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Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse

4.7 (45 reviews)

Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse Photos

Recommended Reviews - Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse

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Reviews With Photos

Kurt V.

Words and photos do this place no justice. It's simply beautiful and I believe it to be the prettiest lighthouse there is. It's in a beautiful park setting and there are lots of walking trails from which to see the lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean. It's truly a must-experience kind of place!

Troy B.

This is a beautiful place to stop and check out. There is adequate parking but you do compete with tour buses. There are a few paths to walk on and the remains of an old fort. Pretty cool spot. Worth the visit.

Cape Elizabeth beach
WD S.

Cool rock beach or breakers. It was so foggy we could t see the lighthouse but it was a really cool place to see the waves.

Atlantic

The parking was so easy to navigate. The grounds were well maintained. We enjoyed the museum, gift shop and the lighthouse itself. Nice place for family visits and picnics.

Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse
Nona C.

This is a really cool place to visit. The rock formations are amazing... I thought it was wood at first. We got there mid-morning, and it was low tide. It was very interesting to see some of the largest lobster heads I'd ever scene in my life at the surface. I just wish that we would have been able to have closer access to the lighthouse, but the view was still goregous.

Rachel Macie H.

This straight up is a beautiful amazing place to spend a few hours as there's a ton of space all around the lighthouse as well as some abandoned military ruins like this whole lighthouse area was off the wall cool! Coming here I just expected the lighthouse but what I found was a lot more as our first stop was the lighthouse so we walked around for a bit took in some of the water and that beautiful view as well as the awesomeness that is the lighthouse itself. Then it was all about adventure as there are a bunch of military ruins all around with some rooms that just scream from the past making for a super cool kinda Erie vibe as well as adding to the rush history of the area. There are a few parking lots in each area that have pay as you park locations the bad thing about this is you have to stay in the lot you buy your ticket in you can't move to another so it's either that or you pay and pay again because everything here is pretty far apart. One of the coolest places we found here was the abandoned mansion it was huge and you can just feel the history being there from all the awesome brickwork that was left behind! The lighthouse though was the real winner as it was just super cool and very peaceful and soo tall it was just shedding light all over like you really can't go wrong with spending some time here! Overall super cool park lots of places to explore and just an all around mellow vibe of water rocks and history it's for that I really hope to get here again at some point as it was just amazingly beautiful and chill!

Kelly S.

Absolutely stunning lighthouse in the South Western entrance, also called the Portland Head light. Love the gothic revival architecture, cast iron and stone...very sturdy. On our visit, it was rainy and super windy... great closeups of the waves crashing on the rock formations... wish we could spend more time taking everything in.. but the weather was not cooperating.

Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse
Bruce K.

Probably the most iconic of Maine's lighthouses, the Cape Elizabeth Light was originally built as two rubble stone towers as far back as 1828 but were replaced with cast iron towers in 1874. The tower has a height of 66 feet and therefore has a range of 15 nautical miles. The property is privately owned and some amazing photos can be had from the rocky "beach" at the front that is the official "Cape Elizabeth". It is surprisingly easy to walk on if it is dry. A marking lot with room for 30+ vehicles is at the end of Two Lights Road. This is a beautiful lighthouse and worth coming to visit but wasn't my favorite of the 18 we photographed this weekend. If you want a lighthouse that is more up close and personal, the Portland Head Light in Fort Williams (6 miles away, you can just about see it from here) would be my recommendation. [Review 14907 overall, 409 of 2021, number 89 in Maine.]

Jordan O.

It's a very picturesque lighthouse. You cannot go inside the lighthouse though. But if you want that iconic view of Portland (which to be fair I had no idea involved this lighthouse until we were there) this is the place to do it.

Best skipping rocks ever!
Tom V.

So it's a lighthouse, right? The Maine coast has tons of them, and a lot of them don't operate, but they make for great Instagram fodder, yes? Well, not really. This is *so* much more. To begin with, this is one of the most accessible lighthouse 'parks' you can hit near Portland, and family-friendly. I love Nubble, but those rocks are treacherous. THIS is quite the opposite, with cut granite laid out as both a breaker and a quasi-beach, not without its perils but WAY more passable than Nubble. With the tides out, small pools give way to little finds, housing marine life and watchables. With the tides coming in, the rocks serve to create lots Winslow Homer-ish pictures, waves crashing, sea foam and whatnot. Additionally, a small cove to the east has a calm inlet, with maybe the world's best array of flat stones for skipping. Yes, I know, it takes years for a stone to wash ashore, but, well, skipping stones. Beat the boy's record of 9 hops. You don't get close to this lighthouse, but the view is spectacular. The whole park is just so Maine. The small restaurant next to the parking will serve you up a lobstah roll, and the climate is just perfect in summer. I think I filled up gigs on my smartphone with pics aplenty, because there are keeper photo ops everywhere at Cape Elizabeth.

Judy A.

Just a perfect day to enjoy a picnic lunch and watch the boats go by. The Portland Head light is the main reason tourist come hundreds of miles to visit. But us locals love the beautiful head light, the gardens and paths along the rocky coastline. We arrived early and found a picnic table overlooking the ocean. Setting up our chairs, putting a table cloth on our table we enjoyed our day. The park does charge for parking. So make sure you decide how long you want to visit. We decided 4 hours would be perfect!

Mike S.

Beautiful views and plenty of walking paths. There were a few food trucks there as well so no problem getting food or dessert (gelato).

Shelley H.

Beautiful walks and lighthouse. Parking $2 per hour, credit card only. Masks and distancing required. No hand sanitizer at the portapotty.

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Review Highlights - Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse

It's been called "Portland Head Light" ever since George Washington himself commissioned it in the late 1700s.

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Portland Head Light - Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light

4.8(365 reviews)
0.3 mi

Definitely visit this if you are in Portland, especially on a sunny day. As much as the Lighthouse…read moreis iconic, the scenery around it is mind blowing. You can also take a walk along the cliff to enjoy the view from multiple directions. It is a good spot for picnic as well, and there are a couple of locations which are close to the water as well. Plenty of parking available, there are multiple parking lots along the property. Definitely recommend it.

While in Portland for lunch, we stopped in some small shops in the area and the lovely lady at the…read moreshop recommended that we check out the lighthouse. She said it was only about 15 minutes from the shop and we decided we would go check it out. The Portland Head Light is one of their most famous light houses according to the locals. It was very cold there but what a sight! We walked round the light house, checked out the cliff sides and walked on the trail. It was a gorgeous day (freezing but beautiful) with the perfect skies for photos of the light house. We were able to read the historic plaques, see the cliffs and the water crashing below us. After visiting the Head Light, we went over to the other portion in Fort WIlliams Park and checked out the old house, military storage areas and I even went down and touched the ice cold Atlantic ocean water that was crashing on the beach. If you are in the area I would highly suggest visiting the Portland Head Light. We were there in the late evening about an hour prior to closing so the coffee truck wasn't open but they do have a coffee & gelato stand right near the Light House. It was an amazing experience and much different than light houses I have seen on the West Coast.

Photos
Portland Head Light - Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light

Portland Head Light - Lighthouse view

Lighthouse view

Portland Head Light - Portland Head Light

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Portland Head Light

Portland Observatory - Outside near entrance

Portland Observatory

4.5(59 reviews)
3.6 miEast End

Lovely visit to the Portland Observatory…read more We had intended on a self-tour but were told that self tours would start at 4:30pm...and that before that time, you would have to take a toured guide up the tower. As there was a scheduled guide about to start soon...we opted to take the guided tour. At that time (mid-week in late August around 12pm) there were only four of us on that tour. Our tour guide, an older woman, was wonderful. As we ascended the tower during the 45-minute tour, we stopped off at each floor and she explained a bit about the tower and its history. Lots of interesting facts! We made it to the top to take in some amazing views of the area. Tours are $10 for adults, $5 for ages 6-16 and free for those 5 and under. The stairs (there are about 100) throughout the tower are spiral-ish...so be careful of your foot placement on the narrowed parts of each step while ascending and descending. Street parking signs can be a bit tricky in the area reading "...no parking on the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th ___day of the month..." Be sure to properly read those signs and park accordingly.

My plans only have me in town for two days, so I asked my local coworker one sight I had to see…read morewith a short time frame, and was sent here. Just a fun little local tip. The history itself is cool enough: this was a lookout for ships coming into the harbor before radio, and is the oldest currently standing in the USA. But I really appreciated the elevation for getting a good look of the downtown and harbor area, walking around the tower in the breeze and seeing the ocean peaking through the islands in the harbor. Worth the $10 to the top. (Note: the stairs are steep and there's no room inside for an elevator. We're talking large curving internal staircases. Maybe not for those with mobility issues.)

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Portland Observatory
Portland Observatory
Portland Observatory

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Victoria Mansion - Master Bedroom

Victoria Mansion

4.2(83 reviews)
3.3 miWest End

What an impressive place to visit! The history is fantastic and I'm glad it didn't get torn down…read moreduring the last 100 years. We bought tickets during Christmas time to also see the amazing decorations. At $20 a ticket it was a good deal. It is a self guided tour so you can spend as little or as much time as you want. They do have people stationed at certain spots where you can ask questions and they give you some history. It was a beautiful and def something worth trying at least once.

**November 2025: Friday Morning Visit**…read more I saw that the Victoria Mansion was just a 10 minute walk from our airbnb and that Black Friday was the start of their Christmas overlay! It sounded fun and for $19.25 (Adult Admission) I was excited to see how they would implement the Nutcracker theme to the home. Guests enter through the gift shop and while we arrived at 10:10am or so I was really surprised at how many visitors they had checking out the home. As a National Historic Landmark, this summer home was created by Ruggles Morses, sometime between 1858-1860, and as a hotel entrepreneur Morses implemented many of the lavish hotel designs to it. The home itself is original and over 90% of the interiors and furnishings remain original to 1860, including furniture, carpets, draperies, textiles, which was really impressive. I think I spent about 45 minutes admiring all the home details and reading the placards, and there were friendly informative docents at pretty much each section of the home These photos don't even really do it justice, but the decorations were extremely elaborate and each room focused on a different act in the ballet - ie. Spanish Chocolates, Mother Ginger, Arabian Coffee, Chinese Tea, etc. There was significant care given to each room. Overall, I had fun time!

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Victoria Mansion - Christmas '23

Christmas '23

Victoria Mansion
Victoria Mansion - Turkish smoking room

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Turkish smoking room

Love Locks - Oh, Love Locks, how much we loved the time you were with us!

Love Locks

4.0(6 reviews)
3.2 miOld Port

"General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't…read moresee that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends... If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around." This quote, from none other than Prime Minister Hugh Grant of "Love Actually" perfectly explains Love Locks here in Portland. Up until February 2013 it was just a fence... a nondescript fence that hundreds of thousands of people passed every year without a second glance... until one night some drunken friends decided to buy padlocks, write a dedication to a loved one on it (for one of the original women, that included her husband and two dogs), lock it on the fence, then dispose of the key. Portland has such a European (where this idea originated from) feel to it, that it only makes sense for us to have our own version of Love Locks, too! Some folks think it's an eye sore... I think it's lovely. So lovely in fact that I may or may not have a lock up there myself (and I may or may not have thrown my key over the fence into the ocean... which I now realize isn't entirely eco-friendly. Dear fishies, please be careful grazing on any new sparkly snacks you might have recently found!). What can I say? I love love. And I love the ocean. And I love this city. And I love romantic gestures. And I love the strong bonds people have with other people, places, and pets. And I love unique forms of art. And I love pretty things. Don't you? Who knows if our Love Locks will stand the test of time. If, over the years, the locks begin to rust and become an eye sore instead of love lore, I would think the city might take it down. So come leave a lock of love for your loved one (be that your mom, your sister, your pet rabbit, your favorite coffee drink, or yourself) now... or at least take the time to read some of the proclamations of passion permanently padlocked here in Portland!

They're locks... on a fence. That's 5 stars right there. haha They're right in the middle of the…read moreOld Port and it was cool seeing it since I've never seen a love locks fence before in person. It is small and insignificant for most, but for it to have a yelp listing -- I had to check it out. They are tons of locks on it and most of them looked recent with in the year. That poor fence is holding on for dear life. If you're a lover want to lock it in -- put a lock on the love locks fence to make it official. That's more lasting than facebook official. Story has it that once you lock it up, that you toss the key in the water over the fence after the fact. Superstition has it that once you lose the key -- your love is locked together forever.

Photos
Love Locks - This was taken before there were so many locks you couldn't even see the fence anymore (which was eventually taken down anyway).

This was taken before there were so many locks you couldn't even see the fence anymore (which was eventually taken down anyway).

Love Locks - My mom put a lock up for me, her, and my sister!

My mom put a lock up for me, her, and my sister!

Love Locks - Locks of love.

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Locks of love.

Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse - landmarks - Updated May 2026

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