Secrets of Maine: Local Experiences and Natural Wonders with Naomi Figueroa

In episode 30 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy dives into the beautiful state of Maine in the United States with special guest Naomi Figueroa. Naomi takes us on a journey through Maine's stunning landscapes, charming towns, and must-see attractions. 

They cover a myriad of topics, including what to eat, Naomi's favourite experiences, and a detailed description of the different regions of Maine, highlighting top attractions and hidden gems in each.

Naomi shares her deep connection to Maine, having grown up in the state, and how her upbringing and adventures shaped her love for travel and her website, Roaming the Americas.

From the best times to visit Maine to the unique cultural and outdoor activities available, this episode is packed with practical tips and inspiration for anyone planning a trip to this picturesque state.

⭐️ Guest - Naomi Figueroa (Roaming the Americas)
📝  Show Notes - Episode 30

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Transcript

Tracy Collins [00:00:05]:
Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, Tracey Collins, who with my expert guests will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips, and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hello. Welcome to episode 30 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. In this week's episode, we're diving into the beautiful state of Maine in the United States with our special guest, Naomi Figueroa. Now, Naomi is here to take us on a journey through Maine's stunning landscapes, charming towns, and must see attractions. We cover a myriad of topics, including what to eat, her favorite experiences, and she'll also describe the different regions of Maine, highlighting top attractions and hidden gems in each. So I started by asking Naomi to introduce herself and share a bit about her background and connection to Maine.

Naomi Figueroa [00:01:01]:
Yeah. It's great to be here. Thank you so much. I grew up in Maine and, went off to college in Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia area, and then stayed there for 15 years. Recently moved to Connecticut, which is also in the northeast, similar to where Maine is. But those experiences growing up in Maine definitely shaped my love for adventure, my curiosity about the world. We lived in rural Maine, just regular family, small town, but Maine is known as vacation land. So we grew up just traveling all over our state, having adventures in every corner of the state.

Naomi Figueroa [00:01:50]:
I actually didn't really realize until I got older that a lot of people go off to other states or even other countries for family vacations when people were talking about their family vacations because I I we just traveled all around Maine. We went camping. Those were our family vacations. And I remember days that my dad would wake me up and say, it's a beautiful day. Let's go for a hike. And we would get out our main atlas and find somewhere to go, and we would go off adventuring. We didn't have any GPS. We didn't have the Internet, and we just found a hike somewhere.

Naomi Figueroa [00:02:24]:
So I think that really gave me, first of all, a curiosity about places that aren't just the touristy places because we really didn't go to Acadia National Park or the really well known places very often, and it also gave me a bit of a sense of adventure.

Tracy Collins [00:02:41]:
I do think that had some influence over your website. So your website is called roaming the Americas, which has a wonderful tagline, I have to say, of immersive travel for everyday adventures and curious minds. That is gonna be one of the best taglines I've ever read, I have to tell you, Naomi. So you tell us what that means and what sort of content and resources travelers can find on your website.

Naomi Figueroa [00:03:03]:
Yeah. My growing up certainly had an influence on that, everyday adventures, curious minds. I think another catalyst in that was my study abroad semester in Costa Rica, where we were forced to kind of get out of our comfort zones. I'm someone who loves to learn. I love to learn facts and information. But my study abroad semester, we did a lot of learning. We did a lot of reading, but then we also had to go out and talk to people on the street about the things we were learning about. And these were, like, hot button issues, immigration, racism, and we had to go talk to people and find out their perspective and apply that to our learning.

Naomi Figueroa [00:03:46]:
There was a philosophy of in doing, we learn. It's a quote by by someone. I can't think of his name, but I think both of those things really influenced that idea of immersing myself, whether that is in nature through outdoor adventure, as I was saying, what I grew up doing, or in culture through learning, but not just learning, really engaging with locals, taking that learning to as a way to connect with people and find out what their home is like.

Tracy Collins [00:04:15]:
Oh, yeah. And I love that because that's that's probably one of my main passions and reasons for traveling. And I think when I was a child, I kinda remember thinking not everybody lives the same life that I do. That there are millions of people out there living completely different lives that I have no idea about. And I wanna find out about how they live and what their life is like. Just the routine things that they do are so different to what I had experienced. And that's always been kind of a motivation for me to do that as well, to kind of get out there and meet people and have those experiences. So, obviously, you focus on US, Canada, and Latin America travel.

Tracy Collins [00:04:55]:
So you cover kinda, these are huge areas, obviously, but so what sort of resources is it? Is it mainly if I wanted to go, for example, to a national park? Would you have some information about that sort of thing? Or what sort of things would I find on your website?

Naomi Figueroa [00:05:10]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So I cover the Americas, which is still very broad. Yes. You're right. In recent years, I've been more focused on the US, you know, with the pandemic and everything. But I wanna get back to traveling to Canada and Latin America as well. I offer resources for, I would say, outdoor adventure.

Naomi Figueroa [00:05:32]:
So, yes, it might be national parks. I took a bike path adventure, in Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park, for example. And it also might be guides to cultural activities like food classes and tours and things like that, going to New York City. What are some of the ways that you can experience New York City in, hesitate to say, off the beaten pathways because I don't think anything's off the beaten path in New York City. But ways to explore iconic places like that that might be a little more unusual, like taking a small cooking class inside the home of a world chef. I've done that before as well.

Tracy Collins [00:06:12]:
That that sounds exciting. Well, we'll definitely put a link to your website in the show notes, but, let's turn our attention to Maine because I I've had well, had a fascination with New England and Vermont and Maine for a long time. And, honestly, I can put my hand up here and say that I don't know very much about either state. I kinda go, I know they're pretty. I know about things like the autumn leaves, and I know the snow in winter, and that's probably about it. Isn't that ridiculous? And seafood. I know this about lobsters, but that's literally about it. So I'm here to learn from you, Naomi, all about Maine.

Tracy Collins [00:06:48]:
So first of all, would you like to give us a brief overview of where Maine is actually located in the US?

Naomi Figueroa [00:06:55]:
Yes. Absolutely. And I think some Americans may not even know where Maine is located on on the map. It is the far northeast corner of the US. So just tucked away way up in the northeast. It borders just one other state, New Hampshire. And fun trivia fact for you, it's the only state in the US that just borders one state. And then on the north sides, it borders Canada.

Naomi Figueroa [00:07:20]:
There's a couple provinces, New Brunswick and Quebec. And then we have the coastline, the Atlantic Ocean along the East Coast. And it's sort of diamond shaped just to give you an idea, roughly diamond shaped, and approximately the size of Portugal.

Tracy Collins [00:07:40]:
Okay. And then

Naomi Figueroa [00:07:40]:
eastbound, South Korea, similarly sized countries.

Tracy Collins [00:07:45]:
Ah, okay. So if I was choosing a time to visit Maine, when would you say is the best time of year for me to do that? Or or maybe the time of year to avoid as well. Yes.

Naomi Figueroa [00:07:57]:
There are a couple of months that I will tell you to avoid, but let's talk about the beautiful times first. So summer summertime, the weather is beautiful. It's pretty mild. We do get temperatures, you know, in the seventies eighties Fahrenheit, which I think is about 21 to 28. I was looking up at Celsius. I'm not sure if that's correct, but, it's pretty mild

Tracy Collins [00:08:25]:
better than me because I'm hopeless at that.

Naomi Figueroa [00:08:28]:
It's pretty mild summer weather. It's not extremely hot. Occasionally, it gets extremely hot, but that's the time that I love for weather. But it also brings a lot of crowds, especially if you're going to the coastline and areas that are very popular. There are ways to get off the beaten path even on the coast if you wanna visit in the summer. And then when you go inland, it's much less crowded as well. So you kinda have to balance that and think, do you wanna deal with the crowds, or do you want the really great weather? There is a little bit of shoulder season too, I would say. You could come in May as shoulder season.

Naomi Figueroa [00:09:03]:
Some things don't quite open up until Memorial Day, which is the end of May. And it's still spring. It's still chilly in May, and things aren't quite green yet. September is the other shoulder season that I would say kids have gone back to school, and the weather is still pretty pleasant. Bugs have subsided. So that's a great option for balancing the the weather and the crowds. And fall, as you mentioned, is also a prime time. A lot of people love to come for the fall foliage.

Naomi Figueroa [00:09:33]:
That's approximately, depends on where you go in Maine, but late September, maybe in some areas, early October, mid October, maybe a little bit towards towards the 3rd week of October. And then winter is a lot less popular to come. It's very cold. It's it can be very snowy. So it depends on if you really want something cozy. You wanna do the skiing thing. We have snowmobiling all across the state. So that's a possibility, but you you really have to want that cold weather, so it's not so popular to come.

Naomi Figueroa [00:10:08]:
And then I told you I would tell you the months not to come. This is my opinion. November, all the leaves have fallen. It's brown. It's dreary. It's dark. And then April, April is known as mud season. All the snow is melting.

Tracy Collins [00:10:23]:
Yeah.

Naomi Figueroa [00:10:23]:
Everything is muddy. Your cars are muddy. Just mud everywhere. It's not fun. And and that's the the lowest month on my on my list for visiting Maine.

Tracy Collins [00:10:33]:
Okay. Cool. So that leaves me with a whole 10 other months to choose from. So that that's absolutely plenty of time. So when I come to visit Maine because believe me, I will be coming to visit Maine. It's on it's on my list of definite places to visit in the next couple of years for sure. What are the best activities and experiences that I can expect and any visitor can expect? Well, that's a huge subject. I know.

Tracy Collins [00:10:53]:
I'm sure there's loads of things we can talk about.

Naomi Figueroa [00:10:56]:
There are so many so many experiences. I think it centers around nature. The connection to nature in Maine is incredible. So a lot of nature based activities like hiking. In the western part of the state, there's also whitewater rafting if you're an adventure junkie, camping, in the winter skiing, snowmobiling. And then, as you said, what you think of seafood and lobster specifically. So enjoying lobster, but also watching the lobster boats come in and out. I mean, you will see working waterfronts when you go along the coastline.

Naomi Figueroa [00:11:32]:
There's a lot of these very cute villages. They can go visiting and enjoying the downtown sightseeing and also watching the the lobstermen and women at work. It just very there's such a connection to that piece of Maine that you can experience just even as a visitor as you're visiting different towns, which I love. Other sightseeing, like lighthouses, the picturesque towns, like I mentioned. If you're into things like art, there's a lot of art galleries. The scenery on the Maine coast has drawn a lot of artists over many decades, so you can visit art galleries. It's a handful of, you know, great museums in certain towns as well. And then I would say other activities that are really excellent and I would highly recommend would be anything that gets you out on the water.

Naomi Figueroa [00:12:24]:
I already mentioned white water rafting if you want the adrenaline version of that. But, also, on the coast, getting getting out on the ocean, there's a lot of ways to do that. Take a ferry out to an island. There's a number of islands that are inhabited that have towns on them. So you can take a ferry or a mail boat out there. You can take whale watching tours, puffin watching tours. There's also a few lobster tours. Like, you go out and they pull the traps and you learn about lobstering.

Naomi Figueroa [00:12:56]:
So some way, shape, or form, I think getting out on the water gives you a view of that coastline that you really don't get just staying on the coastline. So I would recommend, unless you're someone that gets really seasick, of course, getting out on the water in some way. So what are

Tracy Collins [00:13:13]:
the different areas of Maine? Because I I'm guessing there's different kind of geography to the area. Obviously, you've mentioned the coast already, but what are the kind of different areas that make up Maine and some of the top attractions and I hate this term as well, but I'm gonna use it, hidden gems in each region that I should consider.

Naomi Figueroa [00:13:31]:
Yeah. So as you said, you know, you think of the coastline and the lobster, and I think that's what most people think of when it comes to Maine. But even along the coastline, there's a lot of differences. And then a lot of people don't talk about inland Maine, so I'd love to just give you a little little tour. We'll go up the coastline and then come inland just with a quick overview of some of the areas of the coast and what you can see there. So starting off at the southern tip of Maine, as I said, it's kind of diamond shaped, and the very southern tip is beaches. Of course, you know, not not to the level of Australian beaches or Caribbean beaches. These are New England beaches, so, you know, take it with a grain of salt.

Naomi Figueroa [00:14:13]:
But that is not so much of that rocky coastline just yet. It's it's more beach towns. And there are some cute towns down there, Kennebunk, Ogunquit. I haven't explored in this area too much, so I don't wanna do it an injustice. I have heard that it gets quite busy in the summer, even more so than some of the places we'll talk about next. There are some amusement parks down in this area as well, small amusement parks. So that's fun. We keep going up the coast, and we get to Portland.

Naomi Figueroa [00:14:43]:
So Portland is Maine's largest city. Maine only has about 1.2, 1,300,000 people in the whole state, though, so you can imagine the largest city is not actually that large. It's a small city overall, but it's very cute, has a cool downtown. It has still a working waterfront, and it's very historic. And what I really wanna mention about Portland that you should know is its foodie scene. In the last maybe 10 or 15 years, it's really gotten on the map for its food in the United States. It's very well known. So, you know, if you come to Portland, if you fly into Portland, I highly recommend trying out some of the restaurants there.

Naomi Figueroa [00:15:23]:
They are excellent. And then we keep going past Portland a little bit and get to the Midcoast. So this is a little bit north of Portland up maybe about halfway up the coast. And if you look at a map, you'll start to see all these ins and outs, these peninsulas, and it would take you a very long time if you drive all down there. But there's a lot of cute towns. We really start to get to, I think, some of those quintessential coastal villages that you might picture. There's lobstering here, picturesque towns, cool down towns. It is a little busy in this area in the summertime, but very cute.

Naomi Figueroa [00:16:05]:
Has some of my my family's favorite towns. They love to go to some of these towns like Camden and Rockport. And there's also some islands here. So there's we get to start getting to some of those ferries that I told you you could take out to a couple of islands. And one thing I wanna really wanna mention about Midcoast area is Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. This is a big draw for a lot of people. A lot of people, I hear raving reviews about it. I've been a couple of times, and it's excellent.

Naomi Figueroa [00:16:33]:
Really, really beautiful botanical gardens. They have stuff for kids, a little storybook area incorporated in the gardens, and these big trolls, if you've seen those wooden trolls in the woods. So they have some of those. It's very fun. Even though it's very popular, I highly recommend it if you're in the Midcoast area. And then we start to get to what a region called Downeast Maine. And this is interesting because it's not just, like, some term the tourism board made up. It's a part of Maine, and it's part of the cultures, Downeast culture.

Naomi Figueroa [00:17:08]:
People from there call themselves downeasters. And the term has to do with the sailing winds and where the direction that people from New York and Boston were sailing when they came to this area. And the farther you go up the coast, the farther down east you are. You're going way down east as you go towards Canada. So it's a little counterintuitive. Yeah. But it start sort of starts around Acadia National Park and goes all the way up to Canada. As you can imagine, that Acadia National Park area is pretty busy, very popular.

Naomi Figueroa [00:17:45]:
Acadia, the main part of it is on a little island called Mount Desert Island, MDI for short. There's a couple of peninsulas on either side of the island. One of them has another portion of Acadia on it. And those peninsulas, I love them. Blue Hill Peninsula, that's one of my favorite areas. You can drive down onto this island called Deer Isle, and that, I think, is a bit of a hidden gem. That is my favorite area on the coast. It kind of made me fall in love with the coast.

Naomi Figueroa [00:18:13]:
I was an inland, you know, inland Maine only kinda kinda girl because I didn't like the crowds, but Deer Isle made me fall in love with the coast a bit. And then we have Mount Desert Island, and then Scootec Peninsula has another portion of Acadia on it, and it's a lot less busy as well. A lot of people love to go to Scootec to get away from the crowds, but still experience Acadia. And then going farther past that area as we go farther down east, you really get away from the crowds. You're going up towards Canada. It's beautiful coastline up there. Blueberry country. There's wild blueberry, barrens as you drive along.

Naomi Figueroa [00:18:53]:
And some gems up there, we have Quoddyhead. West Quoddyhead lighthouse is in Quoddyhead State Park, and this is the easternmost point in the United States, the continental United States. There's extreme tides up here as well, so that's an interesting thing. You're practically at at the Bay of Fundy, so there's extreme tides. So this area of the coast is less traveled, but really beautiful if you like to get off the beaten path. So that's the main coastline. There's a lot going on there as you can see. Yeah.

Naomi Figueroa [00:19:25]:
And then we go inland, and just wanna highlight a couple of things inland. A lot of people don't really talk about inland Maine, but I love it. I think it's worth experiencing if you like to get off the beaten path. Aroostook County is very off the beaten path. This is the northernmost county. It's Maine's largest county. I would say it's not there's not a ton that's got, you know, tourist draws up there, but if you want a really big main road trip, you might wanna incorporate it. There's rolling hills and farmland.

Naomi Figueroa [00:19:58]:
It's potato country. They grow potatoes up there. And then there's Allagash Wilderness Waterway in this part of Maine. You can take a guided canoe trip down this 92 mile wilderness waterway, and that's you know, I've never done this. It is on my main bucket list. I've heard it's really, really beautiful. You're really gonna get off the grid if you go up, you know, into Aroostook County. They do have a hot air balloon festival up there.

Naomi Figueroa [00:20:25]:
I will say that's potentially something interesting to attend. Yeah. And then Western Maine. We'll finish with Western Maine. Probably my favorite area of Maine, we have mountains. A lot of people don't really think of that because they're thinking of the coastline, but Maine has both aspects, I think, of what New England offers. We've got the coastline, and then we've got the beautiful mountains and lakes and rivers and waterfalls, and they're all very clean. And, you know, you can go swimming.

Naomi Figueroa [00:20:55]:
You can go boating, white water rafting, as I mentioned. In this area, there's also the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, so that's Mount Katahdin, its main tallest mountain. And I would say for folks who are interested in maybe hiking, that one is very challenging. So if you're an avid hiker and you're very in shape, that's something to consider. But, otherwise, there's lots of other mountains, you know, farther south from Mount Katahdin that are great for hiking. And as I mentioned, you know, Maine is so undeveloped. There's so many trees that when you hike in this area, you're getting up to the top of a mountain and looking around, and it's all trees. It's just trees and mountains and lakes.

Naomi Figueroa [00:21:37]:
You're just seeing nature all around you, and that's one of the things I love about getting out into western Maine. It's just totally surrounded by nature, and it's incredibly, incredibly beautiful.

Tracy Collins [00:21:48]:
So I have to ask because it does it sounds amazing. Sounds really I do like actually, where do you stay when you go out there? Is it kinda is it camping country, or is it hotels? Or I mean, we we I would say B and Bs in the UK, but, obviously, like, motels. Yeah. Where would you stay?

Naomi Figueroa [00:22:04]:
That's actually a great question. I'm really glad you asked that because one of the things that Mainers do is we go to a cabin on the lake. A lot of Mainers have these in our families. We call them camps in Maine, but we go to our family camp or cabin and stay there. A lot of these are actually available for rental. So that I would highly recommend if you really just want a peaceful week, a peaceful vacation. You can rent a cabin on a lake and just chill out and look at the mountains, listen to the the loons on the lake. It's it's incredibly beautiful.

Naomi Figueroa [00:22:40]:
Now there is there are campgrounds as well if you wanna do the camping thing. And, you know, some certain towns may have lodges, you know, or there are maybe some B and Bs out in Western Maine as well. Definitely small boutique type of areas, and there are a few ski mountains. So, of course, there's ski lodges that are quite big as well.

Tracy Collins [00:23:05]:
Oh, and you've got you've got me the the cabin. The cabin by the lake has me with the mountains. That's it. I'm sorted. And how amazing if you've got one of those in your family as well. I love that. I was actually talking to, Monique who lives in Norway at the moment on a previous episode, and she was saying the same thing in Norway. Everybody in the family has a cabin in the mountains, and it it what a what I just love it.

Tracy Collins [00:23:27]:
I just love that idea, so that's fantastic. So so does your family have one, Naomi? Do you manage to to get away and stay in

Naomi Figueroa [00:23:34]:
the cabin? Yeah. Growing up, my my grandparents had one. Unfortunately, they they sold it. All my cousins and I think, oh, man. I wish we we could have bought it or something. But my stepfamily has one now, so my mom and stepdad actually live there for the summer. And so when we go visit, we stay there. We just really enjoy life on the lake.

Naomi Figueroa [00:23:57]:
It's to be honest, I think, for me, that is quintessential Maine summer experience. That's a very Maine family type of thing. And so if you get to experience that with a rental, I mean, I highly recommend it. It's very peaceful.

Tracy Collins [00:24:13]:
Yeah. I know. That sounds like a lot of fun. Right. I'm gonna kinda switch the conversation a bit to food because I love food. I do struggle with fish though. This is always the thing I have to say and it's like I don't know. A few episodes I've mentioned this because I I'm not a big fan of fish.

Tracy Collins [00:24:28]:
I probably would try some lobster though. So you couldn't come to Maine and not try lobster. But what are the some of the foods and the dishes that people should try while they're in Maine?

Naomi Figueroa [00:24:39]:
Well, definitely seafood. But I'll give you I'll give you some other things as well that since you don't like seafood. I know not everybody does. Obviously, the lobster. Unless you're allergic to shellfish or you really hate it, you gotta try the lobster. You can have it whole. You can get that at a restaurant. You can maybe buy it from a lobsterman and take it home if you're renting something on the coast and and cook it at home.

Naomi Figueroa [00:25:03]:
You know, there's different ways to do that. It does get messy when you get the whole lobster, and you're picking it apart, and you're dipping it in butter. It's it's not a very clean, meal. The other way to have lobster is in a lobster roll. And I I should mention there's 2 kinds of lobster rolls, and there's there's a rivalry. I have my favorite, there's with butter drizzled over it. It's sort of served warm, and you drizzle butter over it. That's actually the Connecticut style.

Naomi Figueroa [00:25:31]:
The true Maine style is the lobster is cool, and then you put some mayonnaise on it. But it's just a light touch of mayonnaise. It's not heavy, and you have that on a roll, and it's so wonderful on a on a summer day. So lobster in some way, shape, or form if you can, if you don't hate it. And then I was also gonna mention seafood. You can't even try them. Bitch. Absolutely.

Naomi Figueroa [00:25:58]:
Absolutely.

Tracy Collins [00:25:58]:
I'm just gonna interrupt, Diana, because I have to ask this about the lobster roll. So Yep. The lobster roll is the lobster meat, and is it put in a bread roll? When it when you say roll, I immediately think bread roll. So is is that what it is in a bread roll?

Naomi Figueroa [00:26:12]:
Yeah. Yeah. So I should clarify. It's it's sort of like a hot dog roll, a split top bun. They butter it a a little bit and toast it up. So, yes, it's on bread, and it's overflowing with lots of lobster.

Tracy Collins [00:26:27]:
I'm gonna try that.

Naomi Figueroa [00:26:29]:
It's a great question. The other thing is seafood chowder or clam chowder or a fish chowder. Now you may not enjoy that. But if you, you know, are someone who enjoys seafood, some sort of chowder, especially if you're visiting in fall or in the winter. There's nothing like a bowl of chowder. It's a very New England dish. There's different ways to make it. In Maine, we typically make it with some it's like a dairy base of a soup slash stew.

Naomi Figueroa [00:27:04]:
I don't really know how to describe it other than that. You know, it may have potatoes in it. It's very hearty, very warming, very comforting. And then the other thing I would say, another food, not seafood at all, are wild blueberries. You absolutely have to try wild blueberries. Oh, delicious. This is a crop that's grown in Maine. If you've only ever had blueberries from the store that are those big ones, they're high bush blueberries.

Naomi Figueroa [00:27:31]:
You have not tasted a blueberry until you've tasted Maine wild blueberries. They are incredible. They're tiny. They're very, very flavorful. In the season, if you're there, we were talking about when to come to Maine. Another aspect of this is blueberry season. It's usually approximately early August to mid August, give or take, like, maybe a week. It could start a little earlier, go a little later.

Naomi Figueroa [00:27:57]:
You can get them fresh if you come during that time. Otherwise, they're gonna be in baked goods because they can be frozen. But if you also can try them fresh, I mean, I would just have a whole big heaping bowl of blueberries, pour some half and half on top, a little sugar, and that's breakfast. They're so, so delicious. So in any way, shape, or form, I recommend trying Maine wild blueberries. And then a quirky one I'll mention, a quirky sort of main thing is a red hot dog. If you're someone who likes hot dogs, you might wanna try it. It has, like, this crunchy I don't know how crunchy sort of skin, and it's red.

Naomi Figueroa [00:28:34]:
It's probably banned in, like, 70 countries. I don't know, but it's it's a main thing. There's even a main hot dog red hot dog festival. So if you enjoy hot dogs, you should try the Maine red hot dog. It's it's a quirky little thing. If you don't like hot dogs, don't try it. It's not that great. But

Tracy Collins [00:28:57]:
Oh, no. It's worth trying. I'm gonna try it. I'll add that to my the lobster if I'm gonna try lobster roll and I have a lobster roll, then I have to try a hot dog as well. It's kinda one of those things, isn't it? So I'm just gonna ask you a couple more questions about kinda because you talked a lot about your childhood and and you obviously have some fantastic memories of going out and and when you when you were a child and visiting some of these fantastic places in Maine. So do you have any favorite experiences or memories, from your own travels in Maine that you'd like to share that you think would be something kinda really special for some to maybe consider incorporating into their trip?

Naomi Figueroa [00:29:34]:
Yeah. So many. I can think of so many examples. But one that comes to mind first is on the coast. As I mentioned, I've always loved inland Maine. I've always loved getting away from the crowds on the coast. But a number of years ago, my mom said to me, hey. We we know this lobsterman.

Naomi Figueroa [00:29:54]:
He's been offering to take us out on his boat. Would would you wanna go out on his boat? And I said, yeah. I would love that. That sounds amazing. So my mom actually didn't come, but I took a trip down to I was mentioning that island called Deer Isle. Very southern tip of it is Stonington. This is one of the busiest lobster ports in Maine, and that's where he fishes out of. And I I met up with him early one morning.

Naomi Figueroa [00:30:22]:
He had already been out and back, and then he was going out for his second time. And I went out with him and his granddaughter on their small lobster boat from Stonington, and we went out there. And this area of the coast has this archipelago of 50 plus islands, and there are these granite islands, maybe some pine trees on them, and seals were sitting on the rocks there. And we were going out and pulling up lobster traps, and I just sort of fell in love with the Maine coast as I was out there with him experiencing this. It was such a part of Maine culture, incredibly beautiful, incredibly scenic. And I've since gone back been going back to Deer Isle a few times, and I've actually taken out. So, of course, people can't just go do that. I understand.

Naomi Figueroa [00:31:13]:
But what I wanna mention is you can take a boat from Stonington and experience the scenery. There's a mail boat that goes out to this island called Islay Ho. Islay Ho is half of it is inhabited, some year round inhabitants, even some summer residents, and half of it is Acadia National Park land. So you can take the mail boat out in the summertime, can go out and hike on these trails where there's hardly anybody, and just enjoy these incredible, incredible Acadia National Park views, experience that, experience the views on the way out, and it's such a special place. It's very magical just getting out on the water there, and the hiking trails on Idaho are incredible as well.

Tracy Collins [00:31:59]:
Well, I'm definitely gonna have to add that to my list. That sounds good. I'm I'm pretty good out on boats. Doug's not so good, but I I could leave them on on land and I'll go and have a look. I love the idea of going out with watching somebody doing collecting the lobsters as well. That just sounds like so much fun. So, Naomi, I always end with the same question for all my podcast episodes, and it would be, what would be the one tip you would share with someone visiting Maine for the first time?

Naomi Figueroa [00:32:24]:
Well, if it's okay, I'll share one very practical tip and one sort of experiential tip. The practical tip I would say is pack layers. You should pack layers even in the summertime. I mentioned the summer weather is mild. It can even be chilly. So you might not think in the middle of August that you should wear a sweatshirt or bring a pair of jeans, but you should. Pack layers, layers, layers, layers. So I'll always recommend that to people as very practical tip.

Naomi Figueroa [00:32:53]:
But then also, I would say I recommend savoring your experiences, slowing down, taking time. I a lot of people wanna see all these things. And as I mentioned, there's so many beautiful things to see. You can't fit it all in, and, you know, try to see as much as you can. Experience as much as you can. The thing I hear over and over from people coming back from Maine is 5 days wasn't enough. 10 days wasn't enough. Oh, we went for 2 weeks.

Naomi Figueroa [00:33:22]:
It wasn't enough. Or I'm already planning my trip back. Or I thought I was going one time and we've been going for 17 years. So there's just this magic in the air. I think there's a connection to nature that you experience in Maine. I hope that you experience that just serenity that a lot of people do. And I just would recommend, even if you're going around to see all the things, take a day maybe where you don't have anything planned. You just get a map out and you say, let's drive around let's drive around Mountain Desert Island and see what we find.

Naomi Figueroa [00:33:57]:
Let's drive down this road and see what we find, or go into a coffee shop and start chatting with locals and see what they recommend. But I I highly recommend just take time to slow down and really savor that environment and those experiences. And I hope that truly hope that it's magical and wonderful, for anyone who visits.

Tracy Collins [00:34:19]:
Oh, I'm sure it will be. I I can't wait. It's, to say it's somewhere that I've always wanted to visit, but now I feel like I have a far better handle on the state of Maine that I didn't know before. So it was amazing to chat to you, and I've got some great ideas of things I wanna incorporate into my itinerary when I do when I do visit.

Naomi Figueroa [00:34:36]:
But I will be talking to you

Tracy Collins [00:34:36]:
before I do do set up my itinerary because

Naomi Figueroa [00:34:38]:
I'll be, you know, picking your brains for just to

Tracy Collins [00:34:38]:
check that what I plan to do is it works out right. Naomi, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. It's been lovely to to chat to you this week and learn all about Maine. Thank you so much.

Naomi Figueroa [00:34:53]:
It's been wonderful. Thank you so much for having me.

Tracy Collins [00:34:57]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.