We have stayed once, for one week in August 2004, and look forward to returning for another week this summer. Things we like best. Wow ... where to begin? The cottages are absolutely private, on a lovely pond, which is perfect for swimming and playing about in the canoes and kayaks. The accommodations are immaculate, up-to-date, bright and pretty. Most importantly, Hodgdon Pond is situated within easy access of Acadia National Park and the myriad wonderful things to do in and around that area. We could have easily kept ourselves and the children busy for two weeks, instead of the one we had reserved. We would recommend staying at Hodgdon Pond Farm because of: lovely accommodations that are well-maintained; restful, peaceful setting; many, many wonderful things to do in the area.

We had decided to vacation in Acadia, and did lots of searching for a special place. Hodgdon Pond looked like the perfect setting, as indeed it turned out to be! We've been coming almost yearly for at least 15 years, sometimes in the summer, sometimes in the fall. Each season has its special sweetness. We started coming about 15 years ago, when the cottages were just a couple years old. We've enjoyed seeing the log house weather over the years.... The houses are attractive, clean, well appointed, and very livable. The pond (we'd call it a lake) is beautiful, and provides swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and just a beautiful setting for reading and observing wildlife. We love being on the quiet side, and yet we can still get easily to activities of all sorts all over the island. The whole feel of the Hodgdon Pond experience is relaxed, removed, quiet, rejuvenating. It's a place that nourishes quality, wholesome family time. At the same time, there are endless adventures available in the park: each year we do something new, in addition to lots of old favorites. This is a setting for people who want to soak up the natural grandeur of Mt. Desert Island without being barraged by tacky tourist culture and needing to eat out all the time. It's the perfect place to bring extended, multigenerational family. By its very nature, it creates wonderful memories that last throughout the year....

Rob and I first found out about HPF through friends who invited us to stay one night while we were camping at Seawall Campground, which is part of Acadia National Park. It was a rainy day and when we had the comfort of a roof and warm shower our camping days were dwindling. The following year, the same friends had reserved the cabin and found out they had to relocate with a job opportunity and couldn't take the cabin. We asked if we could take their place and we haven't missed a year. Our children weren't born yet, but a year or two later Matt (now 15)was born and we'd put him in a backpack carrier and hike throughout the park. 4 years later Kelsey (now 11) was born, and she took her first canoe ride at 4 months. Matt became an expert frog catcher at the little pond and played on the jungle gym provided. As the years quickly passed, the kids became expert swimmers and would swim to the middle of the pond to the floating dock. Having the kayaks there provided hours of entertainment as they took nets to catch turtles, frogs, etc. and bring them back for Rob to photograph and eventually create numerous paintings from these excursions. We have our favorite haunts throughout Mt. Desert and have enjoyed many a lobster on the island, some of which were cooked in the cabin or enjoyed at Thurston's. To be honest, we have lost track of how many years we have been at Hodgdon Pond Farm, but all we know is that we have created a lifetime of memories.

We have been returning to Mount Desert Island for vacations since 1981. The cottages we chose to stay at most often are Hodgdon Farm Pond’s. We appreciate the quiet, private location and the cottages are comfortably accommodating. What really makes Hodgdon stand out from all of the other places we have stayed on the island, is that when we return to the cottage after a day of exploring Acadia, we still feel like we are in the park.

We learned about Hodgdon Pond Farm from one of our friends who lives on the island and began coming in 1987, when our son was four. We try to return once a year. I remember only one year we have missed. When we consider time off, we are repeatedly drawn to Hodgdon Pond Farm. We enjoy the long drive through the fields, and we like the sense of relative isolation we have in the cottages. We realize that we see no one when we look across the pond. We have wonderful memories of three generations sharing two cottages on two occasions. We like the quiet, relaxed sense of being "away" at Hodgdon Pond Farm, and we appreciate being able to have ready access to all the hikes, paths, and vistas of Acadia National Park.

We found out about Hodgdon Pond Farm through an advertisement in Yankee magazine and 2005 will be our 5th consecutive year. We like the setting best, of course, and the fact that each year there seem to be some improvements. We would recommend staying at Hodgdon Pond Farm because the cottages are clean, well maintained, comfortable, private, professionally managed and the setting of course. We feel like our kids have done a lot of growing up at HPF. Our first year they were barely able to swim and paddle around the dock. Last summer they both swam out to the float and paddled around the entire pond in the kayaks. We now own kayaks as a family due in part to the fun we have had on Hodgdon Pond. They also each set a personal "record" by swimming every day regardless of the weather.

Our family had been looking for a place to stay on the "Quiet Side" of Mount Desert for some time. Good friends from Southwest Harbor suggested we go to cyberentals.com to see if we could find a rental. After studying the rentals we decided on Hodgdon Pond Farm because of the following reasons: the cottage had a fully equipped kitchen, three bedrooms, washer and dryer, two baths and a king bed in the master bedroom. Beyond the essentials Hodgdon Pond offered a private dock, canoe and kayaks, a raft, an abundance of wildlife and quick access to our favorite place - Acadia National Park. One never knows what a place is going to be like until actually experiencing it. July of 2001 was our first visit. We quickly realized one week was not enough. Since 2001 we have rented Cottage #1 for the last two weeks of July. When we think of Hodgdon Pond we think of waking up to calls of loons and bringing breakfast down to the dock. There we take in the wildlife and nature dramas as a new day dawns. We rarely have lunch at the cottage, because we are usually hiking a nearby mountain, biking a carriage or fire road or fishing in one of the numerous lakes or ponds, regardless of weather. We also take the ferry to Swans Island to visit friends. Late afternoon we do raft to raft swimming and barbecues. Sunrises and sunsets at Bartlett's Landing and Cadillac Mountain are also popular with our guests and us. A summer is no longer complete without a visit to Hodgdon Pond.

A stay at Hodgdon Pond Farm is a treat and retreat. During my stays there I have delighted in sightings of deer, turtle, beaver, osprey and eagle right on the property (not to mention the fish, frogs and dragonflys). The property is set well back from the main road allowing for complete privacy and quiet. The pond itself is more like a small lake with the entire opposite shore owned by Acadia National Park which makes for lovely kayaking or swimming. The cottages are on wooded lots along the pond with beautiful views. The space is generous for a vacation rental with a charming, fresh decor and comfortable seating/sleeping arangements, and the entire property is fastidiously maintained. In a short drive you can be at a trailhead for a hike, at the carriage roads for a bike trip, or shopping and dining in one of the island's villages. I don't know which of these memories of staying at HPF is my favorite: Was it when I was awoken at the crack of dawn by my then 6 yr. old to go kayaking in our pajamas while the rest of the world slept?.... or was it our ramble at dusk around the little pond catching and releasing fireflies with their radiant luminescence? .......or lying on the dock at night with my family admiring the myriad stars; were they more spectacular in the dark sky above or reflected in the water all around us?