Where To Stay

Inn by the Sea sits on a mile of sandy beach in Cape Elizabeth, just outside Portland, with 62 guestrooms and one- and two-bedroom suites, each with its own private exterior entrance. Gardens and beach access wrap the property.Sea Glass Dining handles meals with a water view, and Spa by the Sea covers treatments for anyone not spending the day on the sand. The inn is pet-friendly and holds Beyond Green certification.Meeting and event space is available on-site for groups, alongside standard leisure stays.

Samoset Resort covers 230 waterfront acres in Rockport and has operated since 1889. The current resort has 178 guestrooms and suites, most with private balconies or terraces looking over Penobscot Bay.The 18-hole championship golf course is the resort's anchor, with Opal Spa, an outdoor pool, and a lineup of lawn games — disc golf, shuffleboard, pickleball — filling out the rest of a stay. Dining runs from La Bella Vita Ristorante to the more casual Clubhouse Grill and Splash Pool Bar.With 20,000 square feet of event space, the resort also handles weddings and conferences alongside its regular guests.

The Press Hotel occupies the former Gannett Building on Exchange Street in Portland, once headquarters of the Portland Press Herald. The newspaper history shows up throughout — typewriters as decor, an art gallery of local Maine artists on the lower level — inside a boutique hotel that's part of Marriott's Autograph Collection.Rooms run from Executive Kings with wet bars to a Penthouse Suite with a private rooftop patio and ten-foot ceilings, all outfitted with Frette linens and Cuddledown comforters. UNION Restaurant sources local and sustainable New England ingredients, and the Inkwell Lounge handles drinks off the lobby.Valet parking is available for guests who'd rather skip street parking.

Camden Harbour Inn sits on Bayview Street above Camden's harbor, on the rocky Maine coast. The property has 20 guest rooms and suites plus a three-bedroom villa, with most rooms and public spaces looking out over the water toward Penobscot Bay.Dinner happens downstairs at Natalie's, the inn's own fine-dining restaurant, and the spa handles the slower half of a stay. The property carries a Michelin Key designation and a Wine Spectator award, and it belongs to Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a network of independently owned hotels rather than a chain.

Harraseeket Inn is a historic property in Freeport Village. Rooms range from standard kings and queens to nine two- and three-bedroom townhouses set along a treelined path, plus the LL Bean Guest House, which sleeps up to nine.The inn runs two restaurants, Porter Kitchen + Bar and Broad Arrow Tavern, and standard rooms come with afternoon tea included. An indoor heated pool and fitness center cover the downtime between shopping trips and meals.Free parking and Wi-Fi are standard, and the inn also books weddings and events on-site.

The Inn at St. John is a charming Victorian bed and breakfast set near Portland's Congress Street arts district, putting guests within easy reach of the galleries, theaters, and shops that define that stretch of the city. Its Victorian character gives the inn a distinct sense of place rather than a generic hotel feel.Rooms are comfortable and well suited to travelers who want a quieter, more personal alternative to a larger hotel. The bed-and-breakfast format tends to mean a more relaxed pace of stay, with the building's period details adding character throughout.The location is a real advantage for visitors hoping to explore Portland on foot, with the arts district and the wider downtown within comfortable walking distance. It's a good fit for travelers who want to base themselves centrally without staying in the busiest part of the Old Port.With check-in at 3pm and check-out at 11am, the Inn at St. John offers a straightforward, welcoming stay for anyone visiting Portland for a weekend or longer.