Attractions

The village center is good for an hour or two of browsing among the boutiques, or sipping a cappuccino at one of the several coffee emporia.

From the village, you can walk to scenic Perkins Cove along Marginal Way, a mile-long oceanside pathway that departs across from the Seacastles Resort on Shore Road. It passes tide pools, pocket beaches, and rocky, fissured bluffs, all worth exploring. The seascape can be spectacular, but Marginal Way can also be extremely crowded during fair-weather weekends, so head out in the early morning.

Perkins Cove, accessible either from Marginal Way or by driving south on Shore Road and veering left at the Y intersection, is a small, well-protected harbor that attracts many visitors and is often heavily congested. A handful of galleries, restaurants, and T-shirt shops cater to the tourist trade from a cluster of quaint buildings between harbor and sea. (If teeming crowds and tourist enterprises are not the reason you came to Maine, steer clear of Perkins Cove.) An intriguing pedestrian drawbridge is operated by whoever happens to be handy.

Not far from the cove is the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, 543 Shore Rd. (tel. 207/646-4909; www.ogunquitmuseum.org), one of the best and most beautiful small art museums in the nation (that's not just me talking; the director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art said so, too). It's open only in summer and early fall, however. Set back from the road in a grassy glen overlooking the rocky shore, the museum has a spectacular view that initially overwhelms the artwork as visitors walk through the door. But stick around for a few minutes -- the changing exhibits in this architecturally engaging modern building of cement block, slate, and glass will get your attention soon enough; its curators have a track record of staging superb shows and attracting national attention, and the permanent collection holds work by seascape master Marsden Hartley and many members of the Ogunquit Colony, including Woodbury, Hamilton Easter Field, and Robert Laurent. The museum is open from July to October, Monday to Saturday from 10:30am to 5pm and Sundays from 2 to 5pm. Admission costs $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, and $4 for students; it's free for all children 11 and under.

For evening entertainment, head for the Ogunquit Playhouse (tel] 207/646-2402), a 750-seat summer stock theater right on U.S. Route 1 (just south of the main town intersection) with an old-style look that has garnered a solid reputation for its careful, serious attention to stagecraft. The theater has entertained Ogunquit since 1933, attracting noted actors such as Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and Sally Struthers. Performance tickets generally cost in the range of $30 to $45 per person.

Trolley Ho!

A number of trackless "trolleys" (tel. 207/646-1411) -- actually buses -- with names like Dolly and Ollie (you get the idea) run all day from mid-May to Columbus Day between Perkins Cove and the Wells town line to the north, with detours to the sea down Beach and Ocean streets. These trolleys are very handy, and they stop everywhere. (There's a map of stops posted online at www.ogunquit.com/trolley.cfm.) Rides cost $1.50 one-way (children free), or you can buy a day pass for $5 per adult and $3 per child 9 and under; it might be worth the expense to avoid driving and parking hassles and limits.