Portland

The Portland Observatory is located about 5 blocks from the harbour. It is built like an inland lighthouse and is a very interesting building.

They offer walking tours of the building, which we did not feel was strictly necessary, as we could have done a self-guided tour just as easily. You do, however, get to ask lots of questions, and the guides are very knowledgeable about the observatory and the Portland area.

There are about six levels to the top, and you stop at each level to see artifacts relating to the building and see pictures of how it used to look, etc. The tour is very leisurely and not at all exhausting. With the tour, you find out why and how it was built and the history of how it was saved from wood beetles and renovated.

The views from the top are great, and you can see inland as far as the White Mountains in New Hampshire, across the harbour to all the local islands, and across the Atlantic.

If you are not able bodied you may not be able to negotiate this tour as there are lots of steps, however the levels that you reach are very large and have seating and as I said it is a leisurely tours, no no rushing needed.

Personally I would have preferred to tour myself as there was lots of information available at each level for you to digest. There perhaps could be guides located a strategic points to answer specific questions. However they prefer to have someone guide you every step of the way and he was very good and we had no real complaints.