You can walk the whole town, walk the whole cliff, then walk a 3.5-mile beach in Ogunquit

Maine’s oldest art colony is still drawing crowds

The Abenaki people named this place “beautiful place by the sea,” and that was before the art colony, the cliff walk, the hand-cranked drawbridge, and the lobster boats.

Ogunquit sits about 75 miles north of Boston on Maine’s southern coast, compact enough to walk everywhere and packed enough to fill three days without trying.

You haven’t hit the beach yet, and already there’s a lot going on.

Two rival painters changed American art from this cove

Charles Woodbury showed up at Perkins Cove in 1889 and liked it enough to open a drawing and painting school there in 1898.

Three years later, Hamilton Easter Field arrived and eventually launched his own school in 1911, teaching a more modern approach from the opposite side of the cove. Two schools, two styles, one small fishing village.

The students they trained went on to shape American modernism, and the galleries scattered through town today trace back to that rivalry.

Three and a half miles of hard-packed sand at your feet

The beach splits into three sections: Main Beach at the south end, Footbridge Beach in the middle, and North Beach to the north. The sand runs hard-packed and flat, good for walking long stretches without sinking.

The whole stretch sits on a peninsula with the Atlantic on one side and the Ogunquit River on the other.

At low tide, the beach widens out considerably, and near the southern tip, a fourth stretch called Little Beach appears from the water. It disappears again when the tide comes back in.

Ride the river current out toward the open Atlantic

The Ogunquit River runs along the back side of the beach, and the water there runs warmer and calmer than the ocean. At mid-tide, the current picks up and pushes toward the Atlantic.

People bring rafts, boogie boards, and inner tubes and let the water carry them around the bend. Kayakers use the same stretch, which runs several miles inland from the coast.

Stand on the pedestrian bridge at Footbridge Beach and watch the whole scene play out below you.

The Marginal Way puts the Maine coast right under your feet

The path runs 1.25 miles along the rocky shoreline, paved and wide enough for a comfortable walk.

Josiah Chase Jr. gave the land to the town in 1925 so the public could keep access to the coast, and in 2022 the path landed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bayberry, honeysuckle, and wild sea roses grow along the edges. Thirty-nine benches sit along the route, so you can stop whenever the view earns it.

The path starts in Ogunquit Village and ends at Perkins Cove.

Perkins Cove’s drawbridge still cranks by hand

The cove at the bottom of the Marginal Way still works as a fishing harbor. Lobster boats go out in the morning, and you can be there when they come back with the catch.

The wooden drawbridge that crosses the harbor entrance was built around 1941 and is believed to be one of the last hand-operated bridges of its kind anywhere in the country.

A horn blows when a boat needs through and someone cranks it open.

The old fish shacks around the cove are galleries and seafood spots now, but the boats are still real.

One museum in Maine is dedicated entirely to American art

Henry Strater opened the Ogunquit Museum of American Art in 1953 on a cliff above Narrow Cove. The land once belonged to Charles Woodbury’s family, which connects it straight back to the town’s art colony days.

The collection runs to more than 3,000 works: paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs. Three acres of sculpture gardens surround the building, and the Atlantic sits right below the cliff.

The museum is open daily from May through October.

The playhouse on Route 1 has been running since 1933

Walter Hartwig and his wife Maude started the Ogunquit Playhouse in a converted garage in town.

Four years later, in 1937, they built a dedicated facility on Route 1, the first theater in the country constructed specifically as a seasonal playhouse.

It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and now draws more than 100,000 people each season from May through October with Broadway-level musicals.

The productions are the real thing, not watered-down summer fare.

Small birds with big protections nest in the dunes

Piping plovers nest on Ogunquit Beach from April through September, and the town takes it seriously. The birds are sand-colored and easy to miss, but they build nests right in the dunes above the high-tide line.

Dogs stay off the beach during nesting season. Fenced areas mark off the active nests with signs directing you around them.

Maine Audubon and state agencies have been monitoring the population for years, and the numbers have been climbing.

A fieldstone library and a town you can walk in 20 minutes

The Ogunquit Memorial Library looks like someone dropped a small stone castle on a side street. It’s a 19th-century fieldstone building that has no business being as charming as it is.

The rest of downtown runs art galleries, boutiques, and small shops within easy walking distance of the beach. The Ogunquit Trolley runs seasonally if your feet give out.

The whole town is compact enough that you can go from the beach to lunch to a gallery and back without once looking for your car keys.

The lobster rolls at Perkins Cove are steps from the boats

Footbridge Lobster sits right on the water in Perkins Cove and serves takeout with a view of the harbor. Jonathan’s restaurant has anchored the town center since 1976, known for both food and live music on the same bill.

Fresh lobster rolls, clam chowder, and steamed clams run through most menus around town. If seafood isn’t your thing, there are pizza spots, cafes, and bakeries in the mix.

You won’t have to go far for any of it.

Get out on the water before you head home

The boat tours leaving from Perkins Cove run from lobster hauls to whale watches to sailing trips along the coast. On the lobster tours, you watch the crew pull traps and get a working picture of how the industry runs.

Whale watching trips head out into the open Atlantic, and nature cruises cover the coastline at a slower pace. Deep-sea fishing charters go out for those who want to try their luck offshore.

The cove is small, but the options that leave from it are not.

Visit Ogunquit Beach in Maine

You can reach Ogunquit Beach from three access points along Beach Street: Main Beach at the south end, Footbridge Beach in the middle, and North Beach to the north. Paid parking lots sit near each entrance.

Restrooms, outdoor showers, and picnic tables are on-site, and seasonal rentals cover chairs, umbrellas, and floats.

From Main Beach, the Marginal Way picks up and takes you south along the cliffs all the way to Perkins Cove, about a mile and a quarter of coastline walk.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• Where else on the Atlantic can you stand on a mountain and watch lobster boats below you
• Maine has a national park where you can stand on a cliff and watch the Atlantic break below you
• Maine’s North Woods hide caves that hold ice all summer long