The Best Hotels in Camden

A turreted stone castle sitting right on Route 1 above Penobscot Bay, the Norumbega Inn holds 11 rooms and suites, each furnished differently, some with fireplaces, some with terraces, some with wide ocean views. It spent its first century as a private residence, and it still feels like a very good friend invited you to their very grand house. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Key. Cocktails at the bar, slow mornings, Camden harbor below.

The red-brick shell of a century-old industrial building still stands, and inside it sits one of the more charming boutique hotels on the Maine coast. Rooms and suites lean into the bones of the structure, so the gas fireplaces and built-ins feel like they belong rather than arrived from a catalog. Steps from Camden Harbor, and central enough that you can walk everywhere the town has to offer without once moving your car.

Weathered ceiling slats in the lobby nod to Maine's shipbuilding past while everything around them is firmly contemporary, which is a neat trick for a boutique hotel in a town that has always had an artistic streak. Rooms are clean-lined but warm, with rich textures and original art that keep things from feeling sterile. The Farnsworth's Wyeth collection is a short walk away, and the kitchen sends out breakfast before pointing you toward Rockland's quietly impressive dining scene.

Edna St. Vincent Millay launched her career in this very house, which is either the best fun fact in Maine hospitality or a very good reason to stay somewhere else if you failed AP English. A renovated mansion hotel on High Street, Whitehall blends 19th-century New England bones with mid-century modernism, and puts you walking distance from both Camden's harbor and Mount Battie's hiking trails. Open May through October.