North of Portland, Yarmouth is a pleasant waterfront community with a pretty downtown and frontage on the Royal River. It is one of the few towns in the area that still maintain a quaint village Main Street with shops and local businesses. Yarmouth is also home to the annual Clam Festival, during which time over 100,000 visitors will paricipate in this New England tradition.
 Better known is the shopping mecca of Freeport, home of L.L. Bean. Freeport offers more than 110 shops, from brand-name designer outlets to quaint Maine artisans and specialty shops. In and around the area are many private locations along the water, several cozy Inns and B&Bs and a wide variety of quality restaurants.
Just two and a half miles outside of Freeport is a natural phenomenon known as the Desert of Maine. Severe soil erosion caused by poor farming practices in the late 1800s and early 1900s revealed this 40-acre sand dune, which geologists believe was left behind by a melting glacier 11,000 years ago.  Brunswick, where Route 1 and Interstate 95 diverge, bills itself as the gateway to Maine's midcoast. Many shopping centers have sprung up here during the past decades, catering to the families of the aviators at Brunswick Naval Air Station.
With Bowdoin College and its 1,700 students nearby, Brunswick's downtown remains vibrant. A highly regarded liberal arts school, Bowdoin adds youthful vitality to the community and offers many amenities to local residents, from health-club memberships to lectures and concerts. | 
