We've stayed here a few times when vacationing in Maine - we go to hike in the State Park as well as enjoy downtown Bar Harbor. We tent camp and have always had a great experience. Bathrooms are always clean, sites are spacious, and we love going down to the floating docks to swim, go crabbing, or take a nice kayak paddle. Very family friendly and great location for all nearby attractions.
I never thought I would spend 55$ a night for a campsite. There are sites that are more expensive, and sites that are cheaper but I figured why not spend the money to stay right on the water. Even sites that don't sit on the water have a great amount of space and trees. Due to Covid this was all I could find for a planned Acadia trip in the fall. After my stay, I can honestly say it was worth the cost and I would highly recommend the campground.
Since the campground sits among the rocky and mountainous coast line, they have spent the time and money building leveled platforms for all the sites. Without the platforms, the campsites would be quite miserable. I have a hard time believing any other campgrounds in the area have invested so much to make their land so comfortable for their guests.
The bathrooms are amazing. Built with wood and lots of ventilation, the open air prevents them from getting musty or moldy. Bathrooms have outlets (or at least the women's do). They are very clean and well kept.
They sell firewood, ice, and have a coffee shop. Brilliantly, you get whatever you need and they simply use your campsite as a "tab". Usually they rent kayaks as well but this was on hold this year due to covid.
Its a great location relative to Acadia. It's only about 15 minutes to popular areas of the park (Cadillac mountain, Jordan pond, etc.). Bar Harbor is also easily accessible. The campground is equally convenient to get to the less popular areas of the park such as the Schoodic region or Bass Head Island.
Best place we've found to go camping while have many other thing to do in a short drive. We can't wait until we have the time to go back and stay agaon
I almost don't want to write a review because I don't want to give away the specialness of this place! It's an amazing campground even during normal life but I was incredibly grateful to them for all the care they took for staff and visitor safety in terms of Covid. Limited capacity, well ventilated bathrooms with limited #s, masks, required tests for travelers from some states), and great signage/communication throughout the entire process even before arrival. Given so much of people's incomes up in the Bar Harbor area is dependent on seasonal visitors, their commitment to all our health was amazing. Huge thumbs up!
We had a reservation here for 2 nights. We needed to cancel because of a change in plans. Tried repeatedly to call, but could never get through. We actually ended up going to the office the day before our reservation because that was the only way to get in contact with them. We told them we could stay one night but had to leave for family reasons before the second night. They said we would be charged the deposit and one night (which is the same as the full price of 2 nights...) We decided to drive through the campground to check it out. Our site was E33. It took us 10 minutes to get to our site from the office going through the maze of one way roads at 7mph... What a pain if you ever decide to leave! We decided it wasn't worth staying and lost our deposit. We would have been happy with a gift certificate for a future stay, but instead we were told "we're trying to run a business here". Beautiful place, but could have been much more accommodating.
I've been coming here with my family for 20 years. The sites and bathrooms are always clean and the staff is friendly and helpful. Our site was right on the ocean, and we enjoyed spectacular views of the sunset over the water and swam in the ocean every day.
This year, we were especially impressed by their handling of the COVID crisis - they had the restrooms professionally cleaned regularly and provided hand sanitizer at all the public buildings.
I am also responding to the reviews below. I am one of the campers that stayed on one of the sites. As this being my first time visiting this campground, I had high hopes when hearing how well they accommodated us to get us a site with electric due to a health issue. Within 10 minutes of arriving( and after a 10+ hour drive) we were rudely yelled at and told we were being too loud and that quite time was at 9- with it being 915 we respectfully set up and went right to bed. The day the camp office told us quite time was 10pm not 9pm as the staff had quoted the night before. So every night after that we all were in our campsites in our tents asleep by 10 pm and made sure we were quite even before quite time to be respectful. With that we were met with more disrespect the next day when they interrupted a special family gathering to ask if we were guests .The staff was completely rude the entire time we were there. We were happy with just leaving and finding a new spot to camp until we got a horrible phone call accusing us of the most absurd and disgusting thing, that as respectful campers would NEVER do. With no proof- and also no mess even on our site they called yelling at us saying we were banned. I hope readers take this as a warning and book elsewhere. We came on this trip for a surprise engagement and an anniversary of our fathers death and it is sad that this is how we have to remember the end of our trip. I cannot believe the response on here from the owners, what a terrible way to run your business. And if any charges for anything that we did not do shows up on any bank statements we will all take the proper actions and contact the BBB. God bless
I 1st found the Mount Desert campground when I was 15 years old bicycling up here with a friend of mine to visit her family. I keep coming back her over 50 years and the breathtaking views and friendly people have never disappointed me.
I call it glam ping as there are flush toilets hot showers platforms to pitch our Tents on and gorgeous views of the solmes sound. The craighead family that run this campground are conscientious hardworking and a delight to spend time with.
Excellent job of helping everybody to feel safe during this the endemic with social distancing and testing anyone from outside of Maine or New Hampshire to make sure that all were COVID -19 negative.
I look forward to when we gather again next year!
Just returned from a week at MDC; our 2nd year in a row. Were lucky enough to secure a waterfront campsite, to the delight of our kids. Very much appreciate the quiet, family-friendly nature of MDC. If you're looking for a party, this is not the campground for you. If you want to enjoy the quiet of Somes Sound, watch birds and waterlife, and feel "away" from your everyday, then maybe this IS the place for YOU. We love MDC and look forward to visiting again next summer.
We took our annual vacation here and loved it. Got a water front campsite. The bathrooms are clean and well kept. The staff are friendly and helpful. Would visit again!
mountdesertcampground.com
