Detroit area to Maine

[eganders]

I am planning a trip from the Detroit, Michigan area to the Bar Harbor area of Maine. The length of the trip is open, but I anticipate it will be somewhere around 10 to 20 some days. The length depends on what I learn in answers to my questions. A couple questions to start:

1. Should we use the airlines to get near our destination and spend the time there or are there enough places to see along the way to make a car trip worthwhile? How long do you estimate the travel time would be by car seeing the things you might suggest?

2. Do you know of a trip someone made in this forum or another forum similar to this trip that I could use as an outline?

2. What is the best time of year to make a trip to Maine? Being retired, I would like to take advantage of times when everyone else is not on vacation also.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

There are a few points that can be made in favor of flying to a destination, and a few that can be made in favor of driving. I think that in your particular case, those in favor of driving slightly outweigh those in favor of flying. It is 'only' a two day drive each way between Detroit and Bar Harbor, and there is much to see in between while I would be hard pressed to spend a full 2-3 weeks in the Bar Harbor area. bar Harbor is pretty far from any airport with reasonably priced commercial service, so you're going to be doing a fair bit of driving anyway. And driving from home means that you'll be using your own familiar car and don't have to pare down what you bring to meet airline baggage restrictions.

I assume that living so close to the border that you have passports, or at worst can get them in time for your trip, so I'm going to suggest that you get in some foreign travel on your way to the Maine coast by almost immediately crossing into Canada and heading up through Toronto, the Thousand Islands area, the St. Lawrence River Valley, and Montréal. I can't recall anyone having made that specific trip, but poke around the forums using the search tool and links to 'Similar Threads' for various destinations along the way.

My favorite time of year for touring the northeast (I lived in Maine for about a dozen years) is mid-September to very early October. The summer crowds have gone home. The weather is delightful. The leaves are starting to turn, especially through the northern woods, but the road-glutting leaf-peeking tourists aren't out in force. For somewhat similar reasons, mid-spring can also be a good time, but it's tougher to predict where the good weather will be in the short span between mud and tourist seasons.

AZBuck