Calais, Maine: Lodging, Shopping & Dining Guide

Calais, ME is a small city in eastern Maine's Washington county. It offers a variety of dining, lodging, and shopping establishments, including two motels, a college, grocery stores, parks, and several restaurants. It is just across the river from the Canadian town of St. Stephen.

LODGING: The lodging establishments of Calais include the International Motel, which offers rooms with a view of the St. Croix River and has a website at theinternationalmotel.com, and the Calais Motor Inn, which features an olympic-sized indoor swimming pool and health spa. According to the Calais Motor Inn's website (calaismotorinn.com), it also offers a restaurant which serves all three meals each day. There is a bed & breakfast, as well as a campground. Some additional lodging (including a motel and an inn) is available in neighboring St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

DINING: Restaurants in Calais, Maine offer a good variety of dining. They include the Kwong Wah Chinese restaurant, the Main Street Diner (take-out or eat-in), Border Town Subz, The Sandwich Man (has lobster), the Hightower Steakhouse (also serves seafood), and several fast food franchises; there is a McDonald's, Burger King, and Dunkin' Donuts. There are a couple of pubs as well. Calais also has a Subway sandwich restaurant. A pay phone is located down the street from the steakhouse.

SHOPPING: Most types of shopping are possible in Calais. Stores include Bells IGA groceries (shopbellsiga.com), a Shop n' Save grocery store, a Family Dollar discount store, a Wal-Mart store, Clark's Variety, a Rite Aid pharmacy (has one-hour photo developing), Movie Gallery (rental), Johnson's True Value Hardware, an Ace Home Center, EBS Building Supply & Hardware, a paint store, a book shop, The Urban Moose (gifts, jewelry), a sporting goods shop, a model ship store, Marden's Furniture & Flooring, Just Ask rental, JZ Media (satellite, HDTV, and computer services), Eastern Maine Appliance, and Yesterday's Antiques. There is a farmer's market on Tuesdays. Some shopping is possible in nearby Baileyville, Maine and St. Stephen, NB.

MEDIA: Calais, Maine has a local newspaper, the Calais Advertiser (the-calais-advertiser.com). There are some TV transmitters in Calais which rebroadcast stations in central Maine's larger cities, a Maine Public Radio station, and "Classic Hits" 92.7 (wqdy.fm).

AUTO: Automotive-related businesses include Calais Tire & Auto Supply (provides U-Haul truck rental), Roger's Auto Sales, and O'Brien's Quality Auto Care. There are several gas stations, including two Irving/Mainway stores (these usually have a good variety of convenience items and bathrooms available to customers) and two Shell stations. Calais has a taxi service as well.

EDUCATION: Washington County Community College is located in Calais, Maine on College Drive.
According to a pamphlet about the college, it offers business management, computer-related, medical assistant, education-related, and other types of Associate Degree programs, along with various certificates. There are also elementary, middle, and high schools.

PARKS: Calais has a fairly large park with playground equipment, wooden benches, and a monument. There is also a smaller park along the river; it has several benches and picnic tables. A walkway along the river starts next to the smaller park. The Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, which has an eagle nest observation area, is located in the smaller neighboring town of Baring.

OTHER: There is also a visitor information center, a museum, a fairly large public library (on Union Street; wi-fi wireless internet access is available there, according to its website calais.lib.me.us), the Calais Veterinary Clinic, a hair salon, the Downeast Heritage Center, a Curves franchise, an assisted living home (New Horizons), the Eastern Maine Electrical Cooperative, several churches, a Knights of Columbus council, multiple banks, eye care, a VA Clinic, the Calais Veterans Memorial Auditorium, the Olympia Fitness Center, a post office, various state government offices, an industrial park, a self-storage facility, and a few other establishments.

Other cities and towns in this region of Maine include Machias (almost as large as Calais, has a university), Baileyville (has some restaurants, a motel, a grocery store), Eastport (plenty of dining, shopping, lodging), Cutler (much smaller), and Lubec (fairly good variety of dining and lodging; see visitlubecmaine.com).

For more information on Calais, see their town website at calaismaine.govoffice.com.