Historic Inns & Hotels in Kennebunkport

The neighborhoods

Where to stay, by area

Dock Square & the village

Dock Square is the commercial heart of the village, on the north bank of the Kennebunk River about a mile up from its mouth, with shops, galleries, seafood restaurants and schooner trips; the Kennebunkport Historic District takes in 147 buildings around it. The Kennebunkport Inn, coffee and tea merchant Burleigh S. Thompson’s 1899–1900 Colonial Revival house, stands on the square. The town’s paid lot is in the square behind Alisson’s Restaurant, and the Intown Trolley’s narrated tours leave from 21 Ocean Avenue, around the corner.

Cape Arundel & Ocean Avenue

Ocean Avenue runs from Dock Square down the river and around Cape Arundel, a summer colony built up from the 1870s with Shingle Style cottages, out to Walker’s Point, the Bush family’s summer estate. Three verified stays line it: The Nonantum, which opened on the river on July 4, 1884, about 0.4 mile from Dock Square; The Colony, built in 1914 as Breakwater Court above the river mouth, about a mile out; and Cape Arundel Inn, whose Main House is the c. 1896 R. H. Platt cottage facing the ocean. Free public parking runs along the ocean side of Ocean Avenue between Colony Beach and St. Ann’s Episcopal Church.

The captains’ houses

Inland from Dock Square, Pleasant, Green, Pearl, Maine and Summer Streets hold the Federal-period houses of the town’s sea captains and merchants, such as the 1808 Ivory Goodwin House on Pleasant Street. The Kennebunkport Captains Collection joins four of them into one 45-room inn, led by the three-story Captain Nathaniel Lord Mansion of 1812 at Pleasant and Green Streets, with the 1805 William Jefferds Jr. House on Pearl Street. Lark calls the collection just steps from downtown, and Elm, Pearl, Green and Maine Streets have free public street parking.

Before you book

Planning your stay

Getting around

Portland International Jetport is about a 30-minute drive, by the Nonantum’s reckoning, and Boston Logan about 90 minutes. The nearest Amtrak Downeaster stop is Wells, with five trains each way daily, but the Downeaster says ground transportation there is extremely limited, so most visitors drive. Dock Square, the captains’ streets and the Nonantum are walkable, and the Colony is about a mile from the square; the Intown Trolley runs 60-minute narrated tours from 21 Ocean Avenue, the Nonantum runs a free beach shuttle in peak season, and the Colony, which has no shuttle, points guests to RideMaine.

Parking

The town’s paid lot in Dock Square, behind Alisson’s Restaurant, charges $6 an hour from May 1 through October 31 (free under 30 minutes), and a free lot at 30 North Street is a quarter-mile walk from the square. Elm, Pearl, Green and Maine Streets and the ocean side of Ocean Avenue between Colony Beach and St. Ann’s Episcopal Church have free street parking, but parking on any public way is banned from midnight to 6 a.m. between December 1 and April 15. The Colony includes one vehicle, the Captains Collection parks guests free, and Cape Arundel folds parking into its $35 nightly resort fee.

When to go

Summer is the main season, and the Dock Square lot charges from May through October. Fall foliage is a peak too, when the Captains Collection requires two-night stays. Christmas Prelude fills the town from December 3 to 13, 2026, with tree lightings in Dock Square on December 4 and 11, Santa arriving by lobster boat at the Nonantum on December 6 and fireworks over the cove on December 11. From late October to mid-May the Colony closes its historic main building, Marine Room and pool, keeping only its newer Coveside rooms and private houses open.

Accessibility

The Chamber describes Dock Square and Lower Village as walkable but with uneven historic surfaces and varying grades. The Captains Collection says every building needs exterior stairs and its rooms don’t meet ADA requirements, Cape Arundel’s historic Main House has no elevator (staff carry luggage), and the Nonantum added an elevator to its historic Carriage House Inn in 2016. Downeaster trains and the Wells station are wheelchair accessible.

Before you book

Expect minimum stays: Cape Arundel and The Kennebunkport Inn require two nights, sometimes three, in peak season and on major holiday weekends, and the Captains Collection requires two on most weekends and three on major holiday weekends. The two Kennebunkport Resort Collection inns add a nightly resort fee ($35 at Cape Arundel, $25 at the Kennebunkport Inn) plus a 2% destination fee and a 1% community impact fee on top of 9% Maine sales tax; the Colony charges no resort fee. Cape Arundel requires guests to be 21 to check in, and most Captains Collection rooms hold only two people.