Notes from the host
Sound of the Sea - Bar Harbor
There’s so much for you and your family to fall in love with at Sound of the Sea!
The house, its oceanfront, and the land surrounding it are all unique. Everyone in your family – from older and younger adults to children of all ages and dogs lucky enough to join you – will create memories of a lifetime during your vacation at Sound of the Sea.
Our secluded oceanfront location is nestled in the trees at the end of a beautiful private road, and we’re still just a 5-minute drive to Bar Harbor for food shopping, restaurants, and numerous other attractions!
As soon as you arrive at Sound of the Sea, you'll be greeted by a glorious private shoreline with large rocky outcroppings that lead right into Frenchman's Bay. There, at both high and low tides, deep waters swirl around the end of the extensive granite rock formations.
But our oceanfront is more than just private... Your family will quickly discover that there are no mud flats at Sound of the Sea during low tide, which are common at many of the oceanfront rental locations in Acadia. Instead, low tide at Sound of the Sea reveals even more beautiful rock formations and fascinating tide-pools to explore.
During your vacation, you and your family will appreciate these other features as well:
-- We make your arrival as relaxed as possible, providing clear directions to the house and easy access inside, with the warmth of Sound of the Sea marking the end of the journey and the beginning of your vacation.
-- The screened porch at Sound of the Sea is set up for family dining, which allows everybody to embrace the sea in all its moods. Morning coffee, afternoon tea, evening cocktails, and then dinner!
-- There are gorgeous colors in every room, and Oriental rugs throughout the house.
-- Our magnificent oak and maple trees are beautiful during the spring and summer, and breathtaking in Autumn.
-- The kitchen at Sound of the Sea is modeled after those found in Michelin-starred Manhattan restaurants. Guests who enjoy cooking will fall in love with our kitchen and its sharp knives! They'll also find a pantry well-stocked with herbs, spices, salts, peppers, olive oils, vinegars, and more!
-- High speed cable internet; free Wi-Fi, distributed throughout the house by an Orbi mesh network; free land-line telephone service; excellent cell service; TV in each bedroom and large screen TV in the Turret Room.
-- Comfortable couches and chairs in which you can read, chat, snooze … all while watching the surf just outside. Your family can also join together in the living room over our many puzzles and board games.
-- Pickleball (half-court size) that you can set up on the lawn outside the house.
-- Kebo Valley Golf Club is a seven-minute drive from our home, and there are tennis courts just five minutes away.
-- If you like to fish, we’ll provide rod, reel, tackle, and advice for surf-casting right outside the house.
-- Sound of the Sea is at the end of a private narrow road that's as pretty as any of Acadia's carriage roads. When our own family is at the house, we walk it every morning with our dogs and love to walk at night under the stars.
-- The surrounding land has magnificent oak and maple trees, and wildlife galore! Our guests have seen deer, turkeys, foxes, eagles, osprey, cormorants, seals, marmots, and more!
-- This is also a unique bird watching location. The outdoor deck on the third floor, "Eagle Watch", is a magnificent site for this purpose.
We hope you and your family will decide to experience Sound of the Sea for your Bar Harbor vacation! If you do, our professional cleaning staff will have cleaned the house thoroughly before you arrive. All the bed linens and towels will have been thoroughly washed and sanitized in the ozone-infused washing machines and dryers used by the best hotels in Bar Harbor.
To complete the amenities, Sound of the Sea provides five more especially important features. No other rental home has all of them, and the lack of even one of these can quite significantly impact your family’s Bar Harbor vacation.
1. Central Air Conditioning:
We’re naturally cooled by our proximity to the ocean, but when that’s not enough, our central A.C. keeps the entire house perfectly comfortable even during the hottest days. Imagine a week’s vacation when you come home to a hot, stuffy house each day. Then imagine coming home to Sound of the Sea!
2. Air Filtration System:
When we used to rent homes in Bar Harbor for our own vacations, we all too often encountered houses with a whiff of mustiness or even mildew or mold. It's not enjoyable and you’ll often find this in some of the older homes in Bar Harbor and Acadia. But whatever the weather is like outside during your vacation, you’ll have the most pure and delightful ocean air in Sound of the Sea.
Taking advantage of the wonderful ocean breeze, Sound of the Sea provides strong cross-ventilation. If the windows are closed due to the weather outside, the whole-house air filtration system circulates and replaces the inside air with outside air fresh from the ocean!
3. Plenty of Hot Water:
You're quite unlikely to find this luxury anywhere else!
4. Whole House Emergency Generator:
The power supply on Mount Desert Island and in Bar Harbor isn't the most dependable. This isn't a concern you'll have at Sound of the Sea, though, because our generator will easily power the whole house, including our air conditioning.
5. An Exceptional Location:
To get to the village of Bar Harbor, rental homes in Seal Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Pretty Marsh, or Seal Cove require a drive of 25-45 minutes each way, and oceanfront homes that are located right in the village of Bar Harbor are usually separated from the Bay by the public Ocean Path. In contrast, Sound of the Sea's exceptional location combines privacy and direct access to spectacular oceanfront with just a five-minute drive into Bar Harbor!
Because we know that most guests have traveled long distances to get to Sound of the Sea, we want your arrival to be stress-free, exciting, and relaxing. We hope to set the stage for a vacation that's the best you’ve ever had!
This is why we have our housekeeper, Tina, welcome you upon your arrival. Whatever makes settling into Sound of the Sea easier for you and your family -- helping with your luggage; making sure everybody is signed in to our Wi-Fi and Bluetooth sound system; providing toiletries, slippers, or other items for those who might have forgotten theirs; making a pot of hot tea or iced lemonade for your family -- Tina will be there to help settle you in.
She’ll show you all around the house, the land, the oceanfront, and introduce you to the many enjoyable, unique features of the house and land that you might not notice otherwise. Before she leaves, Tina wants your whole family to feel fully at home!
Then, for the rest of your vacation, your hosts Ned and Nick will be available by phone, e-mail, or text (8:00 A.M. until 11:00 P.M.) to answer questions, offer recommendations, or handle any problems that might arise.
And finally, because there are so many choices of sights to see and activities to enjoy in Bar Harbor and Acadia, we offer our guests their own customized “Best Possible Day” planning guide, with their own private pages in our Sound of the Sea guest website. We've developed this over the years, and by combining our own extensive knowledge of Bar Harbor and Acadia with the activities, sights, and types of restaurants each guest is interested in learning more about, we can help every guest in your party enjoy every day of their vacation to the fullest!
Please feel free to inquire with any questions you have regarding our home, Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, kids, dogs, dining, or activities that you're interested in exploring during your vacation.
Thank You!
Ned and Nick
