Under Canvas acadia trip review- with kids

Considering visiting Under Canvas Acadia with Kids? Here's a complete review with what to expect - and what to know before you book!

We recently spent half of a trip to New England staying at Under Canvas Acadia with our kids and it was a blast!

If you don't know, Under Canvas is a chain of glamping locations situated outside national parks throughout the United States. They offer accommodations, activities, food and more, making them a great place to stay with kids.

We stayed at the very first location, Yellowstone Under Canvas, more than a decade ago before we had kids and it was much more rustic. We slept in a teepee on two cots. Boy have they come a long way!

Let's take a look at everything this place has to offer - and I will share quite a bit about my experience staying there with 5 and 7 year olds!

Quick Trip Snapshot

• Overall verdict: we loved it!

• Location: Surry, Maine (outside of Acadia National Park)

• Resort: Under Canvas Acadia

• 3 night stay

• Party: 2 adults, 2 kids ages 7 & 5

• Booked with: cash (earning Hyatt points with a big points promo!)

Acadia Under Canvas with Kids

Here's what to expect on your visit to Under Canvas Acadia.

The Resort Grounds

Under Canvas Acadia is an absolutely incredible resort located right on the Atlantic Ocean in Maine, about 30 minutes outside of Acadia National Park. It's open from May to October each year.

We have previously visited Acadia as adults and really thought that this would be a great first national park for our children. It's a compact park with easy transportation, great stops and overlooks, and a surrounding area filled with other great areas to visit and comforts of home.

We had also stayed at Under Canvas in Yellowstone and had been following along with their growth as a company. They have greatly improved and grown and made their locations absolutely incredible, so we thought this would make for a great trip.

Under Canvas Acadia is off a main road, down a dirt road about five minutes and then nestled along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in a little inlet. The property is way bigger than we thought, including more than 50 tents, a community tent, a large free space, trails and the beach.

The property grounds have multiple actual hiking trails that you can hike with your kids. They are flat and wooded to give you a good sense of being in the woods.

There is a large grassy space, filled with adirondack chairs, fire pits, games and... a porcupine family.

Then, when you walk out to the beach, you have a large stretch of water access. The truth is that the water is very cold, even in the middle of summer. Plus, it is not a sandy beach and is instead rocks. But it's a great place for the kids to play.

The Rooms

The tents at Under Canvas Acadia are absolutely what you would consider glamping. However, they were more rustic than I realized they would be, especially at over $800 per night.

We booked a suite tent, which included a full king bed, pull out couch, two chairs inside and out, coffee table, fire place and bathroom. You can also book a tent that has a separate kids tent outside, which would be great for kids that were a little older to give them their own space.

There is also a "stargazing" tent with a clear roof over the bed to see the stars, but these slept 2. I will say that one night it poured rain and someone told me the rain was very loud but pretty cool to watch on the stargazing roof!

Now you really are camping outside of the furniture. You need to keep the fire stoked at night to stay warm (and we were there in July) and there is no electricity. They do provide lanterns and battery packs to charge devices, but there's no plugs.

The bathrooms in the tent are behind a sliding barn door that doesn't provide much actual privacy. The wall does not reach the ceiling. I recommend more stinky bathroom activity happening at the bathroom in the lobby area.

There is a very small sink and mirror, a shower with a pull down chain that turns off when you aren't pulling, and a toilet.

While this is very rustic, it is also very comfortable. Keep in mind that there isn't much space to store your luggage, so try to keep your packing to a minimum. There is no dresser or drawers.

The activities

There is a large common area tent on the property at Under Canvas Acadia. In here is the check in desk, hang out space and restaurant (more on that in a minute).

There are a lot of areas with lounge chairs, tables and board games in here that anyone can use. We played a lot of board games with our kids and other kids that were staying here.

You can also find coffee, tea and water in the tent all day long and fill up as you need.

In the evenings, this is also where they put out smore's supplies that are free of charge. Take as many as you want, go out to the fire pits and have a great time!

There's also two hiking trails on the property on either side of the camp. They start and end at the ends of the tent areas and are really easy to access.

Finally, the staff at Under Canvas Acadia offers free yoga classes every morning by the beach. They have a little "zen garden" in the grass before you get to the beach and provide yoga mats and blocks to use.

One other note is that Under Canvas Acadia felt so so safe for kids. We ran into another family from Charleston that had kids the same ages as our kids. They ended up running all over the place by themselves with more high level supervision.

Since the property is not on a road or in public, there was no issues with traffic. Plus most people there were there with kids. The only place you really need to be careful is if your kids go down to the beach.

The Beach

The beach at Under Canvas Acadia is not what I thought it was going to be. I had visions that we could spend our morning in Acadia National Park, then come back and swim in the ocean at the camp.

That's not what this kind of beach is.

The actual shoreline is 100% rocks, so larger but mostly small. It's great for walking, skipping stones, or standing in at your ankles. But I can't imagine many people are swimming here. It's simply too cold and too rocky.

The Food

What isn't camping if not for a full service restaurant on site! Under Canvas Acadia has a full service restaurant in the main activity tent that serves breakfast, dinner and drinks.

The breakfast options had a few grab and go level items as well as some hot, cooked to order food. And it's a real kitchen too, not microwaved breakfast sandwiches.

Dinner had legit options as well, including sandwiches, but steak plates and more fancy options as well. Plus, there was a full bar ready to go.

The food is of course overpriced. However, it was legitimately good food and you can't beat the convenience.

We planned to eat breakfast here each day (and did) but planned to each dinner on property maybe once. Well, considering our daily activities ended up bringing us back to camp in the late afternoon, we ended up eating dinner in the restaurant each night.

There really isn't anything around Under Canvas Acadia for quite a ways, so there's not anywhere to easily go out to eat dinner otherwise.

You can bring in your own food, but no food is allowed in the tents for animal-prevention reasons.

Booking Under Canvas Acadia on points

Under Canvas properties are technically owned by World of Hyatt as a Mr and Mrs Smith property. However, it is not a good redemption.

Luckily, you can still earn Hyatt points at Under Canvas. We actually got a promotion (that they run most summers) to earn bonus points for this stay.

Plus, anything we spent at the camp (aka food), we got the same rate. So we earned almost 50,000 Hyatt points on this stay that we can use for future nights at Hyatt properties.

Click here to read my guide to getting started traveling on points!

Tips for staying at Under canvas acadia with kids

Here are some takeaways we had from this stay!

• Make sure you bring warm clothes. Even if it's summer, the weather is cold at night. If you have compact, warm blankets, these are great to bring for the pull out couch.
• Plan to spend time at the camp when planning your itinerary. It's a beautiful resort for walking and just admiring nature. Plus, there's so many other families with kids there, your kids will make friends and you can just actually relax.
• Food isn't allowed in the individual tents because of wildlife, so plan accordingly if you have any specific dietary restrictions. You are allowed to bring any outside food you want into the community tent or onto the grounds though, so bring what you need!
• Plan to unplug. There's no wifi anywhere on the camp. While you get plenty of phone service, battery power is limited, so use this as a chance to unplug and unwind.

Final Thoughts

If your kids have never been camping before, Under Canvas Acadia is absolutely a great way to get them to experience it. Our children are "inside kids" at heart but they had a great time exploring and socializing.

If you're going to visit Acadia National Park with kids, I highly recommend staying at Under Canvas Acadia!