After two weeks and more than 10,000 votes, Boston.com readers have crowned New England’s top suntanning enclave in its Battle of New England Beach Towns bracket – Ogunquit, Maine.
“From an original bracket of 32 towns spanning five states, the contest ultimately ended in a Maine battle between Ogunquit and Bar Harbor during the championship round,” says Boston.com’s top travel writer Kristi Palma.
Ogunquit’s road to the top began by breaking into the sweet sixteen by beating No. 29 seed Revere by 2,866 votes.
The sixteen towns in round two represented Maine, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
Ogunquit then beat No. 13 seed Newport by 148 votes.
The beach battle heated up even more in round three, with eight remaining towns in Maine, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
Ogunquit beat No. 5 seed Provincetown by 90 votes.
That brought the final four, where it was Maine against Massachusetts: Bar Harbor vs. Edgartown and Ogunquit against Eastham.
No. 6 seed Bar Harbor beat No. 2 Edgartown by 29 votes and No. 4 Ogunquit beat No. 9 Eastham by 115 votes.
That left Ogunquit and Bar Harbor in the championship round. Pretty amazing, two Maine towns beating beaches such as Martha’s Vineyard.
“The competition was tough between the two beach town heavyweights,” Palma said. “After all, Ogunquit was named one of the world’s top vacation spots by Real Simple for its ‘peaceful charm’ and Bar Harbor was named among the most beautiful beach towns in the world by Travel + Leisure for its ‘blend of human-made and natural beauty.’”
Ogunquit took the crown after beating Bar Harbor by 468 votes.
Laid-back Ogunquit where the motto is the gayer the better and Bar Harbor’s stay out the cruise ships.
Pay attention folks .
Number twenty nine becomes number ten becomes NUMBER 1 .
THIS right here is how the Ranked Choice Voting Scam works .
Ha ha ha ha ha …..WHAT A F”%king JOKE .
The Maine LGBTQ+++ Alliance WINS AGAIN !
LOL
The picture would not appeal to the “fellows” who usually “hang out” at that beach….
Something don’t smell right here. :/
As with Playboy Magazine, I only read the article and didn’t look at the photo. 🤥
i always heard if you drop your wallet in ogunquit, you better kick it to kennebunk.
Bar Harbor is a great place to visit – until you find that the nearest parking spot is in Trenton.
Less hipness in BH? Less tourist creatures up here in Downeast isn’t always a bad thing….
They obviously used RCV, that’s how you win if you are a loser
Bar Harbor is not a beach town. It has one tiny beach. Bar Harbor has 95% rocky coastline. I’m glad Ogunquit won because Bar Harbor is always crowded let the tourists stay in southern Maine.
The fact that Revere beach was a contender was all I needed to know.
Revere Beach is a good place to go if you wanna get knifed, or have a brawl with the cops…
Years ago My wife, 2 young kids, and I would spent a week each summer at Ogunquit until there got to be too much male to male public spit swapping.
Bar Harbor is for the true Mainers-Ogunquit is for the people who want a little dirty fun and not really a good place to take your kids. Better stay in Kennebunk or York to visit Nubble Light. My friends and I call Ogunquit Camp Daisy Chain and the traffic is insane.