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Bar Harbor, Maine

Town of Mount Desert Tour, Oli’s Trolley

 

 

Shore Excursion Review: Town of Mount Desert Tour with Oli’s Trolley

Bar Harbor, Maine

August 17, 2014

 

By Lisa Plotnick

 

 

As we had been to Bar Harbor many times previously, most recently in 2011, we wanted to see a part of Mount Desert Island that would be new to us. Typically, our family prefers to take tours sponsored by the cruise line, for a number of reasons. However, I had heard so many positive reviews of Oli’s Trolley in Bar Harbor that we decided to give them a try.

 

It turned out to be a great decision. We selected the Town of Mount Desert Tour, which Oli’s Trolley billed as the “quiet side” of the island. And, for just $25 per person for a two-and-a-half hour tour, it seemed ideal for our timing and budget. The featured stop of the tour was Northeast Harbor, one of several small harbor towns along Mount Desert Island’s south coast. Yet, it was an unplanned stop within the town that turned out to be the highlight for us.

 

From our cruise ship, ms Veendam, we boarded a tender – a larger boat, not one of our lifeboats – at roughly 9:45 a.m., and reached the small dock in Bar Harbor at 10:10. This was just enough time for me to exchange our e-tickets for tour passes. (I had ordered them online a few months prior to the cruise, and we were instructed to present our e-ticket to the booth attendant 30 minutes prior to our 10:45 boarding time.) All went smoothly.

 

After receiving our tickets, we were directed to the outdoor waiting area, where there were separate lines for each of the morning’s departures. A gentleman from the company guided everyone to the proper line. We met our driver, Ed, and we were on our way.

 

We started by driving down West Street, passing some of the summer cottages and rocky beaches. The beauty of the surrounding scenery caused me to lose track of our location of the map for a bit after that point. I picked up our location again on Route 3 as we cut through one of the roads within Acadia National Park.

We continued to the southern coast, and then turned west to our first stop, Seal Harbor. A small park featured monuments and memorials recognizing United States military veterans. The area around the Seal Harbor Yacht Club was beautiful – we were told that the only way to gain membership is to inherit it! The Ford estate was nearby, on the cleverly named Dodge Point Road. Tides were low, so we saw much of the rocky seabed.

 

 

From there, we went to the Northeast Harbor, population 2,000, the selling point of this particular tour. On our way over, Ed mentioned some nearby gardens, which caught the interest of several us. Ed gave us a choice of spending our allotted 45 minutes in Northeast Harbor or 25 minutes in Northeast Harbor plus 20 in the gardens. I’m glad our trolley passengers chose the gardens, as I could not fathom finding much to do in Northeast Harbor to fill three-quarters of an hour.

 

Ed parked the trolley behind the Great Harbor Maritime Museum (125 Main Street) – and what a great museum that was! The exhibits were mostly photographs, yet there were a couple of small vessels from older times. One was a rowboat a man built for his daughter in 1870 so that she could get to church!

 

 

We were then off to the Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor, which was modeled after a traditional Japanese garden. There was a nice path leading to a lake, a small bridge, decorative stones, stepping stones, and a sand garden. And, of course, there were many stunning azaleas!

 

I will let the photos do the talking.

 

 

 

Both the maritime museum and the garden were free.

 

We traveled back to Bar Harbor via a road that bordered Acadia National Park. At one point, we passed one of the carriage trails – these are not open to motorized vehicles, so we saw its peacefulness from a close distance.

 

Our tour trolley was not crowded – we had just 19 passengers, not all of whom were from the cruise ship. We liked this as we could share tales of our different travels.   

 

Closing Thoughts

 

Overall, this was a wonderful tour. Our driver and guide, Ed, gave us informative narration without corny jokes, a nice deviation from past tour experiences elsewhere. And, the tour was easy to book in advance, and every staff member we encountered was most pleasant. I would definitely do another tour with this company.

 

Yet, it was the stop not on the itinerary – Asticou Azalea Garden – that brought this tour from good to great. I recommend that Oli’s Trolley add this stop to its Northeast Harbor route. It was a marvelous setting that reminded us that the beauty of New England is not confined to the coast.