The Best Hotels Near The Alna Store, by the Record
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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.
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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.
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Perched on the shores of Penobscot Bay between Camden and Belfast, this boutique hotel splits its rooms between a main inn, a hilltop building, and a poolhouse, with king beds and gas fireplaces throughout. The infinity pool does the heavy lifting on lazy afternoons, and there's a small spa for good measure. Acadia is ninety minutes away if you feel like being ambitious, but Midcoast Maine has a way of making ambitious feel unnecessary.
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A six-room B&B tucked into a stately red-brick Georgian house in Portland's quieter, more residential West End. The rooms are handsome and distinct, the décor classic without feeling like a period piece, and the cooked-to-order breakfast is a proper morning. An automated wine bar is an odd and welcome touch, and afternoon cheese boards keep things civilized. Downtown is a short walk northeast when you need it.