The river and the concerts
The Penobscot River Walkway is a flat, paved mile along the water with sculptures and food trucks. The Maine Savings Amphitheater on the waterfront brings major acts in summer.
Bangor, Brewer & beyond
Everything within an easy drive
Kenduskeag is small, and that is the point — almost everything a visitor wants is a short drive away. Bangor for restaurants, museums and a night out. Brewer for a quieter waterfront. And then the big stuff: Katahdin, the coast, the lighthouses.
Bangor — 11 miles away
Built on the Kenduskeag and the Penobscot, Bangor works with the water. The downtown is compact, the river is at the end of the street, and the museums are close together.
Kenduskeag Stream Trail
Just over two miles from the Franklin Street bridge to Valley Avenue, with lookouts over Lovers Leap, the old mill ruins and interpretive signs along the way.
City Forest & Orono Bog
More than nine miles of trail across roughly 680 acres of working forest, and the entrance to the Orono Bog Boardwalk — 4,200 feet of walkway out over a true bog.
Three worth an hour
The Zillman Art Museum at UMaine (Hockney, Warhol, Hopper, Marsden Hartley), the Maine Discovery Museum for families, and the Cole Land Transportation Museum for cars, planes and railway history.
Music & theatre
The Bangor Symphony has been playing since 1896. Penobscot Theatre performs in the 1920s Bangor Opera House, and the Collins Center for the Arts and Cross Insurance Center host everything else.
Mount Hope Cemetery
Opened in 1836, the country's second largest garden cemetery. The Bangor Historical Society also runs walking tours of the city and the cemetery.
Paul Bunyan & Whitney Park
The 31-foot Paul Bunyan statue in front of the Cross Insurance Center, and the Victorian Whitney Park Historic District a few streets away — Stephen King's old neighbourhood.
Bass Park
Harness racing at Bass Park, with Hollywood Casino next door. The Bangor State Fair takes over the city for the last two weeks of July.
Bangor International Airport
BGR sits in the city, about fifteen minutes from Kenduskeag. Car rental and the road network make the wider region easy to reach from there.
13 miles away
Brewer — across the river
Brewer sits on the eastern bank of the Penobscot, joined to downtown Bangor by the Oak Street and Union Street bridges. It is a small city with a long memory: the Underground Railroad ran through here, and Chamberlain Freedom Park commemorates Joshua Chamberlain and Maine's role in that story.
The waterfront promenade is the quieter counterpart to Bangor's — a good place to watch the river, see the tidal change in the current, and eat well without downtown prices. Just south, Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden is a family-friendly nature centre with trails across meadow and marshland.
Don't miss on the way through
- Brewer Waterfront — the promenade along the Penobscot, with the river always in view.
- Chamberlain Freedom Park — a replica of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and a moving look at Maine's Civil War history.
- Black Bear Inn — a long-running inn in Brewer with a restaurant attached, an easy base for the Bangor area.
- Fields Pond Audubon Center — in Holden, a short hop south, with boardwalk trails and excellent birding.
The Bangor and Brewer downtowns are close enough to combine in one day, and the two waterfronts make very different evenings.
The towns next door
Approximate straight-line distances from the centre of Kenduskeag. Road distances are a little longer.
| Town | Distance | What is there |
|---|---|---|
| Levant | 3 mi | Treworgy Family Orchards — apples, pumpkins, ice cream, a farm store and a corn maze — plus valley farms along Route 15. |
| Glenburn | 4 mi | Woodland farms along the upper stream, the Stillwater River and Glenburn Pond. The quietest part of the valley. |
| Corinth | 6 mi | RSU 64's three schools, Adams Strawberry Acres on the Route 15 corridor, and a classic village centre. |
| Hudson | 6 mi | The I-95 corridor north of the city, and the closest interchange if you are driving onward. |
| Hermon | 7 mi | Hermon Mountain for downhill skiing and snow tubing, Hermon Meadow Golf Course, and the closest big-box shopping and supermarkets. |
| Stetson | 10 mi | Rural farmland to the west — quiet back roads and long views down the valley. |
| Bangor | 11 mi | The regional hub: hospital, airport, mall, museums, music, restaurants and the Kenduskeag Stream Trail. |
| Hampden | 11 mi | Penobscot River communities south of the city, and the marina where kayak rentals are based. |
| Orono | 12 mi | The University of Maine, the Zillman Art Museum, the Stillwater River trail and the Orono Bog Boardwalk. |
| Brewer | 13 mi | Waterfront promenade, Chamberlain Freedom Park, the Penobscot River trail and a deep local history. |
| Eddington | 13 mi | Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, with paddling, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. |
Longer trips from the valley
These are all day trips, and all of them work in a single long day if you start early. Distances are from Kenduskeag.
Fort Knox & the Narrows
One of the best-preserved coastal fortifications in New England, with a granite State House replica, and the Penobscot Narrows Observatory — the tallest bridge observatory in the world.
L.L.Bean Freeport
The flagship store and campus on the old free-trading port, with a Discovery Park, canoe hires, and the outlet shops along Main Street.
Camden & Rockland
The mountain-sport town on Penobscot Bay, the working granite port of Rockland, and the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse — the working light at the mouth of the bay.
Mount Katahdin
Maine's highest peak at 5,269 feet, in Baxter State Park. A full day of hiking, or a drive into the park just to look at it.
Acadia National Park
Granite, ocean and the first national park east of the Mississippi. Cadillac Mountain at sunrise is the postcard; the carriage roads and the tidal pools are the quieter draw.
Moosehead Lake
Maine's largest lake, on the border with New Brunswick, with Lily Bay State Park on its eastern shore and long quiet stretches of water.
Old Town & the Pushaw
The old wooden-architecture town across the river, Hirundo Wildlife Refuge on Pushaw Stream, and Pushaw Lake for a quiet paddle.
Leonard's Mills
One of the oldest historic settlements in Maine, an intact mill village preserved as a living museum of the industry that built this region.
The Maine coast
Rockport, Camden, Deer Isle and the lighthouses of the mid-coast are a longer haul but entirely possible in a long summer day — and the reason many people come to this corner of Maine in the first place.
Staying & eating
Where to sleep and eat
Kenduskeag itself has no hotels — it is a town of about 1,350 people. What it has is a golf clubhouse, a convenience store and a coffee window. For anything more, Bangor is fifteen minutes away.
Bangor runs from budget motels near the interchange and the airport to historic downtown inns, including The Charles Inn, built in 1873 in the middle of State Street. Brewer's Black Bear Inn is a long-standing alternative a few minutes across the bridge. For a self-catered base, the region has cabins, campsites and vacation rentals around the lakes and in the woods.
For food, downtown Bangor is the answer: two blocks of independent restaurants, bars and bakeries between State and Main, the waterfront brewery where the canoe race finishes, and a working farm-store-and-cafe culture at Treworgy in nearby Levant.
Quick list
- Downtown Bangor hotels and inns
- Black Bear Inn, Brewer
- Lodging across Maine, from inns to campsites
- Downtown Bangor restaurants and bars
- Bangor on Visit Maine
- Bangor Region visitor information
Rates and hours change constantly, and in-season weekends book out early. Check with the property, not just a booking site.
Gear, tackle & supplies
If you need something for the water, the woods or the trail, Bangor has it.
L.L.Bean, Bangor
The Stillwater Avenue store, on the edge of the City Forest, with kayak tours and classes outside and the full outdoor range inside.
Kennebec Equipment Rental
Outfitter and equipment rental on Perry Road in Bangor, handy for anything you would rather not carry up the valley.
Maine IF&W
Fishing licences, hunting licences and the full inland fishing law book, online from the State of Maine.