Planning a week long late June of 17 trip to Maine from Wisconsin. Sault Ste. Marie through Sudbury, Ottawa, Montreal and down to Portland for lobster. On the return we will check out the sights in Vermont and on to Niagara Falls, from there across Michigan to the Ludington car ferry and back to Beersconsin. Anyone have experience in any part of this route, good, bad, places to see or avoid?

Thanks a ton folks.

 

You may want to go to Bentley's Saloon in Arundel, ME about 25 miles south of Portland...Live Bands, awesome biker place and two-lobster dinner was $22 couple years ago..


http://bentleyssaloon.com/

 

We enjoyed harbor towns up the ME coast, Bath, Camden, Boothbay Harbor.
Your mileage may vary??
Portland head watching boats come and go was great for me.

 

Being from Southern Maine, we make a Trip to Montreal a few times. We always pick a different border crossing every time. Love the small one-man-shack crossings...
Lots of great roads in upstate VT and NH. In NH, rt 302, 16, 112 through the White Mountains are all awesome roads.

When coming to Maine, think about coming into Maine at Colebrook and coming down rt 26, 35(or 113),302 --- not sure how far in Maine you are going...

On way out of Maine, try something like from Bentley's Saloon, up to Conway NH, follow either 302 or 112 to VT. Or more south route would be 202 to 16 to Laconia then pick up 4 to Rutland, VT and into Lake George NY. Lake George or Lake Placid would probably be a nice stopover - small towns, good food, shopping for the ladies...

If you're crossing Lake Champlain try taking one of the 3 (or is it 4) ferry crossings, it's a nice way to see the lake and stretch the legs. It's only a couple bucks and takes less than 30 minutes or so.

In NY when you hit Lake Ontario, at Alexandria Bay there is a castle to go see....Boldt Castle. It's on an island and it's huge.

From Boldt Castle, personally, I prefer going north into Canada at Cape Vincent, hop the ferry to Wolfe Island, then hop another ferry to Kinston Ontario. Take route 2 to Trenton to see the National Air Force Museum and continue on 2 to Toronto. Stop down on the waterfront and take a boat tour to the Centre Islands, then you should get to Hamilton to the African Lion Safari....you will not believe this animal park---it is awesome. Continue to Niagra Falls...
There is nothing wrong with upstate NY either, so if you decide to stay in NY, there are equally nice places to see, just stay off highway 90 if you can. From NY side, cross at Niagra and visit the Canadian side of the falls. Continue to Hamilton to see the African Lion Safari and continue west after that...

I have only taken the 401 to Detroit - easy highway, flat and straight, the rest areas are perfectly spaced out too.

So many options in VT, NH and ME, just stay off the highways and you'll be fine...

 

Just a suggestion but I would avoid the major cities when you are travelling this way. Montreal and Toronto are traffic nightmares especially for us on motorcycles. The drivers in these cities are complete maniacs! You may want to consider crossing into the US from Ontario at either Kingston, Gananoque or Cornwall.
Good luck and safe riding!
Cheers, Terry

 

+1 on Bentleys. Although there are many excellent places for Lobster.

 

Coming out of Ottawa (#417) and into Quebec, I would take Quebec #40 and Quebec #30... keeps you south of Montreal and the St. Lawrence and you'll avoid all of the Montreal traffic. You can find a number of routes south from #30 to take you into the US. I took pretty much the same route (only heading west, not east - Ottawa, Sudbury, Sault, Wisconsin). Not bad roads - and the border crossing at the Sault was 5 minutes.