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When it comes to making travel plans it is often helpful to consult a guide. Many of the leading travel magazines, publishers and websites give out annual awards to favourite destinations. Here are a few along the Maine coast and eastern Canada to get you started.

Portland, a vibrant city perched on the edge of Maine's Casco Bay, was one of Frommer's top travel destinations for 2007. The city earned high marks from the publisher for its compact downtown, which includes museums, retails shops, the Maine State Pier, and musical and theatre venues. The port city was also recognized for its first-rate eateries. Gourmet Magazine selected Fore Street restaurant as one of "America's Top 50 Restaurants." The popular, backalley dinner spot is known for farm-fresh food cooked in a wood-burning oven.

Urban explorers might also like to know the city was named a "Top Adventure Town" by National Geographic Traveler in September 2006. "Think progressive, yet agreeably rugged," Dan Grushkin writes about people who live in Portland. He attributes their calm amidst the small city's bustle to the relief of escaping to nearby beaches, paddling the coves of Casco Bay and biking Bradbury Mountain.

Mount Desert Island is one of the most popular destinations in Maine. An estimated half of all visitors to the state head there. It's no wonder. In its "World's Best Awards," Travel + Leisure rated the thickly forested and mountainous isle the second best island in Continental US and Canada. The same poll, based on responses from readers, ranked it the fifth best island in the world. Much of the island is given over to Acadia National Park, which includes hiking and carriage trails, beaches, lakes, mountains, and a scenic road that winds past them all. Panelists for National Geographic Traveler were so impressed that they named the park one of the best in North America. One reviewer called the scenery "incredibly inspiring."

Halifax is famous for its harbour: the second largest natural harbour in the world. It is also a favourite for its parks, beaches, historic sites, and big-city entertainment. Canadian Business magazine recently ranked the Nova Scotia capital as the second best place to live in the country. Good weather, good jobs and a good standard of living pushed it toward the top of 123 entries. The city's Atlantic Jazz Festival was a "Top New Summer Attraction" for the editors of Where Canada. And IgoUgo, an online travel site, featured the city in its "10 Most Unexpected City Escapes for Family Travel."

Cited as the best example of a planned British Colonial settlement, the port of Lunenburg, which lies about 60 miles southwest of Halifax on Mahone Bay, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The traditional farming, fishing and shipbuilding community retains much of the historic charm from its founding in 1753. Visitors can clamber over the tall ships tied up at the town wharves or take in local history at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. In addition to the picturesque harbour, the town has distinctive European architecture, sandy gold beaches, award-winning golf courses, summer concerts, and is close to Nova Scotia's popular south shore Lighthouse Route. Readers of National Geographic Traveler have also distinguished it as among their favourite "Personal Places of a Lifetime."

Prince Edward Island is famous as the home of novelist L.M. Montgomery, who wrote the Anne of Green Gables stories. But the little island north of Nova Scotia has won praise all its own. In 2006, Travel + Leisure readers ranked PEI the fourth top island in the Continental US and Canada. Conde Nast Traveler readers also gave it high marks, selecting it as the third top island in North America.

The "Gentle Island" is popular for its lushly rolling landscape, pristine beaches and fine shops, as well as its theatre and festivals. Cape Breton in Nova Scotia frequently makes the travel lists as one of the world's leading islands. In a 2006 survey, subscribers of Travel + Leisure ranked the scenic getaway between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic as the fourth best island in the world and the very best in the Continental US and Canada.

They aren't the only ones who enjoy this isle's rugged beauty and friendly atmosphere. Readers of National Geographic Traveler also gave it high marks, selecting the Cape Breton Highlands National Park as the second best on the continent. "Locals still seem genuinely happy to see tourists," one reviewer for the magazine wrote. "That's a good sign." Also named a Favourite Destination by readers of the same magazine, the island scored high for its environmental quality, condition of historic sites, stewardship practices, ease of travel, and authenticity, among other markers.

If that's not enough, the 185-mile long Cabot Trail, which wraps around the northern tip of the island, was selected as a "Best Road Trip" by Lonely Planet in its Blue List guide. The trail encircles the 366-square-mile park, one of the oldest in Canada.

Fundy National Park, in New Brunswick, was rated as the eighth best national park in North America by National Geographic Traveler. The park, which features some of the last remaining wilderness in the region, was cited for its pristine environment, heritage, culture, and aesthetics. The Fundy Trail, just outside St. Martins, NB, is among Canada's top 25 hidden treasures, according to Travel Online, one of the world's largest online travel services. The series of interconnecting trails along the Fundy coast was also selected as a "local secret, big find" for 2007 by the website Travelocity.ca.

Gros Morne National Park, in Newfoundland, was picked as a top park by National Geographic Traveler as well as a top spot for adventure in 2006. "Standing atop Gros Mountain, you'd swear you were in the Arctic," wrote Robert Earle Howells in the June/July 2006 article titled, "The insider's guide to the great parks of North America." Howell cites the park's "barren granite, scruffy tundra, fjordlike lakes, cliffs and riotous vegetation" as markings for a top adventure.

UNESCO also listed the park as a World Heritage Site. The park features waterfalls, sand beaches, wildlife, boating, and hiking along the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the alpine plateau of the Long Range Mountains.

Not far away, L'Anse aux Meadows, a National Historic Site of Canada, is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Famous as the earliest point of arrival for the Vikings, the park features three reconstructed Norse buildings as well as a trail system, bays, bogs, and barrens. The nearby Norstead Viking village and port of trade recently won the provincial Attractions Canada award for Best New Attraction.