I knew once I came across a listicle on the lifestyle website Impulcity a few weeks back it would join the likes of Travel + Leisure, Buzzfeed and Forbes as an inexhaustible reservoir of material for our #Maine blog.
I’ve already shared Impulcity lists showing off Maine’s strangest abandoned site and noting which of our towns is one of the country’s most festive Christmas destinations.
Now, Impulcity has ranked what it considers the “19 Most Beautiful Small Towns in America,” and you know a list like that is sure to have a Maine town on it.
Any guesses?
Well, if you said, “Camden,” you were right.
Impulcity places Camden at No. 5, right behind No. 4 Asheville, North Carolina, and ahead of No. 6 Chautauqua, New York. The chart topper on the list at No. 1 is Beaufort, South Carolina, followed by Holland, Michigan. Rounding out the group at No. 19 is Marietta, Ohio.
The other New England towns to make the cut are No. 7 Woods Hole and No. 18 Edgartown, both in Massachusetts.
Impulcity describes Camden with the following post:
What’s that? You don’t think there’s a reason to go visit Maine? That’s cute. The truth is that you couldn’t be more wrong. Bay towns like Camden provide plenty of entertainment for any traveler looking to explore a region of the country that they never thought they’d visit. Sure, the winters can be pretty brutal at times, but that just makes the winters all the better. Instead of frying in the summer heat in August, you can take a peaceful, temperate stroll down one of the main streets.
While it might get a little nippy at times, early to mid fall is the best time to enjoy this spot. The fall colors form the perfect backdrop to the small town canopy that’s already flourishing with tiny, local shops and plenty of little restaurants that are filled with local fare of all types. There’s something truly special about watching the fog roll off of the bay, surrounded by ships.
For all of the truth included in that blurb, the lead-in assumption that readers may never have considered visiting Maine is a little off. While Maine isn’t as well-known a tourist destination as Florida or California, places like Portland, Camden and Kennebunkport have been getting smothered by online superlatives imploring people to visit here for about five years now. And tourism remains one of Maine’s top industries.
Maine is only still a secret to travelers who don’t have access to the Internet.
For those of you do, here’s another video showing off one of Camden’s biggest winter draws, the U.S. National Toboggan Championships:
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