Start from 19 curated places around Boothbay Harbor, ME, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
The Boathouse Bistro
A rooftop tapas bar and full restaurant with a combination of internationally inspired small plates and classic Maine dishes, perched above the inner harbor with views across the water. The format works well for grazing through the evening, and the bar program focuses on local spirits and craft beers that pair well with the kitchen's range. The rooftop is the reason to come.
Thistle Inn Restaurant
A classic New England inn dining room on Oak Street with a menu that leans into Maine coastal tradition — lobster bisque, pan-seared fish, and a hearty chowder that draws locals for lunch. The building has an 1870s character that makes it feel anchored to the town's history rather than assembled for visitors, and the warmth of the room matches the menu's comfort-driven approach.
Trails & outdoors
Ovens Mouth Preserve Trail
A 2.4-mile moderate loop through forest and along the tidal shores of a dramatic estuary, crossing a pedestrian bridge between the two peninsulas that define the preserve. The trail surface alternates between rooted woodland path and open ledge with water views, and the habitat diversity makes wildlife sightings — eagles, herons, otters — almost routine.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Trails
A 2.8-mile loop network through the botanical gardens that traverses cultivated display gardens, native meadows, and undisturbed coastal forest. The trail connects the main garden areas to the Salt Bay shoreline and passes through a fern grotto and old-growth forest that provide contrast to the cultivated sections. Garden admission is required.
Things to do
Cap'n Fish's Whale Watch Cruises
The original whale watch operation in midcoast Maine, running excursions to Gulf of Maine feeding grounds for more than 80 years. The trips target finback and minke whales along with harbor seals, dolphins, and seabirds, and the captains have an intimate knowledge of the bay's productive areas that turns most trips into genuine encounters. The boats are large enough to be stable in moderate seas.
Balmy Days Cruises to Monhegan Island
A ferry service to Monhegan Island — a remote artist colony 12 miles offshore with no cars, extraordinary coastal hiking, and galleries showing work by painters who've summered here since the 19th century. The 90-minute crossing is itself scenic, and the 3.75 hours on the island feel like a different country. The island's Cathedral Woods and headland trails are among the best short hikes in Maine.
Landmarks & sights
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
The largest botanical garden in New England encompasses 295 acres of cultivated gardens, native plant habitats, and forest trails about three miles from the harbor village. The themed gardens include a Children's Garden of extraordinary scale, a kitchen garden, and a meadow garden that peaks in mid-summer with native wildflowers. The forest trail network connects the cultivated areas to undisturbed coastal woodland that would be worth visiting on its own.
Boothbay Harbor Footbridge
A pedestrian suspension footbridge that has connected the east and west sides of the inner harbor since 1901 and remains one of Boothbay Harbor's most photographed landmarks. The button on the bridge railing raises the center drawbridge section to let sailboats and lobster boats pass through, and the walk across provides the best above-water view of the inner harbor in both directions.