Even for those of us from New England, traveling to Maine’s Mount Desert Island isn’t the easiest of journeys: the closest major airport, Bangor, is around a two-hour drive away, whereas the smaller airport of Bar Harbor is essentially only accessible by puddle jumpers from Logan Airport. Of course, you can drive: five hours from Boston, eight hours from New York City, five-and-a-half hours from Providence (without traffic).

Yet its isolation is a blessing: while other East Coast summer destinations like Nantucket and the Hamptons can fall victim to seasonal overcrowding, Mount Desert Island remains an idyllic and unbothered getaway even in August, with only the main hub of Bar Harbor—known as the gateway to Acadia National Park—receiving notable foot traffic. (In fact, even writing about

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