There’s something different about life in Maine — something invigorating, rejuvenating and sort of romantic. Maybe that’s why you’re considering visiting or relocating there. It’s a feeling of independence and freedom that grabs when you cross the state line into Kittery at the tip of the state’s Southern Coast; you feel it, but you can’t exactly put your finger on it.

Indeed, the attitudes and personalities of Southern Maine are colored in as many shades of gray as its legendary craggy outcrops and the pre-snow sky above Kennebunk. It’s a sensibility that’s been hard-earned through history by the people who have chosen to live in a state the first English colonists called “uninhabitable” because of the rugged winter that greedily consumed as much of the calendar as it could.

You’ve come to the right place to find out all there is to know about this mixed metaphor of an area — where rugged individualism is tempered by the welcoming spirit of a major tourist destination. This is the online version of the second edition of The Insiders’ Guide^® to Maine’s Southern Coast. It will put you on track to get the most out of your vacation or relocation experience. Tracing the southern tip of the torch that is the Pine Tree State, our guide explores the coast from the outlet malls of Kittery through the oceanside summer playgrounds of York, the Kennebunks and Old Orchard Beach, on to one of the state’s leading commercial and cultural centers, Greater Portland, then northeast through Brunswick, Bath and Boothbay Harbor — areas where shipbuilding and lobstering remain, as they have been for generations, staples of the local economy and everyday life.

Written by local Insiders, this complete guide offers individual chapters on shopping (including the outlet malls of Kittery and Freeport, home of legendary outfitters L.L. Bean), nightlife, attractions, Southern Maine’s natural world and colorful history, the arts scene (with information on famous Maine authors such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriett Beecher Stowe and terror-meister Stephen King), kidstuff, retirement and much more.

So get set to do some exploring. It’s all here — lighthouses and lobster bibs, colonial architecture and collegiate culture, summer amusement parks and leaf-peepin’ paradise. We think you’ll enjoy the trip.