Bath or Belfast Maine? (Portland, Bangor: real estate, homes, buy)

[flipflopdreamer]

Can anyone advise me which Town would be a better town to live in ....

I understand that is a question depending on my requirements, but I just want other peoples opinions on both...

Many thanks,

[Elcarim]

As a person moving "from away", we visited both on our home town searching trip in March. Bath was too big for what we're looking for, and being bigger, had a more suburban feel. We thought it was definitely not as quaint or as clean as Belfast. It felt much more industrial and a little dingy.

Belfast was crisp, clean and more laid back. It's our idea of a more pristine community. Of course, only spending a week there, we may be a little overly optimistic in our expectations of the town, but we had a much better feeling there. It just felt more home-town like to us.

I think if you visit, you'll know right off which best suits your lifestyle.

[flipflopdreamer]

Thanks EL,

I tend to agree with you - and will visit again soon

[BacktoNE]

Bath is a nice little city, but I prefer Belfast. Less congested, therefore quieter and is still easy access to many other locations. Bangor is just 40 minutes north. Waterville is 55 minutes west.

[sunshin1]

I am a 69 yr old who was brought up in Bath, Maine from the year of 1942 till I married in 1957. I graduated from Morse High School in Bath. After 20 yrs of grfollowing my husband in the military, it came to the decision of where we would retire. After many choices from all over the US, we decided to come back to this area. Although we live in Woolwich, which is just over the bridge from Bath, we travel to Bath almost daily. It is a beautiful city with so many historic homes, a beautiful park with Gazebo, and the Maritime Museum. With a population of only 9000 + it is truly a small town with excellent library, shopping facilities. Bath is really my home and with the downtown shopping experience as it is, there is everything you could want or need in the area. The people have changed since I grew up here - and that is a good thing. Younger people have settled here. Yes, lots of yuppies! but then some of my children are yuppies and they are fine people. The Kennebec River is also a plus - the waterfront park is a peaceful place. In July there is always the Heritage Days event which features a parade, art shows, food concessions, concerts of different types of music and many other craft shows, band concerts, fireworks, etc. Tourists abound and that is a minor grief for locals as far as traffic and parking, etc. But we seem to manage to keep a good humor about it. In September we have the area to ourselves. The weather is not as severe as other locales in Maine, since it is more or less on the coast. Hope that this has been helpful to you.

[sunshin1]

[quote=sunshin1;1377907]I am a 69 yr old who was brought up in Bath, Maine from the year of 1942 till I married in 1957. I graduated from Morse High School in Bath. After 20 yrs of grfollowing my husband in the military, it came to the decision of where we would retire. After many choices from all over the US, we decided to come back to this area. Although we live in Woolwich, which is just over the bridge from Bath, we travel to Bath almost daily. It is a beautiful city with so many historic homes, a beautiful park with Gazebo, and the Maritime Museum. With a population of only 9000 + it is truly a small town with excellent library, shopping facilities. Bath is really my home and with the downtown shopping experience as it is, there is everything you could want or need in the area. The people have changed since I grew up here - and that is a good thing. Younger people have settled here. Yes, lots of yuppies! but then some of my children are yuppies and they are fine people. The Kennebec River is also a plus - the waterfront park is a peaceful place. In July there is always the Heritage Days event which features a parade, art shows, food concessions, concerts of different types of music and many other craft shows, band concerts, fireworks, etc. Tourists abound and that is a minor grief for locals as far as traffic and parking, etc. But we seem to manage to keep a good humor about it. In September we have the area to ourselves. The weather is not as severe as other locales in Maine, since it is more or less on the coast. Hope that this has been helpful to you

[TTSquare]

Bath or Belfast.....hmmm, two very different parts of Maine. Belfast is an neat town but its economy is a bit iffy. The further east you go in Maine, except for Bar Harbor, the tougher the local economy becomes. The plus to this is that you can buy real estate more cheaply and live on a little less, but the drawback is that you may need to live on a little less when it comes to job hunting. Belfast has an interesting downtown, but so does Bath, and, if you like industry as part of your community's mix, than Bath has that in the form of BIW (Navy ship builder). Bath has the Kennebec River while Belfast has its own harbor and Penobscot Bay. Bath has easy access to Brunswick and Portland, Belfast really only has Bangor as Waterville is a bit of a drive and then, sorry to say, there ain't much there when you get there. Rockland is a good destination now, so I'd include that as a plus. So, depends on how you envision your life in a small Maine community. Both towns will treat you well, and Maine is still just a great place to live (I'm into my 38th year of it now and don't have any intention of pulling up stakes, not even if my wife says we should!). Good luck