Visiting Portland, Maine and looking for something fun to do. We are now offering 5 hour bike tours of Portland.

Your ride starts along a bike path through Willard Beach – one of Portland’s most charming communities to Bug Light, which marks the entrance to the Portland Breakwater. We explore the lighthouse, enjoy the great views from the park, and learn about the liberty ships built during the Second World War.  From here we cycle on to the Spring Point Lighthouse, the Portland Harbor Museum, and Fort Preble a 19^th century stone fortification. We continue through Portland’s charming beachfront community before cycling onto Shore Road, one of Portland’s most exclusive addresses.  Next stop is the majestic Portland Head Light. Our cycling continues past ocean front farms to 2 Lights State Park where you enjoy gourmet picnic of local foods overlooking the ocean.

Portland, Maine is a great city and the gateway to the rest of Maine. Many of the guests on our wonderful Maine bicycle tours pass through Portland. Here are a locals thoughts on things to do in Portland, Maine

As a major working seaport and the gateway to Casco Bay, Portland is all about the ocean.  Portland proper is actually a fairly small peninsula bounded by the Fore River on the southeast side and the Back Cove on the northwest side.  The heart of Portland is the restored Old Port District running from Commercial Street along the water up to Congress Street and Monument Square.  While facing the water on Commercial Street, Portland’s downtown is surrounded by two of Portland’s main residential areas – the East End to your left and the West End to your right.  Portland is a city of eclectic charm and is best explored at a slow and leisurely pace.

Some of the things you might consider looking into include:

If you like to SAIL:  check out a cruise on the Frances or one of Portland’s schooners.  Relax onboard and see the city from a whole different vantage point.  These fine boats sail from the Maine State Pier located aside of the Casco Bay Lines Ferry Terminal.

If you want to get out to an ISLAND:  hop on the Casco Bay Lines Ferries and either tour the harbor on a mailboat or sunset cruise, or get off on an island, explore, and take a ferry back when you are ready.  Casco Bay Lines is located at the corner of Commercial and Franklin Streets.  Arrive early to purchase your ticket and catch the first boat out of town.
If you like to WALK:  Portland Trails has an impressive network of walking paths in and around Portland.  Also, both the east and west end neighborhoods of Portland boast wonderful walking promenades with views of the stately homes and water views that make the neighborhoods so desirable.  If you find yourself on the East End, stop in and visit the Portland Observatory.  The view from the top encompasses all of Casco Bay, Portland, and on clear days, Mount Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

If you’d like to learn more about LOBSTER:  join Captain Tom on board his working lobster boat and experience the thrill of hauling up a trap and seeing what is inside.  Lucky Catch Cruises leave from Commercial and it’s best you call the captain to reserve and confirm your spot.

If you enjoy ART:  Portland has a thriving arts scene.  The Old Portland and Portland’s Art District are both full of galleries and, in the summer, there is something happening every evening.  If you are in town the first Friday of the month, look for participating venues of the First Friday Art Walk and enjoy an evening exploring the visual arts community of Portland.

If you like to EAT AND WALK: check out Maine Foodie Tours for three different culinary tour options of Portland and see for yourself why Portland was voted America’s foodiest small town 2009 by Bon Appetit magazine.

If you like to EAT:  there are so so many options of places to eat in Portland.  To help you sort through some options, check out the Portland Food Map for reviews and categories of options.

If your visit includes a Saturday, consider checking out the Portland Farmer’s Market in Deering Oaks Park.  It’s really neat!  You could certainly find enough deliciousness for a picnic lunch.

If you want to sample LOCAL BREWS: again, many options.  Keep your eyes open for pours by Shipyard, Geary’s, Gritty’s, Allagash, Sebago, StoneCoast, and the Inn on Peaks Island Brewery.

Hopefully you find something of interest in these recommendations!  Enjoy planning your time in Portland and if I can be of any other assistance, please let me know.

PORTLAND, Maine—Summer Feet Cycling, a bicycle tour company that specializes in high-quality, once in a lifetime bicycling vacations in Maine, offers independent cyclists a welcome alternative to traditional group bike tours. Summer Feet Cycling offers a selection of self-guided Maine bike tours that offer travelers a budget-friendly and fun way to explore Maine’s beauty at their own pace.

On a self-guided bike tour, travelers choose their own tour start date and Summer Feet Cycling makes all lodging arrangements and luggage transfers, provides detailed route notes and maps, and ensures that guests are dropped off and picked up at the beginning and ending of the bike tour. Guests enjoy a hearty breakfast each day and accommodation in quaint inns and B&B’s. Self-guided tours can be completely customized to meet the needs of the travelers in terms of tour length and daily cycling mileages, with a 5-day minimum. Summer Feet Cycling offers explorations of Maine’s stunning coastal shorelines, Acadia National Park, and many of Maine’s historical and cultural highlights through self-guided tours like these:

Maine’s Gold Coast

This week-long self-guided bike tour explores the best of Bar Harbor and Camden with highlights like cycling through stunning terrain at Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, the Schoodic Peninsula, Islesboro, and Rockport. Other highlights include feasting on freshly-caught Maine lobster, kayaking Maine’s pristine waters, taking a sunset sail on Penobscot Bay, and staying in charming Maine inns and B&B’s. Price: $1500 pp (including bike rental).

Pedal the Coast (Light)

This ‘light’ version of Summer Feet Cycling’s popular Pedal the Coast tour offers travelers the opportunity to enjoy an inn to inn bike tour of Maine at a more relaxed pace.  Guests can choose between 5 and 9 days of cycling and Summer Feet can also add layover days for more rest and relaxation or activities like kayaking, sightseeing, and hiking to create a more adventurous vacation. The coast of Maine offers stunning diversity as it traverses almost 400 hundred miles from Kittery to the Canadian border. Travelers can get an exclusive look at the best of the Maine coast with cycling along Pemaquid Point, Penobscot Bay, Blue Hill Bay, and Acadia National Park. Prices start at $1600 pp.

For more information about Summer Feet Cycling’s self-guided bike tours like these, visit

Looking for a slightly more exotic cycling destination this year, consider a South Africa Bicycle Tour. great wine, friendly people, and stunning scenery.

Immersion Journeys is an award-winning boutique tour company that truly believes that it’s the experience is what the traveler seeks out. Their unique brand of travel planning covers east, southern and west Africa including India, Bhutan and Nepal and each trip is tailor-made for their client to give them the most valuable experience of the host country. This includes home hosted dinners in South Africa, visiting Masai village elders and trekking in the hilly regions of Ladakh (India) passing through remote villages and temples, or walking safaris in the Serengeti while enjoying a bush breakfast under an ancient baobab tree.

Immersion Journeys was given the 2010 Tanzania Tourist Board’s 2010 Tour Operator of the Year Award.

Their most recent adventure product is a 10 night/ 11 day cycling and culinary adventure in South Africa’s Cape Peninsula region. This tour has all the trappings of luxury with a large element of gastronomical delights amid spectacular scenery, warm hospitality and adventure. One cycles all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope and up through the pristine wine lands that produces some of the world’s finest wines.  For more information on this tour, visit www.helloyebo.com.

he lobster roll is a Maine icon: a combination of one of our best natural resources and Yankee practicality.The traditional lobster roll is made on a hot dog bun and, in Maine, a hot dog bun has exposed dough on both sides rather than being encased in crust. The roll needs to be buttered on both sides and toasted on a griddle. It is served full of fresh lobster meat (either with butter or mayo). No need for any veggies or other flavors to deter from the succulent, fresh lobster taste. Many people searching for a true Maine lobster roll end up at Red’s Eats, a coastal icon located right before the bridge in Wiscasset. Red’s is almost always on the list for best lobster roll. They make a fine lobster roll, but if you would rather spend your vacation enjoying Maine instead of standing in line inhaling the exhaust of summer traffic, I spend my days cycling the coast of Maine for my company Summer Feet Cycling from someone who has ridden every road on the coast of Maine here are 5 great places for a lobster road.

1. The Trevett Store is located just west of Boothbay. The Trevett Store offers a true lobster roll in an idyllic setting. This little general store with a lunch counter not only knows how to make a lobster roll, but you also get to experience the swing bridge. A swing bridge is a bridge that pivots on a central piling to allow boat traffic through. What makes the Trevett bridge unique is that it is manually operated. Anytime a boat needs to pass through, the bridge keeper comes out with a metal pole, inserts it into the bridge, and walks in a circle until the bridge gains enough momentum to swing open.

1. Osier’s Wharf is located at the gut where Route 129 crosses onto Rutherford Island (home of Christmas Cove). Osier’s is another corner store with a killer lobster roll with a great view of a working lobster co-op. For non-shellfish eaters, the fish and chips are freshly made and a delicious bargain.

1. The Lobster Claw is located on West Street in Bar Harbor, Maine. Barry, the owner, is a character and it is worth a visit just to meet him. In addition to being a hoot, Barry is passionate about fresh food and will build you a great lobster roll on demand. All of my friends that guide for National Park Kayak ( the best kayak outfitter on Mt Desert Island) swear that he also has the best fish and chips in town. This is the only place in Bar Harbor to eat a lobster roll or lobster stew. We bring hundreds of people to Bar Harbor in the summer and we never have lobster in town. This is because most, if not all, of the restaurants in Bar Harbor pre-cook the lobster and just heat it up when you order it. We always pile our guests into the van and trek across island to Beal’s or Thurston’s for a fresh lobster dinner. Alas Barry is closed

1. The Lobster Shack at Two Lights is our home town favorite located on Route 77 just south of Portland in Cape Elizabeth. For this one, bring your bike. You can pedal out of Portland and visit Spring Point and Bug Light, two of the smaller lighthouses in Portland Harbor. Then continue on to the Grand Daddy of Maine lighthouses, Portland Head Light, before cycling to the Lobster Shack for a lobster roll in an Edward Hopper painting. Two Lights was the subject of several of Hopper’s Maine paintings.

1. Waterman’s Beach Lobster is located off of Route 73 heading south towards Port Clyde.Waterman’s beach recently received honorable mention from the James Beard Foundation. They have not let it go to their heads. They are still only open Thursday through Sunday and offer great simple fresh food in an unpretentious setting with an amazing view.

Spend the 4th of July discovering Acadia National Park on a Maine Bike Tour. We are offering a $100.00 per person discount  on our July 1-3 Exploring Acadia Tour

The folks at Hello Yebo offer some great bicycle tours in South Africa. Check out their tours

A nice article from the travel and leisure blog about chefs moving to Maine

For Love and Lobster:
Chef Migration Continues in Maine

Ridiculously fresh seafood. Check. Farms and farmers markets galore. Yup. Great scenery. You bet. Real estate deals. Indeed. Locals and visitors who are serious about good food. Definitely. For these reasons and more, a growing number of chefs are decamping Downeast.

Geoffroy Deconinck is latest chef to trade in his fancy toque for a new start in Maine. Having worked side by side with Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, and Alain Ducasse, the 38-year-old Belgian is the newly named executive chef at Natalie’s restaurant at the Camden Harbour Inn.

Deconinck joins trend leader Melissa Kellyof Primo (Rockland), who got her start with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse; Krista Kernof Bresca (Portland), who chefed with Guy Savoy, holder of three Michelin stars, in Las Vegas; Michelle and Steve Cory of 555, who did time in Napa (she with Thomas Keller at The French Laundry) before opening their Portland restaurant; and others who’ve moved north in recent years to carve out their piece of Maine’s culinary wonderland.

But it’s not just the salt air and locavore-mad diners that lured Deconinck to quaint Camden village on Penboscot Bay—the inn’s savvy owners had something to do with the move. Oscar Verest and Raymond Brunyanszkihave had a special spot for Natalie’s since they opened the doors to their stylish inn in 2007, insisting on fine ingredients, great service, and sophisticated alternatives to the lobster roll (on the menu now: Deconinck’s asparagus risotto with spring garlic foam; grilled salmon with herb sabayon; and local lamb with fennel puree).

Chef Deconinck was also a 2011 nominee—the only one from Maine—forFood & Wine’s People’s Best New Chef award. Need we say more? Go and taste for yourself—just for the halibut.

Find the inn’s “Mud Season” specials here. And book now for summer, the inn’s (and Vacationland’s) busiest time of year.

Adrien Glover is the online deputy editor at Travel + Leisure.

There is new offering for East Coast Bike Tours from our friends at Adventure Cycling to cycle from Philadelphia to Washington DC. The mid atlantic and Chesapeake Bay Area offers some great cycling.

Philadelphia, Bike Philly ride through the Wissahickon Valley, 20 miles. Philadelphia is much more than a place where history took place. It’s a city of colorful neighborhoods, incredible architecture, and a rapidly expanding bicycle network. What better way to begin a week of bicycling than taking part in the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s BikePhilly festival? Later in the day, you’ll have a chance to hear a talk by a Philadelphia historian and ride to Chestnut Hill along Forbidden Drive in Philadelphia’s famous Wissahickon Valley.

West Fairmount Park to French Creek State Park, 55 miles. We’ll follow the Schuylkill River Trail through the hip Manayunk Main Street, home of “The Wall,” and an integral part of the U.S. Pro Cycling Race that takes place in Philadelphia. Next we’ll loop through Valley Forge National Park, and continue west on the trail to Phoenixville, from there venturing into rural Pennsylvania. We’ll pass by vibrant sustainable-farming communities, a quarry village with a good bakery, and an iron plantation called Hopewell Furnace, as we spin toward our campsite at French Creek State Park.

French Creek State Park to Pequea, on the Susquehanna River, 50 miles. Can families really live in the country and get around by bike and scooter? Yes, as you will see. Lancaster County, known for it’s fertile and scenic farmland, is home to many small-scale farms that provide high quality heirloom produce to Philadelphia, New York, and much of the Mid-Atlantic region. At this time of year, the fields and farm-stands will be bountiful; we’ll see men and women harvesting crops by hand or with the help of horse teams. We’ll ride through towns like Intercourse and Strasburg, home of the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. You’ll appreciate the care that was taken in planning this route, which was designed to pass through several covered bridges while bypassing urban sprawl and development.

Pequea to Codorus State Park, 50 miles. Where might the nation’s capital be if it were not Washington, DC? History tells us that it could have been in Columbia, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River. On today’s ride, our route crosses the Susquehanna at the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge — the world’s longest concrete, multiple-arch bridge. We’ll then head west toward York, an important city in U.S. history known for its well-preserved architecture. On the western edge of town, we’ll access the Heritage Rail-Trail, which will take us through more beautiful countryside to Codorus State Park.

Codorus State Park to Cotoctin Mountain Park, 50 miles. With so much to see and do today, we’ll need to get an early start. Highlights include Gettysburg National Military Park and President Eisenhower’s farm, and we’ll skirt Presidential Camp David and the towering hardwood forests of Catoctin Mountain. Starting out, we’ll ride through the town of Hanover, before arriving in Gettysburg, where we’ll spend a few hours exploring Civil War history and the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The rest of the day we’ll enjoy quiet farm roads and wooded mountains, before arriving at Sugar Notch Cabins, built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and now listed on the National Historic Register.

Cotoctin Mountain Park to Brunswick, MD, via Harpers Ferry, WV, 50 miles. Today is marked by long downhills on roads with names like “Pleasant Walk.” The route crosses the Appalachian Trail and then passes storied Antietam National Battlefield, where you’ll learn how geography, a lost letter, and ill-timed attacks led to a staggering 23,000 deaths in one day. From there, we’ll bike through Sharpsburg to the car-free C&O Canal Towpath, and on to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The National Park Service’s mapping headquarters are located here, and the head of cartography will speak to us about how these beautiful maps are made. (Don’t forget to ask: “Do you travel to all of the national parks that you map?”)

Brunswick, MD to Union Station, Washington, DC, 60 miles. Is there a better way to enter the District of Columbia than by the C&O Canal Towpath? If there is, our intrepid researchers haven’t found it. Free from car traffic and boasting a bounty of natural beauty, the trail follows the north side of the rocky Potomac River into DC. Once in the city, we’ll pass Georgetown and see rowers on the river on our way to the Lincoln Memorial. (In many respects, we will have traveled in Lincoln’s footsteps over the course of the week.) We will then bike past the Washington Monument and the National Mall, winding up at Union Station’s fabulous Bikestation. From there, our bikes will be transported to Amtrak’s 30th Street Station in Philadelphia — and so will we, capping a great bicycle tour with a relaxing train ride. If you flew into Philly, you’ll be glad to know there’s a bike shop two blocks away from the 30th Street Station that can box your bike and ship it home. There’s also train service directly to the airport from the station, or you can bike back to where you’ve parked your car for the week — or you can ride home, for that matter!

PORTLAND, Maine—Summer Feet Cycling, a bicycle tour company that specializes in high-quality, once in a lifetime bicycling vacations in Maine, recently announced two new Maine weekend bike tours for the 2011 season. These two new short weekend bike tours offer cyclists the chance for a quick getaway to enjoy the sights and sounds of Portland or an opportunity to explore Maine’s gorgeous Kennebunks. Best of all, these bike trips offer easy to moderate cycling, so they are even appropriate for travelers that aren’t necessarily avid cyclists.

Go Island Hopping In Portland

On this Portland bike tour, spend three exciting days exploring a city that publications like Forbes, Bon Appétit, and Outside have recently selected as one of the best places to live in America.  Aside from being an outdoor-lovers paradise, Portland is rife with culinary treasures, coastal beauty, and historical points of interest. Highlights of this tour include exploring Casco Bay by boat and bike, visiting five of Maine’s 71 lighthouses, accommodation at The Danforth in Portland’s historic West End, savoring gourmet Maine cuisine, and explorations of Peaks Island, Chebeague Island, Cousin’s Island, Falmouth, and much more. Dates: July 8-10^th, 2011. Price: $875 per person (single supplement $200 per person). Hybrid Bike Rental: $60. Road Bike Rental: $80. Two mileage options are available.

Spend A Weekend Exploring Maine’s Coastal Beauty

On this bike tour, cyclists will spend three days exploring the seaside towns of Kennebunkport, Kennebunk, Arundel, and Cape Porpoise – collectively known as The Kennebunks. These towns are saturated in maritime history, from times of salty sea captains, to a thriving ship building industry, and the fisherman who for centuries have made a living off the coast’s rich marine resources.  Today, the stately homes of the sea captains are welcoming B&Bs; boat building is still present, including a boat building school just four miles from town; and many a locals make their living on the sea as lobstermen and fishermen. Highlights of this tour include enjoying culinary delights like feasting on lobster caught by one of Kennebunkport’s own lobstermen, exploring Maine’s rocky coastline from the comfort of a bike, taking an evening sailing trip aboard the Schooner Eleanor, getting an up close and personal experience with the history and culture of this area, and much more. Dates: September 16-18, 2011. Cost: $975 per person ($200 single supplement). Hybrid Bike Rental: $60. Road Bike Rental: $80. Two mileage options are available.

For more information about these tours or other Summer Feet Cycling tours, visit www.summerfeet.net