While the eastern side of  Mount Desert Island seems to gets the lion’s share of attention don’t overlook the “quiet side” of the island. If you’re looking for an ideal image of a Maine coastal village travel west of Somes Sound and visit the towns in and around Southwest Harbor and Tremont. It’s a great area with a more relaxed pace for picnics, camping, hiking, golf, shopping and sightseeing.

Downtown Southwest Harbor offers you a delightful selection of shops, restaurants and art galleries. It has an active harbor with lobstermen working their catch. From here you can take a schooner cruise, deep sea fishing excursion or go island hopping by sea taxi. You can also go boating, swimming and rent canoes and kayaks.

Part of Southwest Harbor are the villages of Manset and Seawall. Each offers activities connected with the sea. This area has earned a world famous reputation for designing and construction of quality luxury yachts.

Bring the kids to the Mount Desert Oceanarium where they can handle sea creatures like star fish, horseshoe crabs and sea snails. It’s also a great place to see exhibits about tides, weather and other fascinating facts about ocean life.

Visit the Wendell Gilley Museum of Bird Carvings and watch master carvers as they create models of birds. Gilley started carving birds as a hobby in the 1930s. Today his museum has more than 250 examples of bird carvings on display. These include chickadees, morning doves and life size eagles.

You’ll find Tremont on the western section of the island. It includes the villages of Bass Harbor, Bernard, Gotts Island, Seal Cove and West Tremont. Tremont, settled in 1762, gets its name from it French heritage. It honors the three mountains – Beech, Bernard and Mansell – that dominate the area.

Overlooking Seal Cove Pond is the auto museum that features more than 100 antinque cars and 30 classic motorcycles.

At Bass Harbor at the southern tip of the island sits the lighthouse built in 1858. Today it is a private home and you get the best view of it from the water.

Well worth the trip is a visit to Somesville at the northern tip of Somes Sound. Here you go back in history to the oldest settlement on Mount Desert Island. It got started in 1761 and remains a picturesque village overlooking the only fjord on the east coast of the U.S. Along with spectacular views of inlets and mountain, local attractions include the Acadia Repertory Theater and the often photographed footbridge near the selectmen’s building.