Explore Acadia National Park & Mount Desert Island: A Comprehensive Guide

Jeff Duffy: Great book. Bought a new book but has pen markings. Received a used book.

United States on Nov 04, 2022

sew: This book is very easy to follow. It has excellent directions and descriptions. There are interesting details on the history of the park and good restaurants. We thought we would spend a couple days in the park, but because of all the wonderful points of interest in this book, we thoroughly enjoyed five days here. Thank you to the author. We had and reviewed other guide books, but in the end, this is the only one we used.

United States on Nov 08, 2021

A.M.F.Campos: We bought this guide as we spent three weeks at Acadia. We liked the information and hints it contains. I would prefer if it was done on a lighter paper. We were glad to have purchased a hard copy as cellphone connection was a challenge in Acadia. I would wish it had additional information about the carriage roads outside the park, in the area managed by Preserve. We explored that side too and it was beautiful.

United States on Aug 22, 2021

Sandra: I just bought this book to prepare for a long weekend in Acadia in September. I love EVERYTHING about this book. The layout is perfect. So much useful information in an easy to follow format, (and nice sized print)! And the pictures are just stunning. I already had a few ideas about things I wanted to do when I got there....but I will be there for such a short period of time I was worried about spending too much time doing something that wasn't "worth it". His book had a small section which put together the "perfect" day....a schedule of activities to do and places to eat to allow to you to experience the best of Acadia in a little time. I was thrilled to find some of my original ideas on the list. I can't wait for my trip and would definitely buy another James Kaiser's travel guides.

United States on Jul 16, 2019

Denham Fields: The book is basically engaging and a well written hiking guide with history. Yet like so many guide books, it has an overly positive spin on just about everything. The first thing travelers should know is that this Island (Desert Mountain) does not really get going until late May/early June. Some museums do not open until mid June! We were there at the beginning of May. The National Park was closed for the majority of April.
Secondly, the towns around the park are for the most part, dead until mid May. What shocked us was the poor state of many of the villages and areas. (anytime of year). Southwest Harbor, for example was quite drab without any decent pubs and just 2 cafes/restaurants. (in early May one was closed and the other open Thurs-Sat).
Areas and other small towns were hardly worth looking at and quite dismal with the odd party store here and there. Bar Harbor was more active and an attractive place, but again in early May, only a few restaurants were open.
The island, Arcadia and the coastline are beautiful indeed. If you go strictly for hiking, this book is excellent.
I left quite underwhelmed by the area as a whole.

United States on May 11, 2019