Tremont

Most visitors come for one thing and leave. That thing is worth it, but so is the rest.

Bass Harbor Head Light

The lighthouse at the island's southern tip is the most photographed in Maine, and it carries a 4.4 rating across more than 4,600 Google reviews: noticeably below the park's own 4.9, which tells you something. The tower is a Coast Guard residence and closed to the public, the parking area is small, and at midday the light is behind the subject.

The photograph everyone knows is taken from the rocks below, reached by a staircase to the left of the fence. Go late in the day; it faces west, and sunset is when it earns its reputation.

Things to do

The Seal Cove Auto Museum (4.9 across 477 reviews) holds a serious collection of brass-era cars (pre-1917, many of them running) and is one of the best small museums on the coast. Island Cruises (5.0 from 391 reviews) runs the ferry and nature trips out to Frenchboro, a year-round island community of about seventy people.

Inside the park, Ship Harbor and Wonderland are two short, flat loops to the shore that are the best tide-pooling on the island and are almost never busy. Echo Lake, on the town's eastern edge, is the warm-water swimming that the ocean cannot offer.

Getting here and when to go

Route 102 runs down the western side of the island through Southwest Harbor into Tremont. The Island Explorer shuttle covers it in season.

June through September, with September the pick. The water is at its warmest and the lighthouse parking is survivable. Winter closes almost everything except the fishing.

Common questions

How do you get to Swan's Island from Tremont?

By state ferry from Bass Harbor. The boat leaves from the terminal in Tremont and carries vehicles as well as walk-on passengers, and reservations for cars are worth arranging in advance during the summer. Island Cruises rates 5 from 391 reviews for trips out of the same harbor, and Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse, at 4.8 from 84 reviews, is the landmark once you land.

What is the Seal Cove Auto Museum?

A collection of early automobiles from the brass era, kept in Seal Cove on the quiet side of Mount Desert Island and rated 4.9 from 477 reviews, one of the highest scores of any indoor attraction on the island. The cars sit in a plain hall without velvet ropes, which makes it a genuinely good stop on a day when Acadia is fogged in.

Is Bass Harbor a town?

No. Bass Harbor is a village within the town of Tremont, as are Bernard and Seal Cove. That is why an address can read Bass Harbor while the town office, the school and the tax bill all say Tremont. The lighthouse most visitors come for is Bass Harbor Head Light Station, rated 4.4 from 4,616 reviews, at the island's southern tip.

Is Tremont a good place to stay on Mount Desert Island?

Yes, if quiet suits you. Tremont has the fishing villages, the ferry terminal and Bass Harbor Campground at 4.3 from 406 reviews, but very little in the way of hotels or evening life. You sit close to Acadia's western trails and a longer drive from the Park Loop Road and Bar Harbor. Everyone here has a car, and most prefer the trade.