7 days in Maine and vermont with kids: our complete family itinerary

When we were planning our summer travel, we decided we wanted to spend a week somewhere with cooler weather and lots of opportunities to get outside.

So, we decided to end our summer break with a trip up to Maine and Vermont.

Years ago, my husband and I took a trip to the northeast and loved every minute of it and remembered it as a place that would be great for kids too. Now that our kids are confident flyers and travelers, we wanted to try this out for them.

We planned the trip to stay in two different states so we could check out different parts of the northeast and have a balanced use of hotel points and cash for booking.

A rental car was essential for us being able to get around the areas at our own leisure due to the large amount of driving, both in each area and to get in between.

The goal of this trip was to have a nice mix of mountain adventure, waterfalls, views and relaxation.

If I did the same trip with just my husband, we would've done it very differently, but we had to keep it realistic to avoid meltdowns and I think it turned out really great.

I'm going to share our day by day itinerary with you and then I'm gonna share what I would have changed if I would do this trip again!

Our Trip At a Glance

We traveled to Maine and Vermont and spent 7 nights between the two states.

We travelled in mid July, while the kids were on summer break from school. Our kids are currently 5.5 and 7.5 years old.

We flew to Portland, spent just one night there because of our late arrival, then drove to Bar Harbor area and later to Stowe, Vermont where we flew home from Burlington.

7 Days in Maine and Vermont With Kids

Here is a look at our day by day itenerary!

Day 1: Arrival in Portland, Maine

We flew direct from Charleston, SC to Portland, ME. Both are small airports, but we do have a direct flight twice a week. It makes it so easy!

The problem is the time and you get to Portland fairly late in the afternoon, so we couldn't go to our final destination that night. So we booked a night at a Hyatt Place on points just to crash for our travel day.

We did get to go to a place called Luke's Lobster for dinner, which was a lot of fun for our son Luke. He got a kick out of that! The food was decent lobster rolls with a great view of the water. They had hot dogs for the kids and the vibes were great, even if it was pretty clearly a tourist trap.

The next morning, we did take a couple hours to walk around the shops on the waterfront of Portland but otherwise didn't spend any time there.

After we walked around the waterfront shops, we drove a couple of hours from Portland up the coast to Surry, ME. We took the coastal highway (which adds about 30-45 minutes) but it's so much nicer view than driving up I-95.

In Surry, we came to Under Canvas Acadia, which is where we were going to stay for three nights. I wrote an entire review of our time at Under Canvas Acadia, so be sure to check it out!

That night, we just checked out the trails on the property, got settled in our tent, and enjoyed dinner and smore's by the fire.

Day 3: Acadia National park

We spent our first full day driving into Acadia National Park to explore everything they have to offer. We came here before we had kids and knew that it was a relatively small national park but offered a lot of fun activities and sights, so it would be a great park to bring kids to.

The way Acadia works is that there is a main section on the island that is the park, but it also has various park sites spread out all over the area outside of the paid borders of the park. The main section of Acadia is a 27 mile one way driving loop that has parking areas at the big attractions and hikes.

We started the day by going to the Wild Gardens of Acadia. This is a native flower garden at the park that has nice walking trails and little areas for kids to explore. We had skipped this as adults the first time we went, but it was great for the kids!

Next, we went to the aptly named Sand Beach, where you get the first view of the rocky cliffs of Acadia. It was a dreary cold day in July, so we didn't do any swimming, but we did plenty of exploring.

We then went over to Thunder Hole, which is a cut out in the cliff where the tide rushes in and creates a loud "whoosh" noise as it pushes air into the small cave with the wave. It's a fun attraction for kids to spend 10 minutes at!

There are plenty of other great stops along the way, but the next big one we stopped at was Jordan Pond. Here, there is a trail that takes about 2 hours if you hike the whole thing along a boardwalk around the lake. On a clear day, you can see the Bubble Mountains, but for us, we got to see the fog over the lake which was really cool too.

Finally, we went to Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest peak in the park. We learned the first time we went that this is the first place on the east coast of the United States to see the sunrise in the morning, so that's worth an excursion if you want to get up early.

Nowadays, you do have to book an additional ticket to drive up Cadillac Mountain for $6 because they are trying to keep down the traffic. It's a bit annoying to try to plan for your day and when you'll be arriving, but we had no trouble booking while we were in the park and had a better idea of our timing.

The top of Cadillac Mountain normally gives you sweeping views of the surrounding islands and Atlantic Ocean. It's a breathtaking sight. However, the continued foggy and windy conditions led to a lot of laughs with the kids about what we were supposed to see and instead could only see 10 feet in front of us.

We finished the day driving back to Under Canvas and enjoying a nice evening there at the camp.

Day 4: acadia and Bar Harbor

The next day we were supposed to go on a puffin boat tour, but they canceled last minute due to the sea conditions. The sun was shining and it wasn't windy, so if you book a tour like this, know that there is a good chance it might get canceled if they are canceling in this type of weather.

Instead, we drove to the Bass Head Harbor Lighthouse. It's one of those Acadia locations that's not inside the main part of the park. You can walk up close to the lighthouse or down a different trail where you can walk on the cliffs and get a great view up to the lighthouse for the kids.

We also drove down the street from there to Ship Harbor Trail, arguably the best hike for kids in all of Acadia. It's a flat path down to the cliffs where your kids can climb on rocks and explore to their heart's content.

When we were done here, we drove over to Bar Harbor, which is just the cutest little Maine town. There are a lot of shops and restaurants in Bar Harbor, but there's also a coastal path that lets you walk along the cliff seeing all the sailboats in the harbor. Don't skip this! Get an ice cream cone and walk down the street for a fun hour or two.

Day 5: drive to vermont

The next day we drove to Stowe, Vermont, which we didn't realize until the night before was over 6 hours away. I thought that "oh we'll just jump over to Vermont while we're there!" and didn't realize at all that we were going opposite coast to opposite coast of the two states and it was actually kinda far.

The drive was honestly fine, taking us mostly through back roads across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont until we got to our resort. We stayed at The Lodge at Spruce Peak, a ski resort in Stowe that is also great for kids in the summer.

I put together an entire review of our time at The Lodge at Spruce Peak, so make sure you check out everything the resort has to offer for kids!

Day 6: hiking local trails

The next day, we spent most of the day hiking local trails and being outside. We went to the nearby Bingham Falls trail, which was one of my favorite parts of our entire trip.

Bingham Falls was a nice, short trail that led to a beautiful waterfall. We got to see a really cool path through the rocks of the river and then the beautiful waterfall.

Plenty of people were swimming and even cliff jumping at the waterfall.

Day 7: Ben and Jerry factory

On our last full day in Vermont, we went to Moss Glen Falls and the Weissner Woods Trail. These are excellent hikes for kids that include rivers and waterfalls that they can swim in (but mind you it's cold, even in July).

The big activity for this day was our tour of the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. We booked this in advance and showed up right before the tour kicked off.

The tour only lasts about 15 minutes, but it gives you the run down of how the ice cream is made and the history of the brand. You can see them producing their pints of ice cream and sample... a lot.

But also on the property is a playground, ice cream shop, gift shop and the famous "Ice Cream Graveyard." This is where they "bury" old flavors that have been taken out of production for one reason or another.

Our kids thought this was so funny and loved exploring the graves and seeing why different flavors were discontinued.

Day 8: Departure from vermont

We left the next day, which is easiest to do by flying out of Burlington. It's about 45 minutes from The Lodge at Spruce Peak and you'll have the best options for connections from there.

You might even run into Senator Bernie Sanders in airport security like we did...

Top Tips for a Successful Trip

Here are some of our best advice for a family trip to the northeast:

• Swing by Costco or Walmart early in the trip and load up on snacks and drinks. You're going to do a lot of hiking while you're here, meaning you're going to be in the car a lot and not necessarily near good places to eat. So make sure you have food to be prepared.
• Plan your itinerary in advance. Make sure you align different activities near each other so you aren't criss crossing back and forth for different hikes and activities on different days.

Things We'd Change

We LOVED the trip, but here's what I would change if we did it again:

• I would not have combined these two places because they are over six hours apart. We didn't realize it when we booked because we mapped it from Portland, where we flew into. From Acadia, it was over six hours to get to Vermont, which just makes for a really long drive in the middle of your trip.

Budget

Here's a look at how we paid for everything on this trip to Maine and Vermont.

• Flights: we paid cash for the Breeze flight there and flew home with Delta points
• Hotels: Under Canvas Acadia we paid cash, but earned Hyatt Points. The Lodge at Spruce Peak we paid for with Hyatt Points.
• Rental car: I paid cash but used a Capital One travel credit for a $200 discount
• Activities: The only activities we paid for were our entry fee to Acadia, the Ben and Jerry's tour and the gondola ride. The rest of our activities were outdoors and free.

Final thoughts

Maine and Vermont are great places to travel with kids. They get to see areas of the country that are extremely unique and have amazing outdoor activities.

While you can try to pick and choose what you do, I recommend booking one place at each location and going with the flow from there to have the easiest and most fun time!