Lincolnville Beach

Maine's shoreline is famous for its ledges and cobble, so a genuine sand beach is the exception rather than the rule, and it draws people who want to actually walk barefoot at the water's edge. Lincolnville Beach is one of the easiest to reach on the whole Midcoast, sitting right where Route 1 comes down to the bay, with the sand just steps from the road. Families spread out here on summer days, and the shallow, protected water warms enough for a quick swim, though Penobscot Bay never gets truly warm.

The setting is what makes it special. The Camden Hills rise green and close behind the village, the bay opens wide in front, and Islesboro stretches along the horizon. Small boats bob at their moorings, gulls and terns work the shallows, and now and then a harbor seal surfaces offshore. It is the kind of place where you can happily spend an hour doing very little but watching the water.

For two centuries this shore has been the mainland end of the crossing to Islesboro, the long, wooded island that floats a few miles out in the bay. A ferry connection has run in one form or another since 1821, and today the Maine State Ferry Service makes the trip several times daily, year round, carrying cars and foot passengers on a short twenty-minute ride.

The crossing is a pleasure in itself. From the deck you look back at the Camden Hills, out at sailboats leaning into the wind, and down for the seals and seabirds that share the bay. Islesboro is a quiet island of shore roads, summer estates, and a small year-round community, best explored by bicycle, and even if you only ride the boat over and back, the trip is one of the best-value scenic outings on the coast.

Down on the beach stands a small cannon, a genuine relic of the War of 1812, when British warships prowled Penobscot Bay and coastal villages armed themselves as best they could. The gun once helped guard little Lincolnville from the fleet that occupied much of the bay during the war. It never became a famous battlefield, but the cannon is a real link to a time when this peaceful shore was a frontier under threat.

For generations Lincolnville Beach has been first and foremost a working shore, its fortunes tied to lobstering and the sea. The lobster pound beside the beach has been serving the day's catch at picnic tables by the water since 1936, and the small knot of buildings at the foot of the hill still has the feel of an old coastal village that never grew large. It is authentic Midcoast Maine, unpolished and unhurried.

Lincolnville Beach is right on US Route 1 between Camden and Belfast, so it is easy to find, though parking near the sand and the ferry landing is limited and fills up on summer days. Come early, and be ready to walk a short way if the closest spots are taken. The beach, the ferry landing, and the shops all sit within a few steps of one another at the bottom of the hill.

Give yourself time to combine the beach with the ferry and the country around it. More than half of Camden Hills State Park, with its trails to lookouts over the bay, actually lies within Lincolnville, and the Ducktrap River Preserve offers quiet forest walks nearby. Whether you come for a swim, a scenic drive, a boat ride to an island, or just a lobster roll by the water, this small beach is a perfect Midcoast pause.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.