Planning trip from metro Detroit to Acadia np Maine in , 8 days to work with. Advice?

It's a roughly 16 hour drive from my home to the entrance of Acadia national park. I'll be getting off work at 2pm, and from that point I have exactly 8 days(or 7 1/2) to make my trip and be back.

I figure, going through Canada takes us right past Niagara Falls, a roughly 4 hour drive. We stay the night there, wake up early and head to Green mountain national forest in Vermont, a 6hr drive, stay a night, then make the next 6hr drive to Acadia at first light.

From that point we'll have 6 days, but still need to make the 16 hour drive home, which I would like to at least split in half. Any advice on something about 8hrs between SE MI and Western Maine?

Suggestions are welcome, I'd like to maximize my time in Acadia though.. if you were planning this trip, how would you go about it?

Welcome to RTA!

I think you are going by computer drive times. These are not realistic, add 20% to account for traffic, delays, food, fuel, and bathroom/rest stops.

Detroit to Niagara Falls via Canada is closer to 5 hours. Not unreasonable if you leave at 2pm.
You didn't say where in the "Green Mountain National Forest" you are going, but Niagara Falls to Rutland VT is about 7 hours. Rutland to Acadia is about 8 hours.

Now, for the return trip, this is right at the safe limit for a 2 day drive, you are looking at 10 hours a day for 2 days. This assumes you will take I-95 to I-495 to I-90, which is the fastest. You could save about 1 hour going through Canada, but that may be eaten up with border delays. The halfway point is Utica NY.

NOTE that I-90 through MA is electronic tolling only, no cash. You need a transponder (EZ-Pass) or you will be billed by license plate photo. This involves a service charge. ME, NH, and NY still accept cash.

@glc thank you for the reply. I'm definitely aware Google Maps isn't always 100% accurate with estimated times. How would you approach this? I want to maximize time at Acadia, but the only other option really is driving straight through, or flying and renting a car, but that option would be really expensive just to drive from the airport to the park and back not to mention the airplane tickets.

Maybe I should just drive straight through to Utica, sleep for 5-6 hours and continue on, maybe just make a pitstop at Niagara just to look at the falls and grab a bite to eat.

The other thing, and hopefully you know this ... you have to have a passport to cross into Canada.


Donna

Thank you, yes I am well aware of that.

If you get off work at 2pm, I would drive to Niagara Falls and spend the night. There is no way you can make it from there to Acadia the next day, so I'd either spend part of the morning in Niagara, or get to Acadia mid day the day after. If you spend part of the morning in Niagara, spend the night in Utica or the Albany area. If you want to get to Acadia early, spend the night in Portsmouth or Portland. Take I-90 to I-495 to I-95. You can take I-295 from Portland back to I-95 to save both time and tolls. Depending on time, you can take US-1 up the coast from Brunswick to Ellsworth for some scenery, otherwise take I-95 to Bangor then US-1A toward the park.

For the return trip, I'd stay on the Interstates, spend the night in Utica, then stay in the US back to Detroit.

Thank you for all of the useful information. I think I've come to a decision, and that is to shoot straight for either Cornwall Ont. Ca to stay the night, or Utica, NY, and completing the journey from there at first light. Same thing or reverse on the way home. That way I can be to the park by afternoon on Saturday, and get to really enjoy 5 full days and nights of hiking.

No, if you don't leave till 2pm Friday, you cannot safely drive all the way to Acadia on Saturday. The best you are going to do is mid day Sunday. The only way you are going to make it to Acadia on Saturday is take Friday off work and leave in the morning.

You also can't go through Cornwall. This will take considerably longer than crossing at Buffalo or Niagara Falls and taking I-90 and I-95. You must stick to the Interstates and Canadian limited access highways with your tight timeline.

What do you mean I can't safely make it to Acadia by Saturday? It's roughly 8 hours to get to Utica, and then another 8 hours to get to Acadia from Utica. What exactly would be unsafe about doing that? I've driven longer than 10hrs numerous times. If I left by 2 or 3, I'd get to Utica by midnight at the absolutely latest. Then I could leave by 5am and be to Acadia by 3pm. Is there something I'm missing? Is it super dark and without streetlights before Utica or something else I'm unaware of?

There are the estimated drive times that you'll get from computer-based mapping routines, and then there are the real-world driving times that it will actually take you. One assumes that you will drive at or above the speed limit for every second of every minute you are on the road and never have to stop for food, fuel or even to go to the bathroom, and will never get behind a slow truck passing an even slower truck, or see any construction or a toll booth or a customs station. The other is what people with even a modicum of experience will warn you is what you need to plan for. You claim to have driven 10 hour days before. Are you also claiming that you covered 650-750 miles on those days? Are you aware that the last portion of the drive, from Portland to Bar Harbor, will be on a two-lane, tourist-clogged highway?

As you have left things, you are still claiming that you plan to leave Detroit at 2:00 PM on a Friday and drive 450 miles to Utica by midnight. That's possible if and only if you go through Canada with absolutely no delays at either border crossing. But then you claim, essentially, that you're going to immediately fall into a deep and restful sleep, after a mere 5 hours of which you are going to immediately get up, hop in your car and drive another 550 miles. That is also, I guess, remotely possible, BUT EXTREMELY UNSAFE. If you are lucky, you will (like I was when I tried such a stunt when I was 17, eight-foot-tall, and bullet-proof) get pulled over by an understanding state trooper who will merely take your license and have you follow him to the nearest motel where he watches you check in.

Look, we cannot force anyone to be sane or reasonable or to face reality. All we can do is try to present you with the reality of the situation you are getting yourself into. And the reality of your situation is that you are proposing an unsafe drive, putting thousands of innocent people at risk, and asking us to endorse it. The answer is simple: NO

AZBuck

Throughout your posts I see a common theme: You want to do X, you know you don't have time to do X, so you'll solve your problem by writing down on paper a plan where you make time to do X by simply driving more and sleeping less, and even though you say you know that online mapping programs aren't accurate in the real world, you'll still assume those travel times are accurate because it makes your plan look possible on paper. And when someone tells you that your plan on paper isn't realistic, you're going to blame the people who are trying to help you stay grounded in the real world.

If you want to think you'll be able to leave at 2pm on Friday (after working all morning) and get to Acadia, nearly 1000 miles away, on Saturday afternoon, and after nearly 20 hours behind the wheel, pausing for maybe 5 hours of sleep, you'll be fresh and ready to start hiking and be in great shape to do all the things you want to do, you can think that, but the much, much more likely situation is that you're going to be pushing yourself to the limits of being unsafe behind the wheel, driving too many hours with too few hours of rest, and if you do get to Maine in one piece, when you do arrive, you're going to be so exhausted that you aren't going to be in any position to enjoy yourself.

Wow, that was a bit dramatic. I understand there are estimated times and actual times, which is why I gave myself a 2hr leeway, though I'm not a stopper, maybe to take a quick pee and do some stretches. I just got back from a 9 day tour of the Southwest, we drove 1300 miles, all of those days were 5-7 hour drives between parks. I've also driven from south of Detroit to Copper harbor in one go stopping only once to eat, pee and stretch. That was 612 miles, made it in JUST under 10hrs. So to answer your question, yes. You're speaking as though driving 10 hours or covering 600+ miles in one day is crazy and impossible, but it's pretty normal for us Michiganders to drive all the way to Florida nonstop hahaha. You're also talking to the guy who has ridden a double century on a bicycle.. 200 miles in 13.5 hours and ran multiple 50k Ultra marathons the same summer. I have the mental and physical endurance and stamina to stay fresh my friend. Or maybe I'm just young, 5'6 and bullet proof ;-) but c'est la vie, everyone on the internet knows everything, myself included apparently.

Sorry we couldn't help you.