Maine waterfront hotels on working wharves

At these three Maine waterfront hotels, you can fall asleep listening to the waves lap and awaken to lobster boats chugging out to sea. Two are built on wharves, so the tide ebbs and flows beneath them. And the third is so close to the shoreline that you could cast a fishing line out the window.

• Tidewater Motel, Vinalhaven Island

Really, you can’t get much closer to the action than a room at the Tidewater Motel. It hangs over Carvers Harbor, one of Maine’s busiest traditional fishing harbors. Getting there is easy, take the ferry from Rockland.

I’d advise against bringing a car. The ferry terminal is an easy walk to the motel, and if you need help with luggage, you can arrange for a pick up. (See more on Vinalhaven).

• Inn on the Harbor, Stonington

Much like the Tidewater, the The Inn on the Harbor  hangs over a working harbor, with big windows framing the view and huge decks for watching the boats come and go (see from my Inn on the Harbor review).

It’s smack downtown, putting restaurants and shops within steps. The mail boat ferrying passengers to Isle au Haut, home to a remote section of Acadia National Park, is about a 15-minute walk.

Avoid the street-side rooms, and aim for one with water views out to Isle au Haut. All guests have access to the main deck., but some rooms have private decks. A couple of rooms are pet friendly.

Note: a new innkeeper took over for the 2022 season.

 • Inn at the Wharf, Lubec

I thought for sure I’d reviewed this previously, but I found I wrote it, but never published it (hitting self on head). Here it is:

If The Inn at the Wharf were any closer to the shoreline, I could cast a fishing line out my window. Instead, from my room in this Maine waterfront hotel I gaze at lobstermen hauling traps and fishermen unloading their catch. And I listen to boats chugging along, watch some of the nation’s biggest tides and earliest sunrises, and breathe brine-scented air. It’s not just the location on the eastern shore of the nation’s eastern-most town that makes this lodging special, but also the story behind it.

In the mid-1900s, this town was home to 23 sardine factories. When the final whistle blew in 2001 at Lubec Sardine Co. Factory B, the last one operating, it signaled the end of an era. Five years later, Victor and Judy Trafford spied the oceanfront property with its new wharf and to-die-for views over Passamaquoddy Bay and purchased it.

While debating what to do with the derelict factory, the Traffords began buying lobsters and crabs, and later eels and periwinkles, from local fishermen and using the basement-level holding tanks for sorting and storing, before sending the catch to market. Next they renovated the factory’s upper level into modern guest accommodations, including suites and two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments.

In addition, the inn rents bicycles and kayaks, offers whale-watching tours, and operates a restaurant in the factory’s former boiler room.