1 south of Portland is the coast Ontario families knew first: Old Orchard Beach's seven-mile strand and its pier with the arcades and the Palace Playland's rides, thirty minutes south — the Quebecois families' beach for a century, where French is heard on the pier; Kennebunkport's Dock Square and the Bush compound at Walker's Point seen from Ocean Avenue's turnout, the Clam Shack's lobster roll at the bridge, the Goose Rocks and Gooch's beaches; Ogunquit's Marginal Way, the mile-and-a-quarter cliff path from the village to Perkins Cove's lobster boats and the drawbridge, and its beach's three miles of sand across the river; and the Nubble Light at York's Cape Neddick on its island, the second-most-photographed lighthouse, for the day's last stop. A family's beach day with the Sprinter is Kennebunkport at ten, Ogunquit's Marginal Way at one, the Nubble at four and the Old Port's dinner at seven.

Acadia, for the longer week

Acadia National Park at Mount Desert Island is three hours northeast — Bar Harbor's town, the Park Loop Road's Thunder Hole and Sand Beach, Cadillac Mountain's sunrise as the first in the country, the carriage roads' bicycles and the Jordan Pond House's popovers — and a family with a second week adds three Bar Harbor nights to Portland's four; the park's site has the Cadillac summit's vehicle reservations, which the chauffeur books, and the travel desk holds Bar Harbor, which for August books in the winter.

The coast week, in shape

Sunday's drive from the White Mountains' Omni by Route 302 through Crawford Notch and the lakes, Portland's Old Port hotel — the Press Hotel in the old newspaper building, the Portland Harbor Hotel, the Regency — by 1, the wharf's lobster roll, the Portland Museum of Art's afternoon; Monday Portland Head Light and Two Lights, the Lobster Shack's lunch, Spring Point's breakwater, the Old Port's dinner; Tuesday the mailboat run at 10 and Peaks Island; Wednesday Freeport at nine, the outlets, the Outdoor Discovery kayak class on the pond; Thursday the southern beaches' day; Friday the road home — Route 302, I-93, I-89, the Lacolle crossing at 5 with the 48-hour exemption on the L.L.Bean bags, a Montreal night, and Saturday's 401 to Woodbridge — or the one-way and the flight from Portland's jetport. Five nights, the Sprinter on daily hire with the city days released, one number in the booking engine.

What the chauffeur replaces

Thirteen hours each way through two provinces and three states as a driver, split over two days; the crossing; the mountain roads' two hours; the coast's Route 1 in summer traffic with a family looking at the sea; the peninsula's parking, which is Portland's one shortage; and the two-day drive home after two weeks away. For a couple the flight to Portland's jetport and a rental car is the honest alternative and the site says so; for a family of five with a mountain-and-coast fortnight, or two families in a Sprinter, it is one fare and the northern road watched from the tables.

Seasons

July and August for the beaches, the islands, the lobster season's low prices and the Old Port's patios, with the hotels doubled and booked by winter; late September and early October for the coast's colour, the warm sea and the empty beaches — Portland's best month; June for the Old Port before the crowds; winter for the Old Port's restaurants without the wait and the lighthouses in storm, with Route 302 through the notch the chauffeur's care. Lobster is cheapest in the summer and autumn soft-shell season.

Pairing it

Portland pairs with the White Mountains ninety minutes west as the fortnight's first week, with Boston two hours south for a family ending in the city, with Burlington and Montreal as the northern road's splits, and with Cape Cod for the family that does the New England coast from Maine to Massachusetts in one long summer.

The lighthouse morning, in order

From the Press Hotel at 8:30 in the SUV: the Casco Bay Bridge to South Portland, Bug Light Park at 8:45 for the miniature temple and the city across the water, Spring Point Ledge Light's breakwater walk at 9:15 with the ferries passing, Fort Williams Park at 10 — Portland Head Light's rocks, the keeper's house museum, the cliff walk to the fort's batteries, the Bite into Maine truck's lobster roll at 11:30 on the lawn — Two Lights State Park at 12:30 and the Lobster Shack's picnic tables on the rocks for the second roll, Crescent Beach's sand at 1:30 for the afternoon, the Old Port by five. Four lighthouses, two lobster rolls and a beach in a day that a driving parent does two of.

Old Orchard Beach and the Quebec connection

Old Orchard Beach, thirty minutes south, has been the Quebecois family beach since the trains from Montreal ran to it in the 1870s — the seven-mile strand, the pier of 1898 with the fried dough and the arcades, the Palace Playland's rides and the Galaxi coaster, the French on the boardwalk and the poutine at the stands — and a Vaughan family with Quebec roots finds it familiar; the town's site has the pier's season, and the Sprinter's beach afternoon here is the children's alternative to the southern beaches' quieter sand.

Costs, plainly

The Maine coast week is a daily hire in the booking engine inside the New England fortnight, or a return with the splits' nights, or a one-way with the flight home; the hotel, the mailboat, the museum and the lobster are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers L.L.Bean's bags. Against the fare are thirteen hours each way over two days through two provinces and three states as a driver, the crossing and the coast's summer traffic; a couple flies to Portland's jetport and rents, and a family of five with the fortnight or two families in a Sprinter book it for one fare and the northern road watched from the tables.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the fortnight with the splits' nights, a return for the coast week alone, or a one-way with the flight home from Portland and the Pearson pickup; tell us the hotel, the mailboat's day, Acadia if it is added, the seats, the bags and every passenger's citizenship for the crossing, and the chauffeur confirms the road and the plan the evening before.

Book the Maine coast week