Cruise area in profile, Maine

This American state has long been famous for its coastline, with beaches and coastal resorts galore, and its seafood! Much holiday activity is based around the Boothbay peninsula and the harbour there gives access to sea cruises, mackerel-fishing trips or outings to see how lobsters are caught, but you can head inland too, on a trip up the Kennebec River, where there are 44 miles of beautiful scenery, including seven lighthouses!

If your cruise ship stops in Maine, things to consider as a day trip are a coastline hugging tour of the coast where the boat stays close to the shore, so you can also see bald eagles, ospreys, terns and lots of gulls, or a trip out to Monhegan Island, around ten miles out to sea and accessible during the summer on the ferries that operate from Boothbay Harbor, Port Clyde and New Harbor. This is real ‘Shipping News’ territory, if you read the book or watched the film, as the island hosts only a miniscule human community, mainly composed lobstermen and their families, and a vast colony of seabirds – as a result it is largely untouched by modern tourism and you can hike, swim or picnic in pristine natural surroundings.

Day cruises and trips are offered by www.mainewhales.com or www.hardyboat.com