Things to Do in Northeast Harbor
Northeast Harbor's attractions run genuinely different from Bar Harbor's national-park-and-cruise-ship tourism a dozen miles north -- two internationally known public gardens, a real maritime museum, a private historic golf club, a working mail boat to a genuinely inhabited pair of offshore islands, and a harbor built around one of American sailing's most storied one-design racing fleets. This page covers what is genuinely, currently here.
Asticou Azalea Garden and Thuya Garden
Asticou Azalea Garden, a 2.3-acre Japanese-stroll-style garden at the junction of Routes 198 and 3, was created in 1956 by lifelong resident Charles Kenneth Savage, its founding plant collection transplanted from Beatrix Farrand's dismantled Reef Point estate in Bar Harbor, with John D. Rockefeller Jr. personally funding the relocation. It is open daily during daylight hours, May 1 through October 31. Thuya Garden, a short distance away on Thuya Drive, opened to the public in 1962 -- a semi-formal herbaceous garden in the style of English designer Gertrude Jekyll, built out by the same Charles K. Savage on grounds originally developed by Boston landscape architect Joseph Henry Curtis starting in 1912, again with Rockefeller Jr. funding. Both gardens are owned today by the Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve, open May through October.
Take the Mail Boat to Great Cranberry Island or Islesford
A genuinely distinctive, currently-operating thing to do here that a generic Mount Desert Island guide would not mention: ride Beal & Bunker Mail Boat and Ferry, which departs year-round from the Northeast Harbor Town Dock, to Great Cranberry Island or Islesford (Little Cranberry Island). The family-run service carries passengers, mail, freight, and bicycles (no vehicles), runs without reservations, and each leg takes roughly 15 to 30 minutes -- a real working transportation link for the Cranberry Isles' own small, genuine year-round population (roughly 140 people combined on the two inhabited islands), not a staged tourist boat ride. Islesford is also home to the Islesford Historical Museum, a National Park Service-operated museum on Little Cranberry Island housed in a 1927 Georgian Revival building and the former 1850 Blue Duck Ships Store, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with free admission and a seasonal schedule (roughly mid-June through September). Confirm current mail-boat departure times and the museum's own seasonal hours directly before planning a trip, since both can shift.
Great Harbor Maritime Museum
At 124 Main Street, Great Harbor Maritime Museum collects, preserves, and celebrates the maritime heritage of the greater Mount Desert Island region, operating seasonally with a physical gallery plus a year-round online digital archive -- a real, small, worthwhile stop for anyone interested in the region's boatbuilding and seafaring history alongside the harbor's own active sailing culture.
Watching (or Joining) the Northeast Harbor Fleet
The Northeast Harbor Fleet's International One Design sloops -- twelve of the fourteen delivered from Norway in 1938 still actively racing -- provide a genuine, free, ongoing summer spectacle from the harbor's shore or a boat of your own: regular race starts, a real competitive sailing calendar, and, roughly every seven years (2025 marked the seventh time), the IOD World Championship itself. This is a real, historically deep sailing culture worth watching even without a boat.
Northeast Harbor Golf Club
A private, member/shareholder-owned course tracing informally to 1895 and formally to 1916, still seated in part by descendants of its original 49 shareholders -- a genuinely different, more exclusive model than a public resort course. The 18-hole layout was built in two phases: architect Arthur Lockwood designed the original holes, and Herbert Strong designed the back nine, which opened in the summer of 1925; today the course plays to a par of 69 across roughly 5,430 yards from the back tees, with hole #9 the longest (a 503-yard par 5) and hole #6 the shortest (a 127-yard par 3). Access generally requires membership or a member's guest invitation; this page does not overstate general public access to this private club.
Union Church, the Asticou Hotel, and a Walk Down Main Street
Union Church of Northeast Harbor, at 21 Summit Road, is a National Register-listed (1998) Shingle-style church designed by the Boston firm Peabody and Stearns, its congregation organized in 1883 -- a genuine architectural and historical stop, alongside a simple walk down the village's rebuilt (after real 1966, 2008, and 2009 fires) Main Street commercial core. The newly reopened Asticou Hotel, a roughly $28 million, 2025-completed renovation of the historic 1883 inn, adds 82 rooms across the original building, harborside cottages, and harbor-view spa suites, plus a heated pool, spa, fitness center, and the poolside Cabana Bar -- a genuinely fresh addition to the village's own visitor infrastructure worth a look even for non-guests, subject to the property's current access policies for its restaurant and bar spaces.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Garden history is drawn from Wikipedia's "Asticou Azalea Garden" and "Thuya Garden" articles and the Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve's own history page. Beal & Bunker Mail Boat and Ferry's route, schedule practice, and year-round operation are drawn from the operator's own service description reflected in Tripadvisor and Yelp business listings and the Town of Cranberry Isles' own transportation page; the combined roughly 140-person year-round Cranberry Isles population is drawn from Island Institute community-profile reporting. The Islesford Historical Museum's buildings, National Register status, and seasonal hours are drawn from the National Park Service's own Acadia National Park site (nps.gov/acad). Great Harbor Maritime Museum details are drawn from the museum's own site. Northeast Harbor Fleet detail is drawn from Acadia Adventures' "When Art Meets Wind" and the Fleet's own site. Golf club architect, founding-shareholder, and course-scorecard detail is drawn from Northeast Harbor Golf Club's own "Our Story" page and course-database listings (BlueGolf, ForeTee). Union Church detail is drawn from Wikipedia's "Union Church of Northeast Harbor" article. The Asticou Hotel's 2025 reopening and amenities are drawn from Hotel Online's and the Bangor Daily News' own reporting. Confirm current hours, admission, and access policies directly with each attraction before a visit. Nothing on this page is travel or legal advice.