250 Main Hotel — Our Lovely Coast

I rarely make hotel recommendations, if only because I know what a privilege it is to stay almost anywhere.

I make an exception here, because our love of Rockland is inextricably linked to our experience of 250 Main.

Our first visit was in 2017, only our third-ever visit to Rockland, when the hotel itself was the new business in town. We started to work it into our Rockland itinerary whenever we’d visit: on weeknights, in the off-season.

It won our allegiance at first with its cheerful rooms, with their midcentury-nautical decor. And the beds! So comfortable that I inquired about the make of the mattress and pillows to try to recreate the delicious slumber for myself at home. Alas, the bed I put together is not the same.

250 Main works with local artists to curate an informal gallery throughout its halls: it’s been a treat to visit season after season and see what’s on. We love our introverted ritual of claiming our happy-hour glass of wine and wandering up the stairs, around the lobbies, admiring what new art adorns the walls.

The hotel has a small staff of the most thoughtful individuals, gracious and humorous and good. They’ve celebrated with us: new jobs, birthdays, and other anniversaries.

From the roof deck, Rockland Harbor sprawls expansively, luminous and blue. The Camden Hills ripple over the horizon line, and the Breakwater Lighthouse seems to float in the bay, blinking diminutively there off in the distance. On one occasion, we emerged from the stairwell into a rainbow’s end.