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planning a trip to St Michaels

3K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  swampcreek 
#1 · (Edited)
My family and I are planning our vacation for the summer, and we decided on St Michaels as our destination. We have been to the town before by land, but this will be our first trip by sea. I was curious on some feedback about Harbour Inn Marina and St Michaels Marina. How are the restaurants, atmosphere, amenities, etc?

any general info about the area, things to look for, etc. is also appreciated
 
#2 ·
In a word? NICE! We sailed in from the Miles and only motored the little way into SM's harbor. Small but well protected. The Museum of course is the largest draw. You may want to check and see if there are some activities planned that coincide with your visit, otherwise it could be boring for the kids. (if you have kids) The dinghy dock is a short walk to the local Acme market. The big local seafood restaurant is "family" dining type place. When we were there I did not know they don't take Credit cards until I tried to use one. (it may have changed) The whole town is very expensive AND marina's are murder on the pocket book. We anchored right across from the museum and really enjoyed the stay. UNTIL we pulled the anchor which took 2 of us bouncing and puling to break it free. HARD MUD!

ps; the burgers at Carpenter street Tavern were the best I've ever had.
our trip was 2 years ago.
 
#4 ·
We stayed at St. Michaels Harbour Inn Marina last summer. The employees were very friendly; however the restaurant (we had breakfast) was disappointing. Service was extremely slow and the food was only OK. If you have a slip you get 25% off the restaurant bill (excluding alcohol). We ate dinner across the way at St. Michaels Crab House (at that marina) and that was fun. Food was good.

The major entertainment while eating lunch at the tavern was a minor fender bender out front that brought out almost the entire fire department.
 
#5 ·
The Harbor Inn Marina and the St. Michaels Marina are pretty comparable in facilities. Both have small pools, on site restaurants, clean bathrooms, etc. They're both walkable to the town and museum, though the St. Michaels marina has a slight edge in proximity. The Harbor Inn could probably be considered more family friendly due to not having two outdoor bars right near the docks. Cheap dockage is available at the Maritime Museum with a membership, but there's no pool.

If you're not in that part of the Bay often, you should definitely visit the Wye and drop the hook in Dividing or Granary Creeks. From there you can dinghy to Wye Island, most of which is a state park. Shaw Bay in the Wye and Leeds and Hunting Creeks in the Miles are also great, relatively unspoiled anchorages.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I heartily endorse this idea. St Mikes is a great place to visit by boat and I've stayed at both of the marina's you mention. Both are very nice and have nice restaurants on site. I prefer St Michaels Marina to Harbor Inn and Marina, but both are stupid expensive in my book. I may be a parsimonius sailor, but I hate paying almost $100/night for the pleasure of sleeping on my own boat.

San Domigo Creek is a wonderful anchorage providing full access to all the attractions of St Mikes at the cost of a short ride from the anchorage to the dingy dock and a 2 or 3 block walk to town. Its about the same distance you'd walk from the marina's for comparison sake.

Carpenter St Saloon or Ava's if you want pizza are great lunch stops and the places at the marina's or the Crab Claw are good for Dinner.

I haven't yet tried it but the Inn at Perry Cabin is on our list to and is supposed to be outstanding.
 
#9 ·
I'll put in a plug for staying at the Museum

(with the caveat that I haven't done it for a couple of years) You have to be a member at the contributing level and anymore you need reservations. They have showers and electric and after they close down at night the grounds are still open to you. It's lovely and peaceful and very accessible to the town. There is a page on their website with information for boaters.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
 
#12 ·
(with the caveat that I haven't done it for a couple of years) You have to be a member at the contributing level and anymore you need reservations. They have showers and electric and after they close down at night the grounds are still open to you. It's lovely and peaceful and very accessible to the town. There is a page on their website with information for boaters.
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Becoming a member to use the museum slips is quite a bit less than the cost of a slip at one of the marinas and you support the museum. The museum, however, only takes slip reservations two weeks in advance. But (don't tell), if you call at midnight exactly two weeks ahead and leave a message, they take the reservations in order of the messages that are left.
 
#13 ·
Wye river

Sail over to the Wye River . Great anchorage in Shaw Bay and Dividing Creek. About a 2 hour sail from St Michaels

Even further up rheSus is great but iamsworn to secrecy.

Dave
 
#14 ·
I've taken the dingy from Shaw Bay to St Michaels and also have come in from the "back door", however the last 3 visits I anchored right in the harbour by the museum. I would not suggest that during a weekend. but on the weekdays the crowds would be less. We joined the museum for a yearly fee of some where around $100? and for the next year got to visit the museum for free and also to use their dingy dock which is away from the crowded dock in the town harbour. That dingy dock was about a 100 yards from where we anchored so the motor was not even needed. Oh....that trip back to shaw bay via dingy can get pretty rough at night should the wind pick up so it was nice finding a spot right in town.
 
#15 ·
Can't offer any info about the marinas you mention...we always anchor out when in St. Michaels.

- The Crab Claw The Crab Claw Restaurant, St. Michaels Maryland good steamed crabs and oysters, keep in mind they only accept cash, no credit cards
- Blue Crab Coffee for a light breakfast and espresso
- Inn at Perry's Cabin Inn at Perry Cabin | Weekend getaways and vacations on the Eastern Shore, Maryland | St Michaels Luxury Resort and Spa They offer breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. Stay the night for a luxurious evening ashore

If you choose to anchor, as some already mentioned, in the harbor or off Parrot Point. I have not anchored in Leeds Creek but have explored it by dingy, draft over 5' may be a concern going through the inlet? I bet it would be a nice place to set the hook if the hustle and bustle of town is not your thing.
 
#16 ·
Inn at Perry Cabin is my favorite. Crab Claw is good,,,just have to bring cash as no cc accepted. Shawn is spot on

We are members of the museum which does allow free docking first comne first serve. Just be aware when you go off into town you may come back to find a bunch of touristas climbing all over your boat having their picture taken, They woke us up one morning while still sleeping doing this. Thought this only happened on Ego Alley.

We like to anchor in Santo Domingo Creek and walk to town when we want peach and quiet. This is a Choptak River way in to St Mikes
 
#17 ·
We took our boat down 2 years ago for a few day's during Labor Day week (We arrived AFTER Labor Day). We stayed at St. Michaels Marina, you can't miss it it has American and British flags all over it. It was a little pricey (I think $80 a night for our 26' boat) they are VERY nice people and hey, your in a touristy place to begin with, they do deliver a paper in the morning to your boat which is a nice touch (Even if it was the Washington Post, we'd of prefered the Washington Times) and the bathroom facilities are nice. Our slip was right off the bar (I forgot the name) it was very convenient and the bar isn't overly loud and closes pretty early. We descovered our favorite wine at the St. Michaels Winery, it's called "Gollywobbler", it's named from one of the sails that the old racing log canoes used. My wife prefers the pink, I'm more into the red. Obviously others believe it's a good wine as well, after checking around we found it's sold in a lot of liquer stores over here on the Western Shore.

We weren't too impressed with the Crab Claw. To be fair they are suppossed to have great steamed crabs, but I went down to St .Michaels expecting a giant soft crab sandwich. I figured "hey, we're in the heart of crab country, we should find some monstorous soft crabs down here!". I was very disapointed, not only at the Crab Claw but we didn't find anything that even came close to Arundel Seafood that is 2-3 miles from our house. The Crab Claw's soft crab platter was shameful, I got what looked like 2 over cooked patato chips with legs and some side dishes, I had to ask for bread to build something that resembled a soft crab sandwich. Additionally, during a bumper season for crabs they had a notice in the menu warning of elevated prices due to the limited harvests they were experiencing. Then we found out that they didn't accept credit cards and it was off to their ATM to pay a much higher than normal fee to use it. Again everyone raves about their steamed crabs so maybe I ordered too far out of their comfort zone...But it IS the Eastern Shore! They should know soft crabs! We just got the feeling of tourist trap and went on to other things. It did sound like one heck of a party over there during a few nights, we almost went to check it out and would have if it hadn't been for our horrible dinning experience.

St. Michaels is a great place though, we would have returned this past Labor Day week for out yearly bay cruise but that tropical depression came through so we made a last minute trip to Breezes Grand Negril Jamaca which was a very nice and amazingly economical vacation considering what we paid and what we got.
 
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