For accommodations and hotel dining in Portland, check out the 101-room Portland Harbor Hotel. It is located in the city’s Waterfront District, within walking distance of many downtown boutique shops, art galleries, eateries, museums and wharfs where fishing, ferry and sightseeing boats make the area a vibrant and exciting place to visit year-round.

The hotel itself was built in 2002. An addition in 2008 added six rooms, a fitness center and retail space. In 2017 the AAA Four Diamond hotel completed extensive renovations, creating a distinctive interior design using a pleasant navy, khaki and white nautical décor; custom-made Thomas Moser furniture; hardwood floors; and individual pantries on each floor offering Starbucks touch-screen machines with complimentary morning coffee for guests.

Our king room was filled with a pretty, mahogany-stained wooden desk and standing clothes cabinet, with two comfortable upholstered chairs, pine floors, and a TV mounted above the desk. Portland’s winter sunlight, so bright and sharp in the cold air, flowed through the bedroom windows, leaving no doubt that the sea was close by.

The lobby has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Fore Street, and original artwork from Maine artists hangs from lobby walls, hallways and within guestrooms, including Geoff Herguth’s kinetic lobby sculpture in the grand stairway; Angela Adams’ handcrafted nautical flags in frames above the hotel’s beds; and Jim Dugan’s monochromatic maritime photography in public spaces throughout the hotel.

The property’s signature dining venue, BlueFin, offers a varied menu of locally caught seafood and seasonal dishes. In keeping with Maine native and executive chef Gil Plaster’s uniquely Maine point of view, menu choices at BlueFin strongly highlight the state’s bounty of fresh seafood and local ingredients. Our dinner at BlueFin included lobster salad, seared scallops with Parmesan risotto, Atlantic halibut, seared tuna, roasted potatoes and the house salad. The BlueFin dining room provides a fireplace for winter evenings and overlooks an outdoor courtyard for dining alfresco in the summer months, when the courtyard transforms into a lush garden oasis with an arbor of grapevines, crab apple trees and a decorative pool.

Portland Harbor Hotel

468 Fore St.
Portland, ME 04104
tel 207 755 9090
portlandharborhotel.com