Best Islands in Maine

How We Picked

Every island here has passenger ferry or boat service running on a schedule you can plan around, enough character to justify the crossing, and something real to do once you arrive. We looked at the full range: year-round fishing communities where the lobster boat schedule still drives the calendar, summer art colonies, and the one piece of Acadia National Park that most visitors never reach.

Day-trip options are noted throughout. For places to stay on the mainland before or after your crossing, the Hotels and Inns directory covers lodging by region, including options near the ferry terminals in Portland, Rockland, and Stonington.

Peaks Island

Peaks Island sits 20 minutes off Portland's Old Port and makes the most logical island visit for travelers with limited time. Casco Bay Lines runs year-round ferry service from 56 Commercial Street in Portland, with roundtrip fares around $8 to $10 per adult (estimated). Boats run multiple times daily in summer, so you can arrive without a reservation and pick your return crossing later.

The island has a perimeter road of roughly four miles, flat enough to cover by rental bike in under two hours, and a handful of year-round spots for food and coffee near the dock. Summer (late June through Labor Day) brings the most day-trippers, but September is cleaner: fewer people, cooler air, and the same ferry schedule. Peaks fits naturally into a broader southern Maine trip before or after spending time along The Maine Beaches region down the coast.

Monhegan Island

Monhegan sits 12 miles offshore from Port Clyde and carries a reputation well beyond its 67 year-round residents. The island has no paved roads, one small grocery, and a cluster of inns and studios that have drawn painters since the late 1800s. The headlands on the eastern edge drop 150 feet straight to the Atlantic, facing open ocean with nothing between them and Europe. In summer (late June through early September), puffins nest on Seal Island nearby, and Hardy Boat Cruises out of New Harbor runs combination island and seabird trips with a roughly 90-minute crossing each way. The Monhegan Boat Line from Port Clyde makes the run in about 70 minutes and is the more direct option for travelers coming up the MidCoast.

Monhegan works as a day trip, but the crowds thin sharply if you stay overnight. Book lodging months ahead for July and August, when both the ferry and the handful of island inns fill. The island's trail system covers about 17 miles across open meadow and through spruce forest, with the Cathedral Woods interior loop among the best half-day walks on any Maine island.

Vinalhaven

Vinalhaven is the largest island in Penobscot Bay and one of the most authentic working communities in Maine. The Maine State Ferry Service connects Rockland to Vinalhaven on a 75-minute crossing, with roundtrip fares running roughly $13 to $17 per adult (estimated). The town of Carvers Harbor has a working waterfront where lobster boats outnumber tourist kayaks, a handful of restaurants and a small grocery, and enough granite quarry ruins and back lanes to fill a full day.

Travelers looking for a base near the Rockland ferry terminal will find the Samoset Resort in Rockport, about five miles north of the dock, with Penobscot Bay views and an 18-hole oceanfront golf course. Vinalhaven rewards a slower pace: plan for at least one overnight to get past the day-trip window and experience how the island runs when the afternoon boat leaves without you on it.

North Haven

North Haven and Vinalhaven are often called the Fox Islands, separated by a narrow channel and served by the same Maine State Ferry Service terminal in Rockland on alternating schedules. North Haven runs considerably quieter, with a smaller year-round population, fewer services, and a long-standing reputation among sailing families who return summer after summer for the racing and the calm.

The island has one small village with a general store, a post office, and roads that lead mostly through farmland to water views on both sides. If Vinalhaven is the Fox Island that shows you how things work, North Haven is where you go to slow down. Plan around the ferry schedule carefully, because the Rockland crossings to North Haven and Vinalhaven run on separate timetables and do not always coordinate well for same-day island hopping.

Isle au Haut

Isle au Haut holds the remote section of Acadia National Park that most visitors skip entirely, which is precisely what makes the effort worthwhile. The Isle au Haut Boat Services ferry departs from Stonington, at the southern tip of the Deer Isle peninsula, with a crossing of about 45 minutes. Only 48 people per day are permitted in the park's backcountry area by advance reservation, and ferry seats are limited, so booking ahead in summer is not optional. The reservation-only access model mirrors the approach at other protected Maine wilderness areas, including several covered in our guide to the best state parks in Maine.

The island has five lean-to shelters available by permit, one small inn, and roughly 20 miles of hiking trail running along sea cliffs and through spruce forest. Isle au Haut is the most logistically demanding island on this list and requires more planning than any other, but for a genuine remote-Acadia experience away from the Park Loop Road crowds, nothing else in Maine comes close.

Islesboro

Islesboro runs down Penobscot Bay between Camden and Belfast and arrives via car ferry from Lincolnville Beach in about 20 minutes. This is the one island on the list where bringing a vehicle genuinely makes sense: the island stretches 12 miles from end to end with limited walkable routes between the spread-out clusters of homes and shoreline. The Maine State Ferry Service runs multiple crossings daily in summer, with roundtrip car-and-driver fares around $40 to $50 (estimated).

The island has a year-round population of around 600, a summer cottage culture going back well over a century, and a pace that sets it apart from the more visited harbor towns on the mainland. The best small towns in Maine draw more out-of-state visitors than Islesboro ever does, and that is part of the appeal. An afternoon drive through spruce and open farmland with water visible on both sides is a straightforward pleasure with almost no competition for road space.

Matinicus

Matinicus sits 23 miles offshore from Rockland, making it the most remote inhabited island in Maine. The mail boat runs on an irregular schedule and does not operate daily. There is a small grass airstrip for charter flights, a year-round population of around 50 people, and a lobster fishing economy that has run the same way for more than 200 years. The island has no restaurants, no lodging for visitors in the traditional sense, and a community that operates entirely on its own terms.

Matinicus is not a day trip and it is not for first-time Maine visitors. What it delivers is the clearest possible picture of what island life on this coast has looked like for generations: genuinely remote, genuinely self-reliant, and genuinely indifferent to being a destination. Summer puffin colonies on Seal Island nearby draw some birders willing to arrange charter flights from Owls Head or Rockland. For most visitors, Monhegan or Vinalhaven covers the remote-island experience with considerably better logistics on both ends.

Quick Comparison

Here is how the seven islands compare on the basics. Ferry times are approximate and schedules vary by season. Check current timetables with Maine State Ferry Service, Casco Bay Lines, and individual island boat companies before booking.