A waterfront scene featuring a wooden boardwalk in the foreground. Several boats are docked along the water, including a large tour boat with passengers on the upper deck. The water reflects the buildings and boats, creating a picturesque view. In the background, there are multi-story buildings and trees, with a clear sky above. The area appears to be a lively and popular spot, possibly a marina or harbor.
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July 4th Vacation: Portland, Maine and the Embassy Suites Portland Airport

ByThe Miles Professor

Our vacation to Maine over July 4th weekend started in the waterfront town of Portland, Maine. This is where we spent July 4th and watched the fireworks. Portland is about 3 hours from Acadia National Park and our itinerary included an evening there before our trip to Acadia and Bar Harbor the next day.

This is part of a trip report series, where I cover the var­i­ous parts of our five day vaca­tion includ­ing how we planned the whole thing for under $200 after using miles and points:

We used Hilton points to stay at the Embassy Suites Portland Airport when most hotels in town were sold out. Rates at the Embassy Suites were also quite high at $259 a night. We didn’t know this at the time when we were planning our trip, but there happened to be a big July 4th event with Don McLean performing. 

After a pleasant and simple train and bus to get to Portland for 4,000 Amtrak points per person (not driving this part was the best decision ever made on this trip!), we arrived at the Portland bus terminal. We grabbed a cab to the airport 10 minutes away to get our car. Car check-in at Hertz was pretty quick and we were off to the Embassy Suites. 

Embassy Suites Portland Airport

The Embassy Suites is right next to the airport and extremely easy to find. It’s an all-suite hotel and our room had a separate living room and bedroom. 

We used 50,000 Hilton HHonors points from my friend Jeff to stay at the hotel. He booked from his wife’s account, a Diamond member, but noted that I will be the one checking in. Usually, Hilton Gold and Diamond members receive some extended benefits such as free breakfast, possible room upgrades and internet access. The hotel already offers a manager’s reception with snacks, a breakfast buffet and wireless internet included in all room rates. We also got a room on the highest floor (4th), but I didn’t question at the front desk whether it was an upgrade mainly because it wasn’t particularly relevant to me for this one-night stay. I only mention this to highlight that I don’t know whether my room or stay would have differed either without the status or if I had discussed upgrade possibility. When we entered the room, there was a note welcoming Jeff’s wife and a few snacks.

Downtown Portland

The Portland downtown is quaint with a picturesque waterfront marina area with many restaurants offering all kinds of lobster rolls, lobster bakes, clam chowder with lobster and lobster in any form you want. We stopped at one of the restaurants along the water and had a nice dinner enjoying the view.

Portland in Maine
The waterfront and the streets of Portland, Maine

Funding the vacation while on vacation

The road that leads from the Embassy Suites to downtown Portland actually has a convenient CVS on the way. We stopped at that CVS each time we drove on that road to buy some Vanilla Reloads. It only took 10 minutes each time, but we earned more than enough Citi ThankYou points to pay for our flights back to New York… which, of course, we had already booked with ThankYou points as part of the travel plan! It’s far more important to enjoy the vacation than worry about funding the vacation with Vanilla Reloads, but given that each stop took us only about 10 minutes each time, it was worth the fun.

July 4th Fireworks

After dinner, we took a walk along the water to the promenade area where over 30,000 people were gathered to watch the Don McLean performance followed by fireworks. He, of course, wasn’t as good as he was in 1972 when the original American Pie came out, but it was still a cool experience and we definitely enjoyed the fireworks

Fireworks in Maine
Fireworks in Maine

Final thoughts

If I were planning to visit Portland again and had the option, I’d probably stay at one of the hotels on the waterfront in Portland just to have everything available in one place. There are a few Hiltons and Marriotts locations there, but they were sold out by the time I started planning the vacation. Since we were only in Portland for one night and leaving the next morning to go to Acadia, location wasn’t too important for us and we were perfectly happy with the Embassy Suites by the airport.

In terms of transportation, we really liked taking the train and the bus. Our train to Portland left at 8:30 am. Although it was longer, there was little frustration factor involved. Trains leave right from Penn Station and we both agreed the transition onto a train in the morning is much smoother than the rush and hassle of morning flights. The bus itself was also pleasant and went by relatively quickly. We arrived in Portland in the early afternoon with plenty of time for dinner, walks on the waterfront and an evening out with fireworks. And it’s very hard to beat 4,000 Ultimate Rewards points in terms of price!

Check out the rest of the Maine and Aca­dia National Park trip report about our vaca­tion to Maine and how we planned the whole thing for under $200 by using miles and points: 

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