Eagles NestTrenton, Maine
Stilla Eagles Nest
Acadia by day. Your own shore by evening.Eagles Nest is the Acadia trip done right — the park and Bar Harbor by day, then home to your own quiet, rocky shore as the bay goes dark. Trade schedules for tides.
Eagles NestThe Overview
Eagles Nest
The ocean is at the end of the path. Eagles Nest sits on two wooded coastal acres in Trenton, the last stretch of mainland before the bridge to Mount Desert Island, with a private rocky shore below the lawn and Union River Bay opening out in front of it. Acadia is twenty-five minutes away. The crowds are not.
The cottage sleeps eight across three bedrooms and two bathrooms. That suits a family, or two couples, or anyone who wants the water at the door without giving up the quiet. Fiber-optic Wi-Fi makes a longer stay workable. Mornings here belong to the tide: check the chart, take the stairs down, and see what the low water has uncovered.
Back at the cottage, a fire pit, outdoor games, and resident wildlife make the evenings. Eagles Nest is part of the Stilla collection; you book direct through the Eagles Nest website.
Best for
- Acadia National Park trips
- Coastal Maine family vacations
- Couples traveling together
- Remote work near the water
- National park and Bar Harbor travelers
- Quiet alternatives to staying on Mount Desert Island
Key Facts
- Location
- Trenton, Maine (Acadia gateway)
- Sleeps
- 8 guests
- Bedrooms
- 3 bedrooms
- Bathrooms
- 2 bathrooms
- Setting
- 2 wooded acres with direct ocean access
- Best seasons
- Late spring through fall foliage
- Book
- Direct at eaglesnestmaine.com
Reserve Direct
Book Eagles Nest directly. Best available rate, one calendar, no middleman.
Check Availability01A Day Here
The tide sets the schedule. Everything else is optional.
Early
The bay before anyone else has it
Coffee on the deck while the lobster boats work the bay. If you want Acadia at its quietest, this is when you leave — you're over the bridge and at the Hulls Cove entrance in about twenty-five minutes, ahead of the day-trippers who are still on the road.
Low water
The shore doubles in size
Ten feet of tide means the coastline you had at breakfast is a different place by afternoon. Take the stairs down on a falling tide and the ledges open up: tide pools, periwinkles, sea glass, seals out on the rocks. There's a tide clock in the house so you can time it.
Midday
Or don't go anywhere
The hammock, the lawn, the cornhole. Guests who plan a full week of driving usually end up giving one day back to the house, and it's the one they write to us about afterward.
On the way back
Lobster you carry home
Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound is on your road, not a detour — steamers going over a wood fire since 1956. The kitchen here has a lobster pot and the tools, so dinner is whatever you picked up on the way past.
As the light goes
The fire, and the quiet
Sunset over the water, then the fire pit. Bald eagles are resident on this bay and are often working the shoreline in the last light — wild, so a chance rather than a promise, which is exactly what makes it worth watching for. The children stay up later than they should. Nobody minds. That tends to be the part they talk about afterwards.
02Plan the stay
How many nights do you need?
The real question isn't what there is to do — it's how many nights you need. Here's what we'd actually do with each.
1
night
One night: the park, and one low tide
Tight, but workable if you arrive early and treat it as a park day with a shore evening.
- Day 1Provision in Ellsworth on the way in, drop bags, then straight over the bridge for the Park Loop Road — Sand Beach, the Ocean Path, Thunder Hole. Home for the fire, and the shore if the tide is out.
One night is a taste, not a trip. If your dates are fixed, come — but you'll spend most of it driving and you won't get the slow morning that people remember.
2
nights
Two nights: Acadia, plus a morning that's yours
The shortest stay that feels like a stay rather than a stopover.
- Day 1Arrive, provision in Ellsworth, lobster from the pound on your road, first fire at dusk.
- Day 2Full classic Acadia day: Park Loop Road, popovers at Jordan Pond, and a sunset Cadillac slot if you booked one.
Two nights works. Skip the boat trip and don't try to add the Quiet Side.
3
nights
Three nights: add the water
Our minimum recommendation for a first visit — park, water, and one unhurried morning on the shore.
- Day 1Arrive, provision, settle in. Walk down at low tide.
- Day 2Classic Acadia — the Park Loop Road and Jordan Pond.
- Day 3Morning on the water from Bar Harbor (whale watch or a lobster boat), Shore Path and an early dinner in town.
Three is the sweet spot for a long weekend. Most guests who book three wish they'd booked four.
4
nights
Four nights: add the Quiet Side
Enough time to see both sides of the island without moving at a pace that ruins it.
- Day 1Arrive, provision, tide walk, fire.
- Day 2Classic Acadia.
- Day 3On the water, then a Bar Harbor evening.
- Day 4The Quiet Side — Wonderland or Ship Harbor tide pools, lunch at Thurston's, Bass Harbor Head Light at golden hour.
Four nights is where the trip stops feeling like a checklist.
5
nights
Five nights: add Schoodic
The length that finally includes the mainland Acadia most visitors never see — and no bridge to cross to reach it.
- Day 1Arrive, provision, tide walk, fire.
- Day 2Classic Acadia.
- Day 3On the water, then Bar Harbor.
- Day 4The Quiet Side.
- Day 5Schoodic Peninsula — the six-mile loop, a long stop at the point, burgers in Winter Harbor.
Five is our favorite length. Every kind of day on this coast, none of them rushed.
6
nights
Six nights: add the carriage roads
Room for a bike day and a proper dinner out, without giving up the slow day.
- Day 1Arrive, provision, tide walk, fire.
- Day 2Classic Acadia.
- Day 3On the water, then Bar Harbor.
- Day 4The Quiet Side.
- Day 5Schoodic.
- Day 6Carriage roads by bike (or the Beehive if you've been saving it), then dinner in Ellsworth.
Six nights lets you do something active and still keep a day in reserve for weather.
7
nights
Seven nights: the whole coast, and a day that belongs to nobody
The full week, ending with the day guests actually write to us about — the one with no alarm and nowhere to be.
- Day 1Arrive, provision, tide walk, fire.
- Day 2Classic Acadia.
- Day 3On the water, then Bar Harbor.
- Day 4The Quiet Side.
- Day 5Schoodic.
- Day 6Carriage roads and an Ellsworth evening.
- Day 7The slow day: coffee at low tide, tide pools, the hammock, lawn games, a last fire and the stars.
If you can take seven, take seven. The rule we give guests: one big-park day, one thing on the water, and one slow tide day per visit — a week gives you all three with room to spare.
03When the weather turns
Rain days
It rains here, and the fog is famous. None of these days are lost — several are better in weather.
The shore is better in bad weather
A grey falling tide is the best tide-pooling there is: fewer people, softer light, and the pools hold everything. Boots and a jacket, an hour on the ledges, then back up to the fire. Big-surf days at Thunder Hole and Schoodic Point are genuinely more dramatic than blue-sky ones.
The indoor half of Bar Harbor
The Abbe Museum, the shops along Main Street, a long lunch, and the Jesup Memorial Library. Rain is also the one time Bar Harbor parking is easy.
Ellsworth, properly
The Grand for a matinee, Rooster Brother for kitchen things and coffee, a slow breakfast at Sylvia's. Provision for two days while you're there and you've bought yourself a free morning tomorrow.
Stay in and cook
This is what the lobster pot is for. Pick up from Trenton Bridge on the way back, put the fire on, and let the weather do what it wants. Wet days are when a house beats a hotel room by the widest margin.
Reserve Direct
Check availability & book
Book Eagles Nest directly with us — best available rate, one calendar, no platform middleman.
Summer here books a long way out — most July and August stays are reserved by late winter. If you have a particular week in mind, it is worth asking early.
The better season
September is the week we would pick. The water is still warm from three months of sun, the crowds go home after Labor Day, and you can actually park at Jordan Pond. Most people book July and never find this out.
Come back to the same week
Tell us before you leave and we will hold the same week for you next year, before the calendar opens to anyone else. It is how a stay turns into the week your family takes.
A booking site can’t do this for you — it doesn’t know you’ll be back. We do. Book direct, and the week you loved is yours to keep.
Experience Highlights
What makes a stay here
- Your own private rocky shorefront — the crowds of Acadia traded for quiet
- Seals, eagles, and shorebirds, often watched right from the yard and deck
- Sunsets over the water, then the fire pit
- Tidepools, shells, and sea glass at low tide
- Sweeping ocean and bay views
- Two wooded coastal acres, private and quiet
- Fiber optic Wi-Fi when you want it, complete quiet when you don't
- Minutes from Acadia National Park; gateway to Mount Desert Island and Bar Harbor
Amenities Snapshot
- Sleeps 8
- 3 bedrooms
- 2 bathrooms
- Direct ocean access
- Private rocky shorefront
- Ocean & bay views
- Fire pit
- Custom branded cornhole
- Two wooded acres
- Full kitchen
- Fiber optic Wi-Fi
Amenities, in depth
- Full kitchen with an electric range and oven
- Dishwasher, microwave, and a full fridge and freezer
- Coffee both ways — a full Keurig and a drip maker
- Lobster pot and tools for a lobster night in
- Gas grill outside
- An outdoor wood fireplace (bring your own wood — we don't supply it)
Sleeping Arrangements
3 bedrooms · sleeps 8
Main-floor bedroom
Main floor
- King bed (Helix mattress)
Downstairs bedroom
Lower level
- King bed (Helix mattress)
Upstairs bunk room
Upstairs
- Two bunk beds (twin over twin)
Getting Here
Eagles Nest is easy to reach for a long weekend or a full week. Here's how it sits relative to the region's gateways and attractions.
From major cities
- Bangor International Airport (BGR)about 50 minutes (37.5 mi)
- Boston, MA
- Portland, ME
Nearest airports
- Bangor International (BGR)about 50 minutes (37.5 mi) — the practical choice
- Hancock County–Bar Harbor (BHB)minutes away in Trenton; regional, seasonal service
Nearby
- Ellsworth (groceries & services)about 12 minutes (6.3 mi)
- Trenton Bridge Lobster Poundabout 14 minutes (8.9 mi)
- Acadia Gateway Center (Island Explorer park-and-ride)about 18 minutes
- Tidal Falls Preserve, Hancockabout 25 minutes (15.5 mi)
- Acadia — Hulls Cove entranceabout 25 minutes (17.4 mi) — crosses the bridge
- Bar Harborabout 30 minutes (20.2 mi) — crosses the bridge
- Cadillac Summitabout 35 minutes — crosses the bridge
- Bass Harbor Head Light (Quiet Side)about 40 minutes (24.7 mi) — crosses the bridge
- Schoodic / Winter Harborabout 42 minutes (29.4 mi) — no bridge
Off-peak figures, verified against mapping data from the house. Everything on Mount Desert Island is reached by a single bridge, so treat the midday summer numbers as a floor: cross early in the morning or in the evening. The fare-free Island Explorer runs from the Acadia Gateway Center here in Trenton, about 18 minutes from the house, if you would rather not drive onto the island at all.
Before You Go
- Trenton / Frenchman Bay tide chart →
Plan shore mornings around low tide for tidepools, shells, and sea glass.
The story behind the name
Eagles Nest is named for the eagle that lives along the property's shoreline. It's a regular presence over the water — the kind of sight you plan a morning around, coffee in hand, watching the bay.
The name says it all. Eagles overhead, seals in the bay, the occasional deer at the tree line — the quiet hours of wildlife-watching from your own shore are the whole idea. This is a place where the coast comes to you.
A Note from the Owners
Eagles Nest is where our family trades schedules for tides. The cottage sits on two wooded acres with the ocean at the end of the path — close enough to Acadia and Bar Harbor for full days, far enough that by evening the coast feels like yours alone.
We love it for the small things: an unhurried morning on the shore, kids loose in the yard, a fire going as the bay goes dark. We've kept it simple and comfortable on purpose. Come for the park; stay for the quiet.
The family behind the Stilla collection — we own, stay in, and personally curate every home.
Plan Your Stay
Read the Eagles Nest Guest Guide
How the home works and the destination around it — the guide we'd hand you on arrival.
Location
Trenton, Maine
Nearby
- Acadia National Park (carriage roads, Cadillac Mountain, Jordan Pond)
- Mount Desert Island
- Bar Harbor shops, restaurants, and harbor
- Ellsworth (provisions, dining, services)
- Rocky shoreline and working harbors
- Whale-watching and boat tours
Location Context
Where you'll be
Eagles Nest anchors the Coastal Maine region. Explore the destination guides below to plan your days.
Best available value
No platform service fees — reserve on the property's official site.
No middleman
Book with the people who care for the home, not a third party.
Property-specific support
Clear communication before, during, and after your stay.
Verified, curated homes
Each home is selected and held to the Stilla collection standard.
I've stayed in Maine before and all over the world, and this was a top-three location for me and our entire group.
Within minutes of arriving, an eagle flew over the yard — the property is well named! The cottage is absolutely adorable, from the decor inside to the stunning backyard and private beach access.
Why stay in a hotel room when you can have your own private piece of Maine paradise? Happy at the end of each day to leave any crowds behind.
You won't find better. The house has everything you could want. Super clean, comfy, and in a beautifully serene area on the water.
Guest Reviews
More from our guests
“Why stay in a hotel room when you can have your own private piece of Maine paradise? I actually enjoyed the scenic drive and was happy at the end of each day to leave any crowds behind.”
“We had the best time staying at the Eagle's Nest over the Thanksgiving week! The amenities at the house were so great, especially all of the kitchen stuff. The beds were extremely comfortable, and everything seemed thoughtfully curated. We loved the privacy, but also the closeness to Acadia. We also got to witness the most beautiful sunsets. Overall, this was a top tier Airbnb!”
“Within minutes of arriving, an eagle flew over the yard — the property is well named! The cottage is absolutely adorable, from the decor inside to the stunning backyard and private beach access.”
“We especially loved that we saw seals every day almost right in the backyard, and an eagle one day. The location, the views, the space — everything was perfect.”
“Great house for a family with young kids. Loved being on the water so kids could play on the shore. Very clean house with all the amenities.”
“Thoughtful touches (grocery bags, coffee bar with to-go cups). Loved the lawn and fire pit with direct access to the beach — great for kids!”
“Very quiet and secluded, decorated very nicely and clean. About a 25-minute drive from Bar Harbor and Acadia — a short, easy trip to all the nearby amenities. We loved it!”
“Away from the hustle and bustle of the busier areas, but close enough that you never feel like you're driving a long time. We enjoyed the warmth of the fire pit while roasting marshmallows and watching beautiful sunsets over the water.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Eagles Nest is in Trenton, Maine — the mainland gateway to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park, just minutes from the bridge to the island and a short drive from Bar Harbor and Ellsworth.