{"id":9575,"date":"2014-03-28T13:48:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T17:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9575"},"modified":"2014-03-28T13:48:55","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T17:48:55","slug":"maine-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/maine-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine To Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2014 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

See Maine as others see us, flipping through the travel guide books & internet ratings. We can help you read between the lines.<\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

\"Maine-to-Go\"<\/a>We Mainers can\u2019t resist playing tour guide for visiting friends from away. Is it because we\u2019re fascinated with the strangers in ourselves? With feigned detachment, we count the stars that rate the finest hotels and inns around us on the Maine Coast.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at some of these top destination attractions as the outside press is touting them:<\/p>\n

Supercamp<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kennebunkport\u2019s Hidden Pond Resort is on Travel & Leisure<\/em>\u2019s Top 20 Resorts in the Northeast list and rates near the top of Conde Nast Traveler<\/em>\u2019s Reader\u2019s Choice Best Resorts Northeast. The latter publication raves: \u201cOn 60 acres\u2026outside preppy Kennebunkport, Hidden Pond has a fantasy summer camp feel, with hand-painted wood signs pointing to a garden where you can pick vegetables or to a bike shed where you can borrow a retro cruiser for the mile ride to Goose Rocks Beach. Cottages\u2026range from the playful Periwinkle (in sunshiny primary colors) to the classic Thank You (embroidered lobster pillows and an airy seafoam and powder blue New England aesthetic)\u2026 A central lodge functions as the official clubhouse, with a simple rectangular pool and a fire pit where there\u2019s a nightly bonfire (singing optional).\u201d<\/p>\n

Hidden Pond\u2019s James Beard Award-winner Ken Oringer is on the premises, rolling out fresh pasta; wood-grilling pizzas and native seafood; and composing gemlike, just-picked organic salads at Earth restaurant. Fancy camp has its rewards.<\/p>\n

But BTW, if it\u2019s an ocean view you crave without having to take a one-mile complimentary retro Schwinn bike ride to get there, no matter how charming, and you\u2019d rather wear earrings and heels when you gaze out at the crashing surf, Travel & Leisure<\/em>\u2019s Colleen Clark notes in her Best Affordable Beach Resorts list that the Tides Beach Club is \u201ca renovated pink Victorian on Goose Rocks Beach\u2026showing off a new preppy-glam look\u2026with\u2026the occasional zebra rug. A jewel-box bar serves oysters and bubbly and lobster service at fish-stick prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ratings Sense & Sensibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

ForbesTravelGuides.com<\/em> became a formidable player in travel writing and rating after taking over Mobil Travel Guides<\/em>\u2019 long-running book series in 2011. Writer Larry Olmsted names Cape Elizabeth\u2019s Inn by the Sea to Forbes<\/em>\u2019s Hotels of the Year 2013 list, asserting, \u201cEveryone loves the Maine coast as a tourist destination, and the Inn By The Sea is the best place to stay here. It has great rooms and suites\u2026one of the state\u2019s best restaurant\u2019s, Seaglass\u2026a fantastic beach\u2026secluded yet just a 10-minute drive from Portland\u2019s historic waterfront.\u201d Olmsted may not have stayed long\u2013he was completely dazzled by a \u201cunique lobster program where guests can go out on a working boat and catch their own, followed by a 5-course gourmet lobster dinner.\u201d These Maine resorts\u2013what will they think of next?<\/p>\n

Frommer\u2019s<\/em> applies a more white-glove, persnickety-Yankee standard. The Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor makes the cut among their Best Country Inns because \u201cthis waterside lodge has everything a Victorian resort should, including sparely decorated rooms, creaky floorboards in the halls, great views of the water and mountains, and a croquet pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennebunk\u2019s White Barn Inn makes the same list because among other things it offers guests a buffer from, well, Mainers. \u201cMuch of the\u2026staff hails from Europe, and they treat guests graciously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travel & Leisure <\/em>is hung up on uptight, too. Their take on the Black Point Inn: \u201c\u2026an old-fashioned grandeur still infuses the lodge\u2019s 25 rooms and suites, and etiquette is still taken seriously here; jackets are required for men in the formal dining room at dinner (which often includes regional standbys like New England clam chowder or butter-poached lobster). The inn\u2019s outdoor assets are even more captivating\u2013they include an enormous veranda with inviting wicker rockers, scenic 18-hole golf course, and the nearby Cliff Walk, a rocky one-mile trail where Winslow Homer liked to take in the seascapes \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Nostalgia for old-fashioned, no-nonsense Yankee values <\/em>clings like a gauzy illusion to the national press\u2019s perception of Maine. Boston Magazine<\/em>\u2019s New England Travel Guide<\/em> series hails the time-warp charm of the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor: \u201cLocated far from the riffraff of Bar Harbor, this classic resort is a throwback to a time when summer was a verb. Dating to 1883, it\u2019s surrounded by formal English- and Japanese-style flowerbeds against a backdrop of craggy granite.\u201d No wonder the \u201criffraff\u201d among us have been known, lovingly, to call it Asti-cuckoo.<\/p>\n

The Camden Harbour Inn is given \u201cthe antidote to overly cutesy New England style\u201d award: \u201cOverstuffed wingbacks and Laura Ashley, begone. The\u2026inn swaps the antiques and bric-a-brac for a northern European, contemporary approach to d\u00e9cor.\u201d As in all the rich people\u2019s homes in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo <\/em>movie?<\/p>\n

The Lonely Planet<\/em> guides still swear by a 5-star hotel rating system, but sometimes it\u2019s sworn at. All the hotels on Portland\u2019s peninsula are given 3 stars (although the new Westin is not yet included). Only Kennebunk\u2019s White Barn Inn and the Holiday Inn Regency in Bar Harbor make it to four stars.<\/p>\n

Fodor\u2019s Travel<\/em> online labels a handful of Maine hotels \u201cFodor\u2019s<\/em> Choice,\u201d including the Blair Hill Inn in Greenville, the Bar Harbor Inn; the midcoast Norumbega Inn, Samoset Resort, Sebasco Harbor Resort; and the Captain Lord Mansion, and Colony Hotel further south. These are discerning choices of undeniably fine accommodations. But the Fodor\u2019s<\/em> of 2014 may be just a bit too \u201cawesome,\u201d as it provides little opinion or nuance beyond the predictable \u201cfabulous views\u201d and praise of room and bath size. Why have their descriptions become auto-tuned and robotic? An explanation of the Fodor\u2019s<\/em> Choice ranking reveals that input from readers figures in the equation. And they\u2019ve added something separate called \u201cFodorite Reviews,\u201d which are just comments from anyone with an opinion and a need to share it.<\/p>\n

Not to single out Fodor\u2019s<\/em> for depending on random contributions, though, since ratings of hotels and restaurants online have all been forever changed (infected? corrupted?) by the internet. You can find stars lavishly bestowed and stars bitterly withheld on the net, the distilled median opinions of uncredentialed, unknown Yelp\/Tripadvisor\/Expedia know-it-alls.<\/p>\n

Type Portland Westin Harborview into your search box and behold the star skirmish among the raters. Five stars from Expedia, but only 3 from Google Reviews. Who, or should I say whom, do you trust?<\/p>\n

Traveler vs. Tourist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stars bring up another issue about hotel ratings. \u201cIt\u2019s really what you\u2019re used to,\u201d says Cindy Cosmos at AAA Northern New England\u2019s Portland office. \u201cIt\u2019s a case-by-case scenario.\u201d In other words, after a night at a Motel 6 in Schenectady on your way here, the Holiday Inn by the Bay will feel like the Taj Mahal. Isn\u2019t that why we travel? Triple A (American Automobile Association) guidebooks use a five-diamond rating system, but if you don\u2019t see a hotel on a list, it doesn\u2019t indicate unworthiness; it just means Triple-A hasn\u2019t been there. Triple-A is pretty much just-the-facts: Restaurant on the premises? Pets OK? Room service? Phones in the rooms? A\/C? But once in a while, they rave: You\u2019ll find \u201cluxurious guest rooms and tons of amenities\u201d at the four-diamond Portland Harbor Hotel. How many tons, exactly?<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, if you were visiting Portland and you learned from your trusted guidebook about a hotel bar called the Top of the East\u2013the highest roof bar north of Boston, so high it offered a view of the entire city\u2013you\u2019d go check out that glittering skyline yourself. You wouldn\u2019t consult your smartphone first for opinions about the service and drink prices.<\/p>\n

And speaking of opinions, shouldn\u2019t the raters actually know<\/em> the territory before dealing out the stars? Michelin, once the cultural arbiter of travel\u2013the publisher of precise, concise, skinny red-and-green guidebooks and attendant street maps for all of Europe and beyond\u2013has posted some eye-opening opinions about Portland. On the viamichelin.com<\/em> website, the perfectly respectable Residence Inn in Scarborough is awarded the highest three-star rating, but the Inn by the Sea with its beautiful beach setting and excellent restaurant, is given just two. On the travel.michelin.com<\/em> website, the Old Port is given two stars, but \u201cdowntown\u201d is dismissed with just one: \u201cThe central downtown area is bounded by the Willamette River on the east and the curve of I-405 on the other sides\u2026 \u201d Sounds like someone took a wrong turn and ended up in Portland, Oregon. How was the pinot noir, guys?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2014
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