ME Travel Guide
Historic Hotels / Hotel Openings / Maine Hotels / Hotel Newspapers / Hotel News / → All Tags
An Old Newspaper Building Will Open As A Boutique Hotel In Portland, ME
Old, run-down industrial buildings getting repurposed as boutique hotels? It's what we like to call 'a trend.' And Portland, ME is the latest city to get in on the action, with the conversion of the old Portland Press Herald building into a 100-room boutique hotel.
Funnily enough, the Portland Press Herald itself reported on the story, saying its former headquarters, which is located on the edge of Portland's historic Old Port district, has been sitting empty since 2010.
Hotel Restaurants / Maine Hotels / → All Tags
Hotel Restaurants You'd Actually Eat In: Maine's White Barn Inn
The reputation of hotel restaurants as sad, overpriced affairs is quickly falling away as some talented chefs make the eateries destinations of their own. This week, Katherine Spiers is taking us to some of the best hotel restaurants in the world.
Kennebunkport, a seaside village in Maine, is known mostly for its position under the Bush presidencies as the "summer White House." The Walker-Bush clan has owned an estate there for over a century, hosting guests like Yitzhak Rabin and Billy Graham for the last 20 years.
The White Barn Inn, just down the way a bit, has served dinner to a few of these dignitaries as well—though the restaurant's more likely to be the setting for a marriage proposal. The huge barn, retrofitted and painted and decorated in country chic, certainly looks the part.
Presidential Hotels / Political Hotels / Maine Hotels / Holiday Inns / Bar Harbor Hotels / Barack Obama / → All Tags
Hotel, Motel, President Obama Stays at the Holiday Inn
Wow, well it looked like the modern rebranding of Holiday Inn is working out for them, because President Barack Obama and his family are staying at the Holiday Inn Regency Bar Harbor this weekend.
Michelle and the girls headed up to Maine with Barack earlier today, all packed and ready for a relaxing weekend of hiking Acadia National Park and hanging out in cooler temperatures. Bo the dog is joining them too! He flew up a few days early though, with secret service and security detail who've been working to nail down the specifics of the President's long weekend stay.
Digital Nomad Hotels / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Lobbies / Portland Hotels / → All Tags
Digital Nomad Lobbies: Portland Harbor Hotel
There has been a lot of talk recently about the lifestyle of digital nomads -- folks who work from wherever they might roam. HotelChatter has been covering hotel wifi since the beginning, but as we cited in our 2009 annual hotel wifi report times they are a changin'.
The biggest change on the tech side is the growing popularity of the usb broadband card. As more and more people buy into these cards (and more and more GMs pray to the hotel gods they do) there are a growing number of digital nomads that no longer tap into a hotel WiFi network. Instead, these nomads are in search of killer hotel lobbies to comfortably work in. That's right, digital nomads have no problem coming in, kicking back on hotel lobby couches and doing an hours worth of work. So once again hotels have a choice -- welcome these folks, pay no mind to them, or actively try to kick them out.
With this in mind, we figured it was time for us to start rating hotel lobbies on their digital nomad quotient. First up, the Portland Harbor Hotel.
Hotel Blog Watch / Hotel Weddings / Maine Hotels / → All Tags
The Little Inn That Could
We don’t mean to be picky about hotel blogs but, well, we are. And considering how picky we are, the Newagen Seaside Inn should be pleased that we find their blog actually pretty OK.
But--because there’s always a but--we definitely picked the wrong day to drop by their blog. Right now the first post you see is about a dream wedding which they describe as being perfect, but the newly-weds are beaming at us from under an umbrella on a dreary-looking day. Not exactly our idea of a dream wedding. Then again, some consider rain on your wedding day good luck.
That said, the Newagen Seaside Inn’s blog is still pretty readable. There’s a mix of self-promotion (especially for their weddings) and general info on Maine, and nice pics to go with it. There’s even an interview with a family who’ve apparently been vacationing at this same hotel for 40 years but unfortunately they didn’t ask them why they’d never thought of choosing a new destination.
To sum up: the Newagen Seaside Inn has put together a much more professional hotel blog than some of the big guns, so we’re saying thumbs up. But we’d be very careful about choosing the season if we got married there.
Hotel Openings / New England Hotels / Maine Hotels / WASP Hotels / Orchid Hotels / → All Tags
The Cottages at Hidden Pond in Maine Opening Next Month
The newest edition to the Orchid Hotels and Resorts family is Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport, Maine. Normally, we don't go further north than Manhattan when we travel the Eastern Seaboard but we are actually contemplating a stay here at Hidden Pond when it opens in July.
The hotel is actually made up of 14 cottages complete with full kitchens, king beds, flat-screen TVs, large screen porch, gas fireplaces and even an outdoor shower. (There's an indoor bath too.)
Some more on the cottages:
Natural fabrics, an inviting screened-in porch, a gas fireplace set in river stone, clever little kitchens and floor to ceiling windows that allow nature inside ... enjoy all of this by day and then retreat to the sanctuary of your bedroom where you'll find Frette bed linens, plush down-filled duvets and the most comfortable bed you've ever had the pleasure to encounter.
Summer Getaways / Maine Inns / → All Tags
It's a Maine Thing :: The Bar Harbor Inn and Spa
While some of you Nor'easterners have your heart set on visiting the Hamptons or the Jersey Shore this summer, at least a third of you is going to head up to New England. And if you love fresh Maine lobster, we suggest you head for the Bar Harbor Inn and Spa, one of only three hotels in Maine to be listed among the top 500 hotels on the planet by Travel + Leisure.
Built in 1887, the inn has a long and fascinating history, tied in to the lives and fortunes of the Vanderbilt's, the Pulitzer's, and other prominent American families who spent leisurely summers in Bar Harbor.
The hotel is directly on Frenchman's Bay and has 154 rooms in three distinctive buildings on eight acres of landscaped grounds: the Main Inn, Oceanfront Lodge, and Newport. For larger rooms with balconies and incredible oceanfront views, opt for the first two.
B&Bs / Hotels Doing Good / Maine Hotels / Hotel Deals / → All Tags
Find a Tax Deduction at a Maine Inn
"Nature hates calculators," Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, likely around tax time. If slaving away at 2007's taxes have shown you that you need to create more opportunities for deductions this year, might we suggest planning a weekend getaway to the Waldo Emerson Inn, a bed and breakfast believed to be one of the oldest houses in Kennebunk, Maine?
Book a stay in May, when the inn--and other members of the Maine Innkeepers Association--cut room rates in half to support "Hospitality for Habitat," a program that raises funds for Habitat for Humanity projects in Maine. In exchange for the discount, guests who stay between May 1-23 will be asked to write a $35 check to Habitat for Humanity, which you can write off come tax time next year. Everybody wins!
But there's more charm to staying here than a vacation that yields a tax deduction. The B&B maintains much of its original construction from 1753; plus Waldo Emerson, Ralph's great uncle, used to build clipper ships on the river behind the house. The colonial-style inn offers just four guest rooms, each anointed with handmade quilts, antiques, working fireplaces and private baths. May rates start at $95 per night.
Inns / Maine Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
The Tricky Transition of the Black Point Inn
Back on Halloween we introduced you to Neil Porta, who runs the show at Maine's Black Point Inn, and now it is time to tell you a bit more about the old Inn out on Prout's Neck.
Find out the current state of the 1878 property, and how to avoid getting arrested on your way to the Inn, all after the jump, of course.
Nantucket Hotel Reviews / Meet The Innkeeper / Neil Porta / → All Tags
Meet The Innkeeper: Black Point Inn
The thing about staying at an inn is sooner or later you are going to bump into the innkeeper. Whether you are a social butterfly or an introvert, when you stay at a small bed and breakfast, or an inn, you need to be prepared for your "innkeeper interaction". Which is why we figured it would be a good idea for you to get to know who runs your inn of choice before you decide to check-in. Meet The Innkeeper is our new video feature where the innkeepers get to speak directly to you, oh so intimidating potential guest, and tell you what their particular inn has to offer.
Today we present to you Neil Porta, Managing Partner at the Black Point Inn on Prouts Neck Maine. Have specific questions for Neil, or us? Leave them in the comments section below.
More on the Black Point Inn coming soon.
Hotel Openings / Green Hotels / Maine Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
Maine's Black Point Inn Re-Opens
[UPDATE: We made some changes at the bottom of this story regarding room rates. Please read before you book.]
The Black Point Inn in Scarborough, Maine has just undergone a significant makeover and reopened last month with a new look, new restaurants and new management.
Originally built in 1878, the property shut down for a little while to make some structural and aesthetic improvements. In an effort to make the oceanside resort more "intimate," the room count was reduced from 84 to 25 to make space for the expansion of common rooms and cute sun-lit porch areas.
The good folks at True North Hospitality are the proud new managers of the property, adding BPI to their collection of Maine hotels, which includes Migis Lodge in South Casco, The Inn at Camden Place and the Inn at Ocean's Edge.
Hotel Deals / Fall Foliage Hotels / → All Tags
Cruising for Pretty Leaves :: The Winward House
It wouldn't be a Fall Foliage trip without a stopover in Maine. Aside from the foliage, everyone wants to hit up the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport.
However if you keep on driving to Camden, stop in at the Winward House. For $140 a night, the little B&B is offering their "Fall Foliage Pancake Pan-tacular" which includes accommodations, afternoon tea (with apples from the Sewall Organic Orchard) and of course pancakes for breakfast. The offer is good from Oct. 16 - Nov. 5.
One recent guest practically wrote a novel about how good the stay was:
We had glorious weather and loved our room - the Brass Room - particularly as it had a balcony with furniture which overlooked the garden at the back of the house and which we made good use of both in the morning and evenings. The bed was just so comfortable - nothing else matched it on the rest of our holiday....The whole house is just delightful, feels like a 'home' and we felt lucky to find it and share it and are convinced that our decision to leave safe but impersonal 'hotel land' is fully justified.
Should you try the pancakes here, let us know if they're better than Momma's.
Related Stories:
· Leaf Peeping Planner [Budget Travel Online]
· Winward House reviews [TripAdvisor]
