Affiliate disclosure
Some of our links earn us a commission when you book through them. This page says who pays us, how much, and how we choose what to link.
The short version
Some links on this site are affiliate links, and they are labeled where they appear. If you book through one, we earn a commission out of what you already pay: Viator pays it for tours and activities, Booking.com for places to stay and rental cars, and Vrbo for cottages, cabins and apartments rented whole; on FareHarbor, the booking system some tour operators use, the operator whose trip it is pays it. It costs you nothing extra, and it is the only way this site earns anything.
This site has carried affiliate links since it launched in September 2026. They have been labeled from the first one.
Every block of booking links on a page opens with a short version of this. In full:
How we make money: some links on this site are affiliate links. If you book through one, we earn a small commission out of what you already pay: the platform pays it, or on FareHarbor, the operator whose trip it is. Your price is the same. We take no placement fees, so no operator or property can pay to appear or rank higher on any page, and no trip is chosen because it pays better.
Who pays us
- Viator — guided tours and activities. 8% of every completed booking, paid after the trip actually happens, on any experience booked within 30 days of a click on one of our links. Those are the terms Viator publishes on its affiliate program page.
- Booking.com, through the CJ Affiliate network — hotels, inns and other places to stay, and rental cars. A share of the booking, from 4% on stays and 3.8% on car rentals under the program's terms, earned only once the stay or the rental is completed.
- Vrbo, also through CJ — cottages, cabins and apartments rented whole on Mount Desert Island. 2% of the rent, before taxes and fees, on a booking made within seven days of a click on one of our links, under the program's terms, earned only once the owner has accepted the booking and the stay is over.
- FareHarbor, through its Distribution Network — tours. FareHarbor is the booking system the operator uses, so a booking made on a FareHarbor link is with the operator itself, on fareharbor.com. The operator pays us 15% of the activity price, before taxes and fees, out of what you pay, so your price is the same. Only a booking made from one of our links counts.
That is the entire list. No gear, no restaurants. If another one is added, it appears here first.
Our Booking.com links go to Booking.com's own list of places to stay in an area, or to a property a page names for the reason it gives. Our Vrbo link goes to Vrbo's own list of cottages, cabins and apartments on the island. None of them is a ranking: we do not rate hotels or rentals, and no property can pay to be named.
How we choose what to link
We link the trip we would book ourselves, and only after opening the listing and reading it. Price, availability, cancellation terms and the operating company all come off the product page on the date shown, not from memory and not from a press release.
That check is the whole job, and in September 2026 an outside audit showed it had not been done properly: all four of our tour listings named the wrong operating company — the tour's branding rather than the firm actually running it. Every one was re-read off its product page and corrected on 19 September. That is a bad number, and rounding it down would be the wrong instinct on the one page whose only asset is candor: a recommendation you cannot act on is worth nothing to you and nothing to us.
No trip is on a page because it pays better. Where two trips do the same thing, the one we link is the one we would put a friend on. Where two platforms sell the same private trip, the link goes to the one that pays us more, and its card shows the price and fees you pay there.
Where a page names its pick, the card says so. A pick is the trip that page's own comparison recommends, and no operator can pay for one.
What we don't do
- We take no placement fees. No operator can pay to appear on this site or to rank higher on a page. If that ever changes, this page changes first.
- We don't pad a page with links. Plenty of the right answers in Acadia aren't bookable through any platform we work with — the Cadillac Summit reservation, which is sold on recreation.gov and nowhere else; the park campgrounds; the free Island Explorer, which has nothing to book at all. We still name them, because a guide that only mentions what it can sell you isn't a guide.
- We don't publish discount codes we haven't verified.
Prices and availability
Prices shown are what we saw on the date noted on each page. Operators change them, seasons change them, and fuel surcharges change them. Always confirm the price and the cancellation terms on the booking page before you commit.
Vrbo® is a trademark or registered trademark of Expedia, Inc.