Three lobster boat tours around Bar Harbor are compared here, and the choice is mostly made for you by who is coming. A child under six rules out the Lulu. A wheelchair rules it out too. A party that wants the smallest boat and the calmest water drives to Southwest Harbor for the Elizabeth T. Everyone else picks between the Lulu’s traditional boat and the Miss Samantha’s size and touch tank.
On all three the crew hauls a few traps, explains what comes up, and takes you to a ledge to see seals. Maine lobstering is licensed, so you watch the hauling rather than doing it.
The three boats, side by side
| Lulu | Miss Samantha | Elizabeth T | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run by | Lulu Lobster Boat Ride | Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. | Sail Acadia |
| The boat | Traditional Downeast-style lobster boat | 56 ft, carries 60 | 33 ft wooden boat built on the island in 1986 |
| Group | Not stated | Up to 60 | Up to 16 on a shared tour |
| Length | 2 hours | 1 hour 45 minutes | 2 hours |
| Leaves from | Harborside Hotel & Marina, Bar Harbor | 1 West Street, Bar Harbor | Dysart’s Great Harbor Marina, Southwest Harbor |
| Adult | From $46 | $46 | From $58 |
| Children | Six and over only | All ages; $37 (6 — 14), $22 (5 and under) | All ages |
| Wheelchair | No — steps, and a steep ramp at low tide | Yes | Ask the operator |
| Restroom | Emergency only; use the pier’s | Yes | Small toilet |
| Last trip, 2026 | 17 October | 24 October | 25 October |
Prices, rules and dates are each operator’s own, with the fall departure times and last dates from their booking calendars, all read on 23 September 2026. The Miss Samantha’s and the Elizabeth T’s calendars were read again on 21 October, and all three operators were read again on 26 October, when none had a sailing left in 2026.
Lulu: the traditional boat, no small children
Lulu calls itself “the only lobster boat tour in Bar Harbor hosted on a traditional Downeast-style lobster boat”: cushioned bench seating, most of it covered, and a captain licensed to haul the traps while the narrators bring round what comes up.
The rule to read before anything else:
“no child (including infants and toddlers) under six years old will be permitted to join the tour. No exceptions will be granted.”
The route is Frenchman Bay, and “when sea conditions permit, many tours cruise very close to Egg Rock Light”, where the seals are. The fall schedule on its booking calendar was 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. daily, with a 2:30 p.m. on many days, to 17 October, its last trip of 2026. Cruise passengers: the operator recommends the 11:30, because the 9 a.m. is often too early to get ashore.
Worth knowing: there is no heated cabin, so blankets are sold at the ticket booth; you can bring food but no alcohol; and you may not film the lobstering part of the trip.
Miss Samantha: the family boat
Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. runs its Lobster Fishing and Seal Watching trip on the Miss Samantha, which it calls “Maine’s largest lobster passenger boat”. Half the trip is traps: a fisherman hauls them, a naturalist explains, and the crew hands round lobsters, crabs, sea cucumbers and sea stars, claws banded. Then the gear is stowed and the boat goes to a small island to watch harbor and gray seals, with a sighting average the company puts above 95 percent.
It is the one to pick with young children or a wheelchair user: all ages, a touch tank, a restroom, and the operator says the vessel is wheelchair accessible. It is also the largest of the three, at up to 60 passengers, and it has no galley. In fall 2026 it left at 10:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m., with a few 4 p.m. sailings, and its booking calendar ran to 24 October. By 26 October the company’s site read “We will see you in May 2027!”
Elizabeth T: the small boat, out of Southwest Harbor
Sail Acadia’s lobster boat is a 33-foot wooden boat built on Mount Desert Island, limited to about 16 passengers on a shared tour. It does not sail from Bar Harbor. It leaves Dysart’s Great Harbor Marina in Southwest Harbor, which the company puts about twenty minutes from Bar Harbor, and it works the other side of the island: up Somes Sound, past Bear Island Lighthouse, and out to the seals on East Bunker Ledge.
Two things set it apart. It stays in the protected water of Great Harbor, where the company says seasickness is rare. And you can bring your own beer or wine, with a cooler on board — bring your own cups. Its October departures were late morning, early afternoon and a sunset trip: on 21 October the booking calendar listed 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and a 4 to 6 p.m. sunset trip every day to Sunday 25 October, and nothing in November.
The tide decides the seals
All three boats go to a ledge where seals haul out, and what you see there turns on the tide. Lulu’s schedule page lays it out:
- Low tide: the seals are “hauled out and resting on the exposed rock ledges”. You see the most of them, doing the least.
- High tide: they are in the water “swimming, playing in the surf and feeding”.
- Mid tide: a little of each.
The lobster hauling itself is “not affected by the time of day or tide levels”.
So if photographs of seals on rocks are the point, book the departure nearest low tide. Low tide moves by about 50 minutes a day, so read it for your date from NOAA’s Bar Harbor tide predictions. The same tide runs the Bar Island crossing and Thunder Hole, at opposite ends — how that works.
NOAA Fisheries’ guideline, for boats and people alike, is to stay at least 50 yards from seals. Lulu’s pitch is that a working-style lobster boat can approach the ledges slowly and quietly enough that the seals stay on the rocks.
Which one
- Anyone under six in the party: the Miss Samantha or the Elizabeth T. Lulu will not take them.
- A wheelchair user: the Miss Samantha.
- The smallest group and the calmest water: the Elizabeth T, if you have a car to get to Southwest Harbor.
- No car, staying in Bar Harbor: the Lulu or the Miss Samantha, both a walk from the Village Green.
- After 17 October: the Miss Samantha ran to 24 October and the Elizabeth T to the 25th, the last lobster boat of 2026. The Lulu’s season was over on the 17th.
- You want whales too: none of these goes far enough out. That is the Bar Harbor whale watch, a five-hour trip.
Cancellations
All three give a full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours before departure, and none promises a refund inside that window. If the boat is canceled for weather, none of the three charges you; Sail Acadia offers a reschedule first. Lulu asks passengers to call before departure when wind or fog looks doubtful, and groups of 15 or more on the Lulu need to give 72 hours.
The Viator link below is the wider catalog of what is bookable around Bar Harbor.
.jpg){kind=link}