How Ogunquit is put together
Three pieces, and understanding them saves you a lot of driving.
- The village sits on Route 1 and Shore Road: restaurants, galleries, inns and the Playhouse, all walkable.
- Perkins Cove is at the southern end: a tight working-turned-touristed cove with a hand-operated pedestrian drawbridge, fishing boats, shops and several restaurants. Parking there is the worst in town.
- The beach runs north from the village mouth of the Ogunquit River for about three miles, with separate access points that have separate lots and separate personalities.
The Marginal Way connects the village to Perkins Cove along the cliff top, and a seasonal trolley connects everything else. The name Ogunquit is usually translated from the Abenaki as "beautiful place by the sea," which for once is not marketing. The town has also been one of New England's established gay resort destinations for decades, which shapes the restaurant and nightlife scene noticeably and pleasantly.
Everything below is ranked by rating weighted against review volume, the number of people who bothered to rate a place matters as much as the score they gave it.
The 12 best things to do in Ogunquit
1. Walk the Marginal Way
A paved footpath about a mile and a quarter long, running along the top of the rocks from Shore Road down to Perkins Cove, with benches the whole way. Most of them memorial benches, many of them occupied. It is the single best coastal walk in southern Maine and it is completely free. Thirty to forty-five minutes at a stroll, longer if you stop, and the light in the hour after sunrise is the reason to set an alarm. It gets genuinely crowded midday in July, and sections are narrow with a drop on one side, so it is not a place for a wandering toddler.
The path is maintained by the Marginal Way Preservation Fund, listed at 4.9 · 141 reviews, 23 School St. Our Marginal Way guide has the access points and where to park at each end.
2. Ogunquit Playhouse
A professional summer theater on Main Street that has been running since the 1930s and stages large-scale musicals with genuine Broadway casting. It is the highest-rated attraction in town on the largest sample, and it is not a community theater in a barn. The production values are the reason people book Ogunquit trips around the schedule. Tickets go fast for the popular runs, and the season is summer into fall only.
4.8 · 1,498 reviews · 10 Main St · ogunquitplayhouse.org. See our Ogunquit Playhouse guide.
3. Ogunquit Beach
Three miles of wide, flat, pale sand. One of the best beaches in Maine and the reason the town exists in its current form. It reads as one beach but has separate access points with separate lots, and the corpus lists them separately because visitors experience them as different places:
- Footbridge Beach: 4.8 · 742 reviews. Reached over a footbridge from Ocean Street, quieter, more local, and the pick of the access points.
- Ogunquit Beach: 4.7 · 560 reviews. The general listing for the main stretch.
- Main Beach: 4.7 · 260 reviews, 115 Beach St. The village end, with the big lot, the bathhouse and the crowds.
- Ogunquit Public Beach: 4.7 · 120 reviews, 124 Beach St.
The Ogunquit River runs behind the barrier beach, and the river side is shallower and considerably warmer than the ocean, which is where families with small children should actually be. The ocean here is cold into July. Our Ogunquit beaches guide compares the access points and parking.
4. Perkins Cove
A small, tight harbor at the south end of the Marginal Way, with lobster boats still working out of it, a cluster of galleries and gift shops, and several restaurants sharing one very small footprint. The Perkins Cove Drawbridge: 4.7 · 180 reviews: is a pedestrian bridge raised by hand when a boat needs through, and watching it happen is a legitimate small pleasure. Be honest with yourself about the shopping: it is souvenir-heavy. The cove itself, the boats and the walk in are the point. Do not drive in; walk the Marginal Way or take the trolley.
5. Ogunquit Museum of American Art
On Shore Road above the water, with a sculpture garden running down to a cove: a small, serious museum of twentieth-century American art built around the artists' colony that formed here in the early 1900s. The setting alone justifies the visit; the collection is better than a town this size has any right to. Seasonal: it closes for the winter, so check dates before planning around it.
4.7 · 476 reviews · 543 Shore Rd · ogunquitmuseum.org. More in our museum guide.
6. Lobster Point Lighthouse
A small stone light tower on the Marginal Way roughly halfway along, and the most photographed object in Ogunquit. It is decorative rather than a working navigational aid, and it is tiny. Manage expectations. But it marks the best viewpoint on the path and it is where everyone stops.
4.6 · 547 reviews · on the Marginal Way, Ogunquit
7. Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing
A long-running party boat out of Perkins Cove running full- and half-day groundfishing trips offshore. Rods and bait are provided, the crew fillets your catch, and it is the most substantial half day available in Ogunquit that does not involve sand. Bring a windproof layer and take seasickness medication before boarding, not after.
4.7 · 113 reviews · 70 Perkins Cove Rd · bunnyclark.com
8. Abacus
A craft gallery on Main Street selling contemporary American work (jewelry, glass, wood, ceramics) and the most consistently good browsing in the village by rating. This is where you buy something you will keep, as opposed to the cove.
4.7 · 101 reviews · 213 Main St · abacusgallery.com
9. Ogunquit Heritage Museum
A small local-history museum in an eighteenth-century house on Obeds Lane, run by volunteers, covering the fishing village and the artists' colony that turned it into a resort. Twenty minutes, seasonal, and free. Worth it if you want to understand why the town looks the way it does.
4.4 · 37 reviews · 86 Obeds Ln · ogunquitheritagemuseum.com
10. Pine Island Guide Service
Inshore charter fishing out of Perkins Cove: striped bass and light tackle rather than offshore groundfish, on a small boat with a guide. The highest-rated operator on the water here, on a small sample. Better than the party boat if you actually want to fish rather than to be taken fishing.
5.0 · 29 reviews · 78 Perkins Cove Rd · pineislandguideservice.com
11. Ogunquit Dog Park
Genuinely one of the better-rated things in town, which tells you something about who visits Ogunquit. Fenced, on Spring Hill Road, and useful to know about because dogs are restricted on the beach and on parts of the Marginal Way during the summer season.
4.7 · 150 reviews · Spring Hill Rd
12. The small galleries
Beyond Abacus, the village carries a real cluster of small rooms: Sea Bell Gallery & Gifts (4.9 · 11 reviews, 53 Shore Rd), Maine Art Collective (5.0 · 7 reviews, 119 Perkins Cove Rd) and Scully Gallery (5.0 · 4 reviews, 680 Main St). Small samples, so treat the ratings as a hint rather than proof, but the artists' colony history is real and the galleries are a better rainy-afternoon option than the shops.
Where to eat
Ogunquit has more restaurants per resident than almost anywhere in Maine, and the quality is broad rather than deep: plenty of good, not much that is extraordinary. The highest-scoring by rating and review volume together:
| Restaurant | Rating | Reviews | Where |
|---|
| The Front Porch Piano Bar & Restaurant | 4.5 | 1,878 | 9 Shore Rd |
| Barnacle Billy's | 4.2 | 2,098 | 70 Perkins Cove Rd |
| BeachFire Bar & Grille | 4.5 | 1,420 | 658 Main St |
| The Lobster Shack | 4.6 | 1,259 | 110 Perkins Cove Rd |
| Angelina's | 4.4 | 1,384 | 655 Main St |
| The Greenery Cafe | 4.6 | 1,077 | 369 Main St |
| Ogunquit Lobster Pound | 4.4 | 1,138 | 504 Main St |
The Front Porch (4.5 · 1,878 reviews) is the institution: a piano bar upstairs with a full singalong most nights, and the social center of the village. Barnacle Billy's (4.2 · 2,098 reviews) is the most-reviewed place in town and the classic Perkins Cove deck: order at the counter, sit over the water, accept that you are paying for the view. The Lobster Shack (4.6 · 1,259 reviews) is the better-rated cove option and a much smaller room. The Greenery Cafe (4.6 · 1,077 reviews) is the breakfast answer. For a proper dinner, That Place in Ogunquit (4.6 · 732 reviews, 331 Shore Rd) and Brix + Brine (4.6 · 455 reviews, 49 Shore Rd) rate above the higher-profile names. Our Ogunquit restaurants guide ranks the full field.
Practical notes
Parking is the whole game. The beach lots and Perkins Cove fill by mid-morning on any warm day, and the village lots are metered and enforced. The single best decision you can make in Ogunquit is to park once (ideally where you are staying) and use the seasonal trolley, which loops the village, the beach access points and Perkins Cove. It runs frequently through the summer season and turns a frustrating day into an easy one.
Season matters more here than in most Maine towns. A large share of the restaurants, the museum, the Playhouse and the trolley run on a summer-into-fall schedule and close for the winter. May and late October are lovely and quiet; January is a different town entirely, with a handful of places open.
Two honest caveats. The Marginal Way at midday in August is a queue, not a walk. Go early or go late. And Perkins Cove has become considerably more gift shop than fishing village; the boats are real and so is the drawbridge, but if you are expecting an undiscovered harbor you will be disappointed.
Ogunquit sits between Wells to the north and York to the south, both about ten minutes away, and it makes a good base for southern Maine generally. See our Ogunquit town page for where to stay.
Ogunquit FAQ
How long should you spend in Ogunquit?
Two nights is the right amount. That gives you a morning on the Marginal Way, a full beach day, an evening at the Playhouse or on Shore Road, and time in Perkins Cove without rushing. A single day works if you walk the Marginal Way early and spend the afternoon on the beach.
Is the Marginal Way worth it?
Yes. It is the best free thing in southern Maine. About a mile and a quarter of paved cliff path between the village and Perkins Cove, thirty to forty-five minutes each way, with benches and constant ocean views. Walk it at sunrise or in the last hour of light and you will have it nearly to yourself; walk it at noon in August and you will be in a slow-moving line.
Where should you park in Ogunquit?
Wherever you are staying, and then take the trolley. The Main Beach lot and Perkins Cove both fill early on warm days and village meters are enforced. Footbridge Beach off Ocean Street has its own lot and is the quieter option if you must drive to sand.
What is there to do in Ogunquit when it rains?
The Ogunquit Museum of American Art on Shore Road, the Ogunquit Heritage Museum, the galleries along Main Street and Shore Road, and a matinee at the Playhouse if the schedule cooperates. The village is compact enough to move between them on foot, which is more than can be said for most Maine beach towns.
