Acadia: The Complete Guide: Acadia National Park & Mount Desert Island (Color Travel Guide)

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.

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.

We just came back from our trip to Acadia and we referenced this book everyday for food recommendations, hiking trails, etc... Having read from cover to cover prior to our trip I felt way more informed from the moment we arrived on Mount Desert Island. The only thing that I think could have made the book better is if it explained the Island Explorer in more detail. We were fortunate to run in to some other hikers who had been there for two weeks already and figured the free transit system out. You can practically get anywhere on the island if you know which route to take and which stops to get off to catch a different route.

James Kaiser did an absolutely amazing job with this book. It is packed full of useful information not only about what to do and where to go when on Mount Desert Island/Acadia, but also offers a brief geological history and the ecology of the island among other topics. It's an easy and informative read with loads of tips about the area including where the best places to eat are, the various hikes, the best spots to watch the sunsets, and even recommendations for rainy day activities. It contains several maps and photographs of the area and a cornucopia of other useful information. It covers literally EVERYTHING you need to know before you go. I am so impressed with this book, and so happy that the author wrote it so I have it for my first-time trip to the area! (I am a very long, long-time Amazon shopper and very, very rarely write reviews.)

This book is a must-have for anyone visiting Acadia. The information is comprehensive, easy to understand and organized in a way that makes sense and is easy to find when you need it. The book includes so many helpful tips, and the author’s recommendations for everything from hiking spots, bike rentals, kayak tours, restaurants, etc. was spot on. Having this book with you is like having your own personal tour guide. Awesome! Will definitely pick up other books by this author when visiting other locations.

Well...this book has TONS of information and if you are going to Acadia you will need some sort of guide book because the NPS does not have any trail maps or park newspaper available for Acadia for free. HOWEVER, we found the trail maps in this book were not as accurate as we would have liked. For example, we went on a hike that was supposed to be 2.6 miles. We didn’t realize you had to hike 1+ miles to get to the trail head. In the next addition we would love for the author to include the best place to park, what the wooden signs in the park say (they don’t match what the book has printed sometimes), and updated accurate mileage for each trail.Overall we found the book useful and we were glad we had it along. We learned that the total miles hiked would be a surprise at the end of the trail.

Absolutely wonderful book. It is comprehensive for a first-time visitor. We followed the Penobscot Mountain suggested hike and we agree that it is one of the best in the park. This book gives you the best jumping point, much more than anything online that can be overwhelming and a link-rabbit-hole. We bought his Grand Canyon book, too. Wish there were one for each National Park!

We went to Acadia National Park last fall and had ordered this book to take along. It was a wonderful guide for our trip, and added so much to our experience. I highly recommend if anyone is planning to make this trip. The author has also published a couple other travel guides which should be just as informative and useful.