Things To Do in Portland ME

Any visit to Portland should start with a stroll around the historic Old Port (pictured above). Bounded by Commercial, Congress, Union, and Pearl streets, this area near the waterfront has the city’s best commercial architecture, a mess of boutiques, fine restaurants, and one of the thickest concentrations of bars on the eastern seaboard. (The Old Port tends to transform as night lengthens, with crowds growing younger and rowdier.) The narrow streets and intricate brick facades reflect a mid-Victorian era; most of the area was rebuilt following a devastating fire in 1866. Exchange Street is the heart of the Old Port, with other attractive streets running off and around it.

Just outside the Old Port, don’t miss the First Parish Church at 425 Congress Street, a beautiful granite meetinghouse with an impressively austere interior that has changed little since 1826. A few doors down the block, Portland’s City Hall is at the head of Exchange Street. Modeled after New York City’s, it was built from granite in 1909. In a similarly regal vein is the U.S. Custom House, 312 Fore Street near the Old Port. The fine woodwork and marble floors here date to 1868.

Wonderful Walks

The city’s finest harborside stroll is along the Eastern Prom Pathway, which wraps for about a mile along the waterfront beginning at the Casco Bay Lines ferry terminal at the corner of Commercial and Franklin streets. This paved pathway is suitable for walking or biking, and offers expansive views of Casco Bay and its myriad (more than one for each day of the year) islands. 

Some have favorably compared this view with San Francisco’s; even if that’s stretching it a bit, you can’t go wrong here watching the weather and light come and go. The pathway skirts the lower edge of the Eastern Promenade (pictured below) a 68-acre hillside park with broad, grassy slopes extending down to the water. Little East End Beach is also here, but the water is often off-limits for swimming (look for signs). The easiest place to park is near the beach and boat ramp. From downtown, head east on Congress Street until you can’t go any farther; turn right, and then take your first left on the road down the hill to the water’s edge.

The pathway continues on to Back Cove Pathway, a 3 1/2-mile loop around tidal Back Cove, offering attractive views of the city skyline across the water, glimpses of Casco Bay, and a bit of exercise. The pathway is the city’s most popular recreational facility; after work in summer, Portlanders flock here to walk, bike, jog, and windsurf (there’s enough water 2 1/2 hours before and after high tide). 

Part of the pathway shares a noisy bridge with I-295, and it can be unpleasant at a dead low tide; when the tides and the weather cooperate, however, it’s a nice spot for a walk. The main parking lot is located across from Hannaford Plaza at the water’s edge. Take exit 6 (Forest Ave. north) off I-295; turn right at the first light on Baxter Boulevard. At the next light, turn right again and park in the lot ahead on the left.

On the other end of the peninsula is the Western Promenade. (Follow Spring Street westward to Vaughan Street; turn right and then take your first left on Bowdoin Street to the Prom.) This narrow strip of lawn atop a forested bluff has sweeping views across the Fore River west to the White Mountains in the distance (you can just make out the massive outline of Mount Washington on a clear day). 

The airport, Maine Mall, and paper mill in the foreground may be less than scenic, but still, it’s a great spot to watch the sun set. Around the Western Prom are some of the grandest and most imposing houses in the city that include a wide array of architectural styles, from Italianate to shingle to stick.

Back to Nature: A Side Trip

Just a few miles north of Portland along Route 1 in Falmouth, the Maine Audubon Society’s Gilsland Farm Sanctuary is a lovely place to enjoy nature (and a perfect place for a picnic, if you’re so inclined). Gaze out on grassy fields, wildflowers, and tidewater. Afterward, explore the society’s intriguing displays, demonstration projects, and gift shops; this is clearly an organization that cares deeply about the state’s natural resources. What the heck? Become a member while you’re here.

Aficionados of antiques and secondhand furniture stores love Portland. Good browsing can be enjoyed along Congress Street; try the stretches between State and High streets in the arts district, or from India Street to Washington Avenue on Munjoy Hill. About a dozen shops of varying quality (mostly low-end) can be found in these two areas.

More serious antiques hounds may choose to visit an auction house or two. Two or three times per week, you’ll be able to find an auction within an hour’s drive of Portland. A good source of information is the Maine Sunday Telegram. Look in the classifieds for listings of auctions scheduled for the following week.

For new items, the Old Port, with its dozens of boutiques and storefronts, is well worth browsing. It’s especially strong in contemporary, one-of-a-kind clothing that’s a world apart from generic stuff you’d find at a mall. Artisan and crafts shops are also well represented.

The big Maine Mall takes up a huge chunk of real estate near the Portland Jetport in South Portland (easily reached off the Maine Turnpike via its own exit). The options here are uniformly bland—this could be Anywheresville, America—and there are no outlet or factory stores; you’ll pay full price, plus Maine state tax.

Still, if there’s something reassuring about being able to bop among the likes of Macy’s, Bath & Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, Pottery Barn, the Apple Store, and H&M, then sitting down with a coffee and a book or CD at Books-A-Million (in its own free-standing building), you might enjoy it. There’s not much that’s distinctive here, though the bookstore is very well stocked and the staff is helpful. Also check out the Dick's Sporting Goods for low-priced athletic gear; watch for specials on exercise equipment, golf balls, camping gear, and the like.

Needless to say, there’s a food court here, though it isn’t very good. Consider dining at a nearby restaurant instead; a number of them surround the moatlike ring road that surrounds the mall and its acres of parking lots. Good choices include the Sebago Brewing Company for local beers and pub fare, or Taj, a respectable family-run Indian place with a lunch buffet to fuel your shopping spree.

Portland is unquestionably the beer capital of New England. Not just northern New England, but all of New England—and it holds its own against most of the rest of the country, too, with more craft breweries per capita than any American city. In general, Maine’s craft brew scene is characterized by liberal pour laws that make tap rooms as popular as bars, plus a penchant for embracing (and reviving) Old World styles.

For starters, there’s the granddaddy of Belgian-style beer in the U.S. Head west out Forest Avenue (off Congress Street) a few miles, then turn right on Riverside Street and take the next right into an industrial park. You’ll come to Allagash Brewing at 50 Industrial Way (tel. 800/330-5385 or 207/878-5385), a legend of a craft brewer that’s gained nationwide recognition for its Belgian-style white, double, and triple beers. Allagash offers daily tours from 11am to 4:30pm. The brewery is still crazy experimental—taps pouring at the spacious and rustic tap room include hard-to-find seasonal and limited release brews: wild-fermented beers, beers brewed with coffee or fruit or ginger, dry-hopped and barrel-aged beers, you name it. Still, it’s the company’s flagship brew, Allagash White, that holds a special place in many beer lover’s palates. Founding brewer Rob Tod’s Belgian white is as crisp and clean as an orange rind, and indeed he uses citrus peels in the mix, as well as coriander and other spices. It’s an exquisite beer that helped kick off this country’s craft brew revolution.

And while you’re out here, don’t miss three other topnotch brewers in the very same industrial park. Across the street from Allagash, at 1 Industrial Way, you’ll want to try the milk stout or the slightly sour, easy-drinking Lawn Mower saison from Austin Street Brewery (tel. 207/200-1994), then duck next door into Foundation Brewing Company (tel. 207/370-8187), which, for my money, brews two of the crispest, tastiest IPAs in New England, the so-very-floral Afterglow and the bit-more-of-a-wallop Epiphany. The two tiny tap rooms are a great hang in the summer, when the party spills onto picnic tables out front. Then keep going around the circuit to find Geary’s (tel. 207/878-2337) at 38 Evergreen Drive, often credited as New England’s very first microbrewery. Geary’s year-round beers rely on a British yeast strain that’s a bit of an acquired taste, but the tap room also offers more diverse small-batch pours from the brewery’s pilot series.

Head down to the East Bayside District to find a half-dozen tap rooms, including a few of of Portland’s buzziest and most convivial, all a short walk from one another. Oxbow Blending and Bottling (tel. 207/350-0025) is the Portland outpost of a farmhouse brewery headquartered up the coast, in Newcastle.  Its urban iteration pours super-crushable Old World farmhouse ales in a huge former warehouse decorated with an oh-so-Portland mix of b-boy graffiti and reclaimed barn wood. Though a bit hard to find (49 Washington Avenue, head into the alley next to the coffee shop), this place is a party on a Saturday night. Rising Tide Brewing Company (tel. 207/370-2337) at 103 Fox Street has a great patio with lawn games and food trucks and excels at lower-alcohol brews. Its Maine Island Trail Ale, at just 4.3% ABV, is crispy, citrusy, and beloved by Mainers in summer.

Off the peninsula, beer lovers literally line up around the block at Thompson’s Point when Bissell Brothers releases cases of its newest batches. The 2,500-square-foot tap room (complete pinball, wall murals, and lofted hangout space) is often packed by noon with devotees of Bissell’s bright, strong, often opaque ales. A mile away (along the bikeable Fore River Parkway Trail), in a former warehouse at 17 Westfield Street, Bunker Brewing (tel. 207/613-9471) is known for its easy-drinking flagship pilsner.

Incredibly, this list only scratches the surface of the more than 30 craft brewers operating in Greater Portland. You can taste a bunch at the Old Port’s superb Novare Res Bier Café (4 Canal Plaza, tel. 207/761-2437), a modern-day rathskeller with a bottle list 500 strong and an emphasis on obscure Euro imports. Come happy hour, the crowd is a mix of flannel-clad scenesters, tipsy businessmen, bemused out-of-towners, and salty types from down on the wharf. The best six-pack shopping is at the Bier Cellar (tel. 207/200-6258), just off the highway at 299 Forest Avenue.

For more of a general bar scene, head to the Old Port are. Portland is usually lively in the evenings, especially on summer weekends when the testosterone level in the Old Port seems to rocket into the stratosphere, with young men and women prowling the dozens of bars and spilling out onto Fore Street and the surrounding alleys and streets.

Among the Old Port bars favored by locals are Three-Dollar Dewey’s, at the corner of Commercial and Union streets (the popcorn is free); atmospheric Gritty McDuff's Brew Pub, on Fore Street at the foot of Exchange Street, where you’ll find live music and a cast of regulars quaffing great beers brewed on-site; and the two-story, slightly rowdy Irish pub Bull Feeney’s, on Center Fore Street. All three bars are casual and pubby, with guests sharing long tables with new companions.

If you prefer cocktails to brewskis, we have three recommendations: Portland Hunt & Alpine Club (tel. 207/747-4754), Blyth & Burrows (tel/207/613-9070), and Vena’s Fizz House (tel. 207/747-4901), all within two blocks of one another in the Old Port. All mix adventurous, sophisticated cocktails (including some non-alcoholic options) and attract a less boisterous crowd than the watering holes above.